Bitcoin Forum

Because of time constraints, I have not been able to come to the forum as much as I would like to. The current format of the website makes it very unfriendly to be operated on the mobile web browser. I would never dare to write a reply on the mobile browser. God, its a hell of a task.  ;D

I would request the forum admin (theymos (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=35)) to allocate some funds to the development of a sleek and beautiful mobile application that would make it easier for people like me to access the portal on the go. I think there is an ample amount of fund lying with the forum (going by his comments) to undertake such a development. Maybe, we can contribute to the app by giving out our suggestions for the same. I would love to know about what the community thinks about getting an app.

Not an app; but I'd be definately up for a phone browser friendly layout of the forum (some m.bitcointalk.org or similar).

An app requires to be allowed in the device; which goes quite against the privacy some users want, but there is a TOR mobile app, so with being the site mobile friendly, they'd still be able to maintain that level of anonimity.

I would love to be able to browse more easily on mobile, but an app is never going to happen. The new forum software Epochtalk will be much more mobile friendly when it is finally released. You can see a very rough idea of how it will look on mobile by visiting https://www.cryptos-currencies.com/, which is being hosted by user lulucrypto (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1305990).

Given that the new software has been in development for 5+ years, and we still don't have a release date yet, there is no chance that theymos is going to divert time, money, and attention away from it and to begin development on an app. In the meantime, there are user created scripts you can search for which make things a bit nicer on mobile, but as they are all unofficial, you are using them at your own risk - the creator could quite easily slip in some malicious code.

I'd be for that, but not for my own benefit--I can barely type out coherent sentences on my phone because of my huge thumbs and tiny keyboard.  Even when I use a stylus it's an enormous pain in the ass.  That's just me, though.  I'm sure a lot of members do access the forum from their phone, and it'd be nice to have a proper mobile layout for them, and there would be no app needed.

I've actually been quite surprised that Theymos hasn't implemented something like this, since most websites I know of are mobile-friendly and he certainly could do it.  Not sure how expensive it would be to make the forum look pretty on a smartphone, but I'm fairly sure bitcointalk has the funds. 

By the way, this isn't the first time this has been discussed.  I don't think Theymos has the will to do it.

I think it's less to do with funds and more to do with time and effort. The latest versions of Simple Machines Forum software provide mobile responsive themes and designs, so all he would need to do is update to the latest version of the software. However, doing so would likely break a bunch of other features and need a significant amount of time to repair. Given that he hasn't done it yet, I can't see him doing it as Epochtalk gets closer to completion.

It's difficult for me to type on the forum from my mobile phone, I keep zooming in and out, dragging left and right to be able to see clearly, it's exhausting really without a PC.
I think we'll surely do with a more friendly site for phone users and I think this should be put into consideration by theymos.
An app is still a far cry away and I doubt that it'll ever be implemented, so I think we should simply focus on making typing less stressful for smartphone users.

If you use Firefox as your mobile browser, you can use this extension to make the forum more responsible.
While that's not the best solution, it works.

[Source Code] Bitcointalk mobile Addon buat Firefox Android (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4507293.0)

Typing on a small touch screen is terrible with or without app.

The layout could be improved, as it now requires a lot of left/right scrolling on a small screen, but I barely install new apps and wouldn't install it for something as unimportant as improving the forum interface.

An app isn't needed when the site is good scalable on a mobile device. Now I still have to scroll to much on mobile.

I don't install any apps
Btw this reply was typed on a Huawei mobile phone with a smallish screen

An app is not a bad idea, and I have not yet gotten theymos take on it possibility. One option which I believe is very plausible is a mobile view option across all browsers rather than the default desktop view. This would make it easier to type and read through.
I rarely use a PC to navigate the forum, and have gotten quite used to doing it on a mobile device, so it's mostly down to familiarity rather than the website being difficult.

The new EpochTalk[1] forum software that is supposedly going to be used for Bitcointalk in the future should be enough. I just hope we get it soon. Reddit bitcoin and cryptocurrency subreddits went to crap in 2017 and I definitely would be reading Bitcointalk A LOT more if it was mobile friendly.

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[1] http://epochtalk.org/

I don't know what time constraints have to do with the need for a mobile app to visit the forum unless you mean that you don't have the time to be on a computer that long. In that case it would make sense.

I would prefer not to install a separate app just to visit the forum nor do I like to do it over my phone but I understand if some users would prefer to have that option and I would definitely support it. A mobile friendly site, like most users suggest would be a better way to go in my opinion.

But before that I would rather see the forum move towards the new software and introduce some sort of 2FA.

Bitcointalk app was discussed so many in past already. It's not likely that theymos will make Bitcointalk app. In past I remember it was unofficial app made by someone, not sure that it still works. Now we have to wait till release of Epochtalk - then forum will be mobile responsive.
Even if Bitcointalk would have an app, probably I wouldn't download it. I don't want to fill my phone with apps of every particular website that I visit (forums, news media and other stuff. I prefer to visit using browser. Apps sometimes just give too many annoying  notifications, use internet in background and eat phone batter. Sometimes it also asking for too many permissions.

Well, I made majority of my posts here using smartphone and I can't say it's difficult. Maybe because my fingers aren't big :D. But other things like editing quotes, making nice layout of post requires too much efforts.

An app or responsive site either one can solve the need of a mobile user I guess. But typing in the smaller screen is still an issue for the people who have bigger thumbs (I have bigger thumbs  :().

You have a high level of patience and lucky enough to have smaller fingers. :D

A few months ago in a FB group, I saw a boy wrote that he codes in mobile completely as he cannot afford to buy a laptop or desktop. He is a student and learned to code on YT. So far I knew that this guy has the highest level of patience and I second you now.

No app is needed - the HTML just needs to be updated.

Don't expect it here though, as Epochtalk is where all development should happen.


The young that grew up with smartphones can access their GUIs incredibly fast.   :o

If typing on your phone screen is an issue, then there are plenty of folding bluetooth keyboards you could buy and carry around with you. A very quick Amazon search found the following keyboards which when folded are barely bigger than a phone itself.

https://www.amazon.com/iClever-Rechargeable-Bluetooth-Smartphones-IC-BK06/dp/B01JA6HG88/
https://www.amazon.com/Samsers-Foldable-Bluetooth-Keyboard-Rechargeable/dp/B07KNHLHDW

Or if you are feeling really extravagant, you can buy little boxes which will project a working keyboard via laser on to any flat surface.

I believe the rigid web design is one of the biggest hindrance for guests to linger on the forum. Almost all the other crypto-focused sites are mobile-friendly.

Or if you are a bit nostalgic; you can always use a typing machine! https://www.qwerkywriter.com/ (https://www.qwerkywriter.com/)

Web-devolopment is a pain in the ass, and making a hybrid website while the forum is based on SMF is definitely not going to be the easiest thing to do, I am not sure if a more UX intuitive hybrid website is even possible with SMF. I do remember seeing a bitcointalk (unofficial) app on the Playstore, i played around with it for a while, not the best experience, it just felt like how it is on the browser, and I heard a lot of forum memebers screeching out on how risky is it,so uh there is that.

Yo this one is PERFECT for The Pharmacist, he likes grandpa like stuff anyway  ;D

I really hope Epochtalk comes out more sooner than later, and more importantly, hope that all this waiting time was worth it.

Am I the only one who likes bitcointalk the way it is? I'm not a 50-year-old but fancy UI or extremely user-friendly stuff turns me off. In fact, I'd like if bitcointalk had a command line client so I could seamlessly interact with the server without having to open the web browser at all. Some might disagree that for wider community adoption we need a user-friendly website and shit but who cares? Blockchain itself is a complex concept and it wouldn't hurt to learn a command or two. The only advantage the App will provide is a platform for shit-posting bounty hunters to post garbage while on the move.

We don't need an app... just a mobile friendly version that a lot of other forums utilise.

Personally, I use BCT on my phone quite a bit... sure it's a bit of a PITA, and can require a bit of scrolling and zooming in and out, but it's definitely doable. Quit ya bitching... and while you're at it, get off Joel_Jantsen's lawn! :P

The site works using my phone and I don't see any reason to create our own application which requires a lot of work and money to fund that project but why not if its still free then we should be happy for the new updates. I'm just afraid that it can be easily hacked since it will be connected with the Android/Apple store which is more centralized than we are enjoying right now. Bitcointalk.org can be more friendly, on any devices so let's just see and wait for the updates.

There are mobile browsers that segments page for a site that doesn't have a mobile view. But for me, not necessary.

UC Browsers and some of the native (pre-installed/stock) browsers today are examples. Just take a look at the browser settings.

As for me, I used to browse and post here in the forum with only my 3.0 inches, 27.9 cm2 (~46.2% screen-to-body ratio) Android phone way back 2015 for almost a year without any major difficulties. Hands aren't that small but not that big. Didn't able to purchase a new device back then so I'm the one who adjusted rather than the forum will adjust for my own preferences then I became used to it. Sort of forum enthusiast here for years prior entering Bitcointalk so I really used to browse and post on any forum's interface with only my phone. But now I rarely used my phone now for browsing the forum.

I use bitcointalk mostly on mobile and yet to find any problem, it's friendly as it gets.

To be very honest, I am quite surprised by the response against the development of app. But one thing that people agree on is the lack of UX on the current mobile version of the website. I hope something can be done to make it more readable.

Bitcointalk's UI really has no problem if you're just frequently on your computer, which I assume you are hence why you don't have any problem with it. For the others like me though, that is on their phones like 30% of the time, I'd definitely love for Bitcointalk to be responsive in design.

That argument is no different from the "bitcoin is only used by criminals" argument; completely ignoring the people who are planning on using the platform with good intentions.

I use bitcointalk through my phone and it works just fine. SMF itself isn't built to be responsive. You can always program a mobile client for bitcointalk with a better view and personal to yourself. That'd give you more of an app feeling while using the site.

It wasn't really an argument.. I was stating the facts and unfortunately, there aren't many people here with good intentions.

The forum is open to suggestions but this is not a good idea AFAIK. Especially for those of us using android devices which I know have a questionable security system as compared to its main competitor APPLE  ::) We could be moving targets and I dont want that... hackers could easily social engineer themselves into our phones and God knows what next....Unfortunately am not in support of this idea but the mobile version of this site is a thumbs UP ;D

It is not really mobile friendly. You have to zoom in and zoom out, slide your fingers up and down to read a long post or even change between horizontal and vertical positioning of the phone for better usability. If you are OK doing all that then that is fine.

Having an app is not an issue but utilizing it is the problem. There's some task you can't do with app which is copying of URL address of a post and you do know that we carried out here for reference. Mobile browser is more preferable for me

I am sure that it is not a priority of admin, but not sure that it has been in to-do list of admin or not.
The new forum software costs lot of money so far, and there are very limited forum members to test it. It should be the first priority for us.
Epochtalk is ready, theymos wants us to test it. C'mon... (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5114336.0)
http://epochtalk.org/
You can join and try to test it here:
Cryptos-Currencies.Com : First forum using Epochtalk (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5115500.0)
However, you should remember not using same emails and / or same passwords of your account  here in the testing forum.

Another minus point is that app for mobile devices is more vulnerable to phisisng things. Newbies can more easily fall into traps of fake apps.

Lastly, there is always terrible experience to type and reply on mobile devices. If someone only need apps, just to read, it does not make sense. On mobile devices, it is so hard to quote, strim unnecessary parts of quote, and takes more time to do such things (if someone really want to do it for their posts).

I less regularly reply from my mobile devices, and whenever I do it, I often come back to those posts (if I have to quote something) when I log in my account on computer / laptop to strim unused parts of quotes.

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Additionally, if you want to suggest something, you should make it here:
Community generated suggestions to improve the forum (+ eventual voting on them) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4893744.0)

I use the wap2 version of the site for pure browsing as that's very simple.

I try to avoid posting on mobile as it's agonising but Opera for Android does a good job of resizing the text to fit the screen. That doesn't solve quoting, trimming and pasting which takes 10 times longer than a PC.

How younglings can operate their whole lives with nothing but a phone is beyond me. I don't think it's something any forum can solve. Phones are plain clunky for handling large amounts of text.

We’re shifting more and more to a fully digital world. I know there are a lot of OG’s in here that think this forum don’t have to change, but where everything is enhancing the generation that will really adopt BTC won’t look twice towards bitcointalk. Looks a little outdated and could be in need for some improvements. But this is just an opinion and for myself I wouldn’t change anything as it grew on me. I said “yes” on an app (not now, but in the upcoming years definetly)

It definitely could do with a better mobile solution. I still wouldn't use it for posting unless absolutely necessary though. If modern youth can make it work going full mobile then I will wave supportively from my hoist.

That would give another option, some users are more comfortable with mobile phone in accessing the forum, so an APP would be a help for them.
Personally I like to access the forum with my computer, I like bigger screens and I feel it's easier than accessing through mobile.

I like the classic bitcointalk.org, the interface has a professional look.


It's good though but I don't like browsing in a smartphone. I already imagined it, It's really hard to see those details and especially when you're trying to keep being formal using those BBcodes. Using a smartphone for forums is the most difficult part, like clicking small buttons, removing error BBcodes and other kinds of stuff. But I know it's very essential to those who only bring smartphones to their job and wanted to keep updated in bitcoin because I know someone that needed this kind of feature, very opposite with me. They both store cookies so no problem with that, I can save my account in both platforms.

You can wrap any website in an apk in under a min.
https://web2apk.com/
You can do the same for iOS

Yea, it still doesn't fix the fundamental issue though: a forum like BT formatted to a phone. As finaleshot brought up, it's more of a design issue than anything else:

I suggested connecting tapatalk to the forum, but the developers said that it would damage the site and told me to wait for a new forum and since 2017 I have been waiting for it, but it’s not done.

I just realized, I do things you mentioned a lot, but never found it tedious, to be honest. May be I am just used to mobiles.

I am also mostly here on mobile and didn't even noticed I had to scroll that much till I read this. For me its just working fine but if there's an app, i would use it.

Reading the full fat version on mobile is tolerable, it's the writing, namely trimming to quote, that's agonising. You have to wait for the wee markers to show up holding your finger down, make sure you don't lose them or misplace them and more often than not they jump and you've deleted far too much. These days I try to wait until I'm near something with a mouse.

I don't know how or whether an app could address that. Dunno about iOS but there are a lot of things about Android that are still unwieldy enough to make my ovaries ache.

It's not really as much as a problem with needing an APP, it's just the mobile version (or any smaller version for that matter) hasn't been touched, so it just takes the regular site and shrinks it down.

Go on another popular web site, eg cointelegraph for an example. The entire UI is changed and it's formatted in a way that is comfortable. Bitcointalk isn't designed in this way.

A mobile app would be good though. The main issues are with the quote buttons being so hard to use, the overall UI and look of the site on mobile (zooming in and scrolling left and right to see posts is really annoying, personally). An app would be very hard to build to be honest though.

That's a static site. That's far less of a challenge to make it usable.

I dip into other forums on mobile and they're all different levels of painful to actually write on even when they're optimised. It's a medium that's never going to be a very comfortable fit on mobile if you want to do more than browse.

Can you link to some forums that you think do work on mobile?

I have some reasons that lead me to don't support an app for Bitcointalk.org.

• Another type of phishing for the forum: we already have see so many phishing sites; and we do not need phishing apps
• With app, more users will get their accounts hacked; then more burden of works on account recoveries for forum staffs and Cryptios.
• Typing on mobile devices is always inconvenient: it is another minus point that we do not need an app

- If people don't seriously and carefully with their activities when using their bitcointalk accounts, don't remember the site's address; they will do not care to save official link of an app, then they will get hacked.
- If we do not feel comfortable when typing with mobile devices, an app won't solve this natural issues with mobile devices.

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I am curious, and click on Vote button, with No option. Then, I saw results (with 35 votes in total):
- Yes: 10 (28.6%)
- No: 25 (71.4%).
The sample of vote is small, but it gives us the fact that people don't like the idea to build an app for forum.
Instead of building an app, having new forum software is better (Epochtalk).

It's not about typing, rather quoting, snipping and doing some advanced reply things are bit of pain.

By the way, I just registered on (https://www.cryptos-currencies.com/) which uses Epochtalk. It's little conveninient and eye pleasing but quoting and snipping problems remains the same.

I knew that forum, that use new forum softwares. It is basic, and unchangeable characteristic of mobile devices. Ebooks can not completely replaced paper books. Personally, I don't like that forum, because I felt familiar with classic forum (this one).