OS2 World Community Forum

WebSite Information => Comments, Suggestions & Questions => Topic started by: galaxian on March 17, 2026, 02:17:10 am

Title: This forum doesn't render well on mobile phones
Post by: galaxian on March 17, 2026, 02:17:10 am
Hi all, when I visit this forum using any smartphone, the text is very small and doesn't appear to render in a responsive layout for easier reading on smaller screens. This is the same for both Firefox and DuckDuckGo browsers on Android. The desktop and non desktop view using Firefox looks the same.

Yes, I know that I can zoom in but that isn't always ideal.

Are there any plans to update the forum software, or at least to install a responsive and mobile friendly theme which users can switch to? Or is such a theme installed and perhaps I don't know where to change it?

I included a screenshot of what the site looks like on my phone. On a 24 inch monitor it looks fine, but on my phone I need to get my magnifying glass out in addition to my reading glasses!

Thanks for any help.
Title: Re: This forum doesn't render well on mobile phones
Post by: galaxian on March 17, 2026, 03:14:21 am
Just to compare, look at this Commodore 64 forum running on phpBB. It's a lot easier to view.

https://www.lemon64.com/forum
Title: Re: This forum doesn't render well on mobile phones
Post by: JTA on March 17, 2026, 05:38:07 pm
SMF (the forum software) has the ability, apparently, to render mobile views, but I have no idea if enabled (theme'd?) at this site.

Hopefully, Martin will address this ...

IMHO, I can't do forum stuff on a phone ... screen too small, can't type well w/ two thumbs, my responses too long, etc.
Title: Re: This forum doesn't render well on mobile phones
Post by: Martin Iturbide on March 17, 2026, 06:35:38 pm
Hello

I have an issue here with the SMF forum script. It is getting old, and I can not update it because Firefox / Seamonkey for OS/2 will not work on the newer version.
But I don't know if the newer version of SMF will be better for mobile. You can check it here: https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php

I still don't know if the forum script should be updated yet.

Regards
Title: Re: This forum doesn't render well on mobile phones
Post by: galaxian on March 21, 2026, 01:33:19 am
Hi Martin, thanks for the reply and link. I can confirm that even going to this link, the newer SMF 2.1.7 looks a lot better on the mobile phone. The display is responsive and much easier to read. I don't even need a userid in the site to observe this.

Hopefully you will be able to upgrade the software from this 2.0.19 version to the current version, which I am assuming is 2.1.7.

Are you saying the concern is that the Firefox/SeaMoney browser for OS/2 doesn't render the newer SMF properly, or is the concern that you can't perform the SMF upgrade from an OS/2 system running those browsers? You would be best to perform the upgrade from a browser running on a modern Windows or Linux system with the latest browser. But I haven't tried accessing this forum using my ArcaOS system hence I don't know if there are issues. Mind you, getting to the site is easy enough from any modern OS, but if the newer SMF doesn't render well from native OS/2 you should still be able to make available an older compatible theme which users could switch to?

Having said that, this is a great forum and integral to the OS/2 community so thanks for running it. I really look forward to something being done about this web host you are on, as the ongoing DDoS interruptions are really frustrating. Took me quite a while to view this thread and finally be able to reply!
Title: Re: This forum doesn't render well on mobile phones
Post by: galaxian on March 21, 2026, 01:58:30 am
PS: I just accessed the SMF forum via the link you provided, from my Firefox browser on ArcaOs 5.1.2 and it loads and looks great. I didn't observe any browser issues or errors.
Title: Re: This forum doesn't render well on mobile phones
Post by: Dave Yeo on March 21, 2026, 03:34:13 am
PS: I just accessed the SMF forum via the link you provided, from my Firefox browser on ArcaOs 5.1.2 and it loads and looks great. I didn't observe any browser issues or errors.

Likewise, it seemed to display fine on SeaMonkey, both with and without JavaScript enabled. No account so couldn't try posting.
Hmm, tried registering and keep getting this message,
Code: [Select]
The following errors were detected in your registration. Please correct them to continue:

    The letters you typed do not match the letters that were shown in the picture.
Don't see a picture or captcha in SM.
So tried registering with Dooble-Qt6, lots of clicking images for the captcha, then the system froze.
Rebooted and tried with Dooble-Qt5, lots of clicking images and eventually was registered
Trying to post fails on SM, no visible capta and trying to post in Dooble-Qt5 does the captcha thing and afterwards won't let me post with another error about letters not matching picture.
So not much luck actually posting, or previewing which is what I tried.

Title: Re: This forum doesn't render well on mobile phones
Post by: Rich Walsh on March 21, 2026, 06:36:06 am
Some sites have a separate subdomain for mobiles (e.g. 'm.os2world.com') that uses different CSS than the desktop site. Is OS2World able to do this?