Is geekhack becoming less popular?

[HoffmanMyster]

One other consideration: categorized forums are becoming less popular as a means for hobbyists to congregate. It’s especially noticeable for all the phpbb forums (like this one) that haven’t updated to the latest software with mobile browser support.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I much prefer the non-mobile geekhack browsing experience to many mobile sites out there.  They usually end up butchered and harder to navigate, rather than keeping the clean desktop look.  But I do realize I'm probably in the minority there.   

There is always tapatalk if you want to fully embrace the mobile experience. 

[fohat.digs]

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I much prefer  ....  non-mobile  ....  browsing experience to  ....  mobile sites

They ....  butchered and harder to navigate

I couldn't have said ti better myself.

[woodruff]

Today unicomp showed a new ssk, designed and made by them, this is THE news for buckling spring aficionados, it's a thing that has been discussed for decades.

number of gh comments: 5?
number of reddit comments: 80 or more

well sure, Reddit has a much more active throwaway base. I imagine someone will post an in-depth review with loads of comments once it's released here.

The Deskthority thread about that topic is quite interesting and contains insightful posts (about 40). Do they have a throwaway base too??

[woodruff]

One other consideration: categorized forums are becoming less popular as a means for hobbyists to congregate. It’s especially noticeable for all the phpbb forums (like this one) that haven’t updated to the latest software with mobile browser support.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I much prefer the non-mobile geekhack browsing experience to many mobile sites out there.  They usually end up butchered and harder to navigate, rather than keeping the clean desktop look.  But I do realize I'm probably in the minority there.   

There is always tapatalk if you want to fully embrace the mobile experience. 

It's very hard to use gh on mobile phones, it's almost unreadable. And no, I don't want to use tapatalk.

[SpAmRaY]

One other consideration: categorized forums are becoming less popular as a means for hobbyists to congregate. It’s especially noticeable for all the phpbb forums (like this one) that haven’t updated to the latest software with mobile browser support.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I much prefer the non-mobile geekhack browsing experience to many mobile sites out there.  They usually end up butchered and harder to navigate, rather than keeping the clean desktop look.  But I do realize I'm probably in the minority there.   

There is always tapatalk if you want to fully embrace the mobile experience. 

It's very hard to use gh on mobile phones, it's almost unreadable. And no, I don't want to use tapatalk.

I primarily access geekhack from my android phone and have for years, granted I mostly use Tapatalk but occasionally use chrome for tasks Tapatalk can't handle.

I don't get what's so bad about it? How is it unreadable? I use dark themes if that makes a difference.

Attached are screen shots of what it looks like for me.





Sent from my SM-G970U1 using Tapatalk

[xtrafrood]

One other consideration: categorized forums are becoming less popular as a means for hobbyists to congregate. It’s especially noticeable for all the phpbb forums (like this one) that haven’t updated to the latest software with mobile browser support.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I much prefer the non-mobile geekhack browsing experience to many mobile sites out there.  They usually end up butchered and harder to navigate, rather than keeping the clean desktop look.  But I do realize I'm probably in the minority there.   

There is always tapatalk if you want to fully embrace the mobile experience. 

It's very hard to use gh on mobile phones, it's almost unreadable. And no, I don't want to use tapatalk.

I primarily access geekhack from my android phone and have for years, granted I mostly use Tapatalk but occasionally use chrome for tasks Tapatalk can't handle.

I don't get what's so bad about it? How is it unreadable? I use dark themes if that makes a difference.

Attached are screen shots of what it looks like for me.

Show Image

Sent from my SM-G970U1 using Tapatalk

Show Image

Pretty much what I see, though I use the ultra posh Austere theme so kinda the inverse in a way.  I use Firefox for Android devices which displays the site well enough for my liking.

[dingusxmcgee]

One other consideration: categorized forums are becoming less popular as a means for hobbyists to congregate. It’s especially noticeable for all the phpbb forums (like this one) that haven’t updated to the latest software with mobile browser support.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I much prefer the non-mobile geekhack browsing experience to many mobile sites out there.  They usually end up butchered and harder to navigate, rather than keeping the clean desktop look.  But I do realize I'm probably in the minority there.   

There is always tapatalk if you want to fully embrace the mobile experience. 

It's very hard to use gh on mobile phones, it's almost unreadable. And no, I don't want to use tapatalk.

I primarily access geekhack from my android phone and have for years, granted I mostly use Tapatalk but occasionally use chrome for tasks Tapatalk can't handle.

I don't get what's so bad about it? How is it unreadable? I use dark themes if that makes a difference.

Attached are screen shots of what it looks like for me.

Show Image

Sent from my SM-G970U1 using Tapatalk

Show Image

Also use both chrome(testing Brave browser currently actually) and Tapatalk and find no major issues.
Though I find Tapatalk to be easier overall once I learned to navigate it.

[NoPunIn10Did]

One other consideration: categorized forums are becoming less popular as a means for hobbyists to congregate. It’s especially noticeable for all the phpbb forums (like this one) that haven’t updated to the latest software with mobile browser support.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I much prefer the non-mobile geekhack browsing experience to many mobile sites out there.  They usually end up butchered and harder to navigate, rather than keeping the clean desktop look.  But I do realize I'm probably in the minority there.   

There is always tapatalk if you want to fully embrace the mobile experience. 

Understandable, but if GH were to upgrade their phpbb backend to 3.2, they'd be able to make the site MUCH more readable on mobile browsers while still retaining its overall character.  For example, have a look at the phpbb support forums.

Here's a comparison of their desktop default interface versus the mobile interface.  The main thing is that fonts are much more readable at smaller screen sizes.




This wouldn't immediately solve the problem of people shifting away from forum-based communication, but it would help make it easier for mobile users to continue to participate.

[dgneo]

One other consideration: categorized forums are becoming less popular as a means for hobbyists to congregate. It’s especially noticeable for all the phpbb forums (like this one) that haven’t updated to the latest software with mobile browser support.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I much prefer the non-mobile geekhack browsing experience to many mobile sites out there.  They usually end up butchered and harder to navigate, rather than keeping the clean desktop look.  But I do realize I'm probably in the minority there.   

There is always tapatalk if you want to fully embrace the mobile experience. 

Understandable, but if GH were to upgrade their phpbb backend to 3.2, they'd be able to make the site MUCH more readable on mobile browsers while still retaining its overall character.  For example, have a look at the phpbb support forums.

Here's a comparison of their desktop default interface versus the mobile interface.  The main thing is that fonts are much more readable at smaller screen sizes.

(Attachment Link)
(Attachment Link)

This wouldn't immediately solve the problem of people shifting away from forum-based communication, but it would help make it easier for mobile users to continue to participate.

gh uses smf, not phpbb - the whole forum would have to be converted to phpbb to do that

[NoPunIn10Did]

I primarily access geekhack from my android phone and have for years, granted I mostly use Tapatalk but occasionally use chrome for tasks Tapatalk can't handle.

I don't get what's so bad about it? How is it unreadable? I use dark themes if that makes a difference.

Also use both chrome(testing Brave browser currently actually) and Tapatalk and find no major issues.
Though I find Tapatalk to be easier overall once I learned to navigate it.

I've used Tapatalk before on other forums, and it comes with its own issues.  It inserts its own ads into the forums you visit.  It alters the formatting of posts in nonconstructive ways.  Its notification settings weren't granular enough; either you got far too many or nearly none at all.  From a backend standpoint, it requires the forum to allow Tapatalk to create user logins that completely bypass the normal process, making it really difficult to help that user with login issues if they ever decide to stop using Tapatalk.

Tapatalk was a stop-gap solution for dealing with phpbb on a mobile device.  With phpbb 3.2 and its CSS improvements, it's far less valuable.

[xtrafrood]

*shrugs*

[NoPunIn10Did]

One other consideration: categorized forums are becoming less popular as a means for hobbyists to congregate. It’s especially noticeable for all the phpbb forums (like this one) that haven’t updated to the latest software with mobile browser support.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I much prefer the non-mobile geekhack browsing experience to many mobile sites out there.  They usually end up butchered and harder to navigate, rather than keeping the clean desktop look.  But I do realize I'm probably in the minority there.   

There is always tapatalk if you want to fully embrace the mobile experience. 

Understandable, but if GH were to upgrade their phpbb backend to 3.2, they'd be able to make the site MUCH more readable on mobile browsers while still retaining its overall character.  For example, have a look at the phpbb support forums.

Here's a comparison of their desktop default interface versus the mobile interface.  The main thing is that fonts are much more readable at smaller screen sizes.

(Attachment Link)
(Attachment Link)

This wouldn't immediately solve the problem of people shifting away from forum-based communication, but it would help make it easier for mobile users to continue to participate.

gh uses smf, not phpbb - the whole forum would have to be converted to phpbb to do that

Interesting.  They're really quite similar, so I hadn't noticed the difference between the two.  It would appear that SMF is a fork of phpbb, since they both run on open-source backend software.

The equivalent to phpbb 3.2 appears to be SMF 2.1, which was just released.

[woodruff]

One other consideration: categorized forums are becoming less popular as a means for hobbyists to congregate. It’s especially noticeable for all the phpbb forums (like this one) that haven’t updated to the latest software with mobile browser support.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I much prefer the non-mobile geekhack browsing experience to many mobile sites out there.  They usually end up butchered and harder to navigate, rather than keeping the clean desktop look.  But I do realize I'm probably in the minority there.   

There is always tapatalk if you want to fully embrace the mobile experience. 

It's very hard to use gh on mobile phones, it's almost unreadable. And no, I don't want to use tapatalk.

I primarily access geekhack from my android phone and have for years, granted I mostly use Tapatalk but occasionally use chrome for tasks Tapatalk can't handle.

I don't get what's so bad about it? How is it unreadable? I use dark themes if that makes a difference.

Attached are screen shots of what it looks like for me.

Show Image

Sent from my SM-G970U1 using Tapatalk

Show Image

Hi, my phone screen is a little smaller than 5 inches, and I can't read many part of the posts, like usernames so it's not usable for me, since I need to zoom in and out very often. Tweaking the site using fonts with an identical size would be easier on the eyes.

[nmur]

Personally, I don't mind that a lot of the community has shifted to slack/discord, I really enjoy hanging out on those platforms in fact.

However, because my timezone doesn't sync up well with the active period of most of the community (ie 9pm here is like 4am in USA), so I'm either sleeping or working when slack/discord is at its most active.

Even when GH was at its most active, 24 hours wasn't really a long period of time, and I could easily catch up on my Watched threads after work (I can't really "catch up" with slack/discord, it's 1000s of lines of uncatagorised IMs). Instagram is probably the closest experience to that, but media:discussion ratio on IG is a lot higher than GH, so it feels like less of a place to hang out than it feels like a "look what I got" type place.

All that being said, I haven't been as active in the hobby this year because I managed to get most of my goal boards, and I don't don't have a burning need for any others any more.

[ideus]

Personally, I don't mind that a lot of the community has shifted to slack/discord, I really enjoy hanging out on those platforms in fact.

However, because my timezone doesn't sync up well with the active period of most of the community (ie 9pm here is like 4am in USA), so I'm either sleeping or working when slack/discord is at its most active.

Even when GH was at its most active, 24 hours wasn't really a long period of time, and I could easily catch up on my Watched threads after work (I can't really "catch up" with slack/discord, it's 1000s of lines of uncatagorised IMs). Instagram is probably the closest experience to that, but media:discussion ratio on IG is a lot higher than GH, so it feels like less of a place to hang out than it feels like a "look what I got" type place.

All that being said, I haven't been as active in the hobby this year because I managed to get most of my goal boards, and I don't don't have a burning need for any others any more.

This +1000
Be able to speak with people around the globe is one of those things that make GH a great site.