Commentards booted off m.register?

This topic was created by mics39 .

  1. mics39

    Commentards booted off m.register?

    Since several weeks ago the link button to comments disappeared from articles accessed on mobile page (https://m.theregister.co.uk/). Safari from iPhone here. Is this a policy change or just a whim?

    Trips to lavatory have become less entertaining.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: Commentards booted off m.register?

      Comments shows up in IE on Windows Phone 8.

      Also just checked on the iPad, and the battered old iPhone 5 with the broken screen that's never been thrown away. They comments link is still there.

      Not as a button though, but just text.

    2. Marco Fontani

      Re: Commentards booted off m.register?

      Nope, the link to comments should display fine so long as the article allows them.

      The AMP page comments link isn't styled, though - as we're pretty restricted when it comes to style on AMP pages… and the AMP pages kinda mimic the mobile page layout.

      Are you sure you're looking at an article page on the mobile site, and not at an AMP page?

      1. mics39
        Facepalm

        Re: Commentards booted off m.register?

        Ooooops, I was holding it wrong.

        It was the adblocker (Purify in this case). I had whitelisted El Reg, but perhaps an update of Safari (late iOS10 updates) or Purify may have switched it off.

        Sorry for the commotion. As penance I will spend 5 minutes in Microsoft store.

        Ps: sorry for ignorance but what is the AMP page?

        1. mics39

          Re: Commentards booted off m.register?

          Pps: Turns out I had not specifically whitelisted the mobile site - m.register ...

          Always blame others first.

  2. John Crisp

    m redirecting to www?

    Just found that m. pages are all redirecting to www.

    Bad enough for a page but it's then using www for the foros which is painful and unreadable on mobile.

    You can go direct to m.forums and it sticks, but lose the thread from the article.

    Has something changed??

    1. mvieira@theregister.co.uk

      Re: m redirecting to www?

      We've stopped serving `m.` for, and exclusively, Article pages, instead we serve `www.` for everyone as Article pages are now responsive and will adapt to your device's resolution.

      Other types of pages maintain the same behaviour, you can pick an edition (`m.` or `www.`) via our edition picker (JS required) at the footer (grey icon with a phone if you're on `www.`) which upon click sets a COOKIE (free one! and no allegiance to the dark side required!), this sets your edition preference and ultimately determines which edition you'll get.

      If you use the functionality described above to switch editions then you should NOT lose the thread from the article and should end up on `m.` version of the current page you were in.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: m redirecting to www?

        Perhaps going to the m title page could set the cookie to m as well.

      2. Adam 52 Silver badge

        Re: m redirecting to www?

        As mentioned above, the link to comments goes to www and is entirely unusable on a mobile because the font size varies so widely.

        The responsive article pages are nowhere near as nice as the proper m. articles - they don't work on an intermittent network connection such as one might find on a train or tube.

        I don't know what mix Reg's readership has between mobile and desktop, but the industry generally is moving to mobile, so alienating the mobile contingent seems a strange way to halt the decline in Reg readership.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: m redirecting to www?

          I hate getting the 'www' article pages on my phone, with their totally irrelevant pictures and that stupid floaty 'MOST READ' thing.

      3. John Crisp

        Re: m redirecting to www?

        That's pants and an instant turn off.

        I virtually never read El Reg on my desktop so this is a right pain in the proverbials.

        I prefer the text only m. versions over the fancy www crap. And I don't want to have to remember to reset a bloody cookie every time I dump them no matter how bloody free they are.

        Sorry. But some apparently great ideas are not 'progress' and this is one of them. Did someone let a grad student lose or something?

        I hope I hear gunshots emanating from the design office soon.

        In the meantime I'm off to surf more mobile friendly sites as this one is no longer.

        Voting with feet.

      4. Adam 52 Silver badge

        Re: m redirecting to www?

        "If you use the functionality described above to switch editions then you should NOT lose the thread from the article and should end up on `m.` version of the current page you were in"

        Then you seem to have a bug, because it's not working like that.

        1. Marco Fontani

          Re: m redirecting to www?

          Then you seem to have a bug, because it's not working like that.

          We hear you.

          We've now tuned our edition setting functionality a little bit further as to not disrupt the navigation flow on mobile devices.

          So, if you're on a mobile device and visit – say – the homepage, then go on a story and click the comments links, you'll be shown the mobile site. If on that same story you click the masthead logo or a section index page, you'll get the mobile version.

          To have the same happen on your desktop size device, you'll have to opt in and click the "Mobile website" link at the bottom of most pages (not article pages, as those only exist on www now, and they're responsive).

          1. John Crisp

            Re: m redirecting to www?

            That works.

            Just have to restore the more legible m pages instead of the awful www which are horrible on mobile.

            That intensely annoying red 'Most Read' tab on the right is an eyesore and distraction.

            Sometimes 'progress' is anything but.

            To paraphrase Eric Bogle from the last line of his hysterically funny satirical song:

            https://youtu.be/f-jWIBRRRdA

            "Advance El Reg, backwards"

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: m redirecting to www?

      Something has indeed changed. Get the pitchforks out.

      Seems www now has a mobile view so m title page now goes to the www story page. Unfortunately the www story page goes to the www forum page instead of back to m.

      All this after singing m's praises in the AMP story's comments. I feel violated.

      1. John Crisp

        Re: m redirecting to www?

        >I feel violated.

        Funny... so did I. Screws your dead when things don't work as you expect.

        Time to move on.

        1. John Crisp

          Re: m redirecting to www?

          s/dead/head/

          And that's my point :-)

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