Announcing The Escapist's New Mobile Site

[NoShoes]

Announcing The Escapist's New Mobile Site

Use your phone or tablet to visit your old pal The Escapist anywhere!

How many times have you stared at your phone and wished you could easily load up The Escapist with a mobile-friendly design? Well, you're in luck, folks! The Escapist is announcing a new mobile site design that will go live today for all your news, video, and feature needs.

The mobile site will now offer some snazzy new features like an HTML5 video player with HQ video now default for all users and HD (720p) video for Publisher's Club members. (Editor's Note: The HD videos are a work in progress. Many of your favorites will be available immediately in HD, but the transcoding process is underway for the rest of the videos on site.) Don't forget those mobile-friendly image galleries, so you can swipe through our embedded galleries all the live-long day.

The site will also feature a mobile-only content index and mobile-friendly forums (though no mobile-friendly groups or profiles at this time). There's even an opt-out feature for logged in users that allow you to view the desktop-style site on your mobile device, if you really wanted to.

Josh Vanderwall, Editor in Chief of The Escapist said, "We're incredibly excited to finally be able to offer an optimized mobile experience to The Escapist's dedicated users! Thanks are due not only to the technical masterminds behind the mobile design, but to everybody that's been waiting patiently for us to get this together these past few years."

Though our tech team prefers an ominous, silent approach to quotes, I feel they're just as excited as the rest of us are. They're just not big fans of talking about their feelings.

Test out the new mobile site later today right now and let us know what you think!


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[Parasondox]

But... but... will it be in 60fps though!!!

*smack*

Nah I am kidding. Its great news because I am using my tablet at the moment until I get a laptop and I do miss certain content.

 

[SilverHunter]

It's garbage. Even more so because, as it seems, the "turn off mobile" option does jack squat. Everything is squished together, forums are uncomfortable to go through.


And what's worse? All the articles I don't care about are jumbled up in with the news. Plain bloody garbage. It's actually worse than the site redesign done a while back.

 

[NoShoes]

It's garbage. Even more so because, as it seems, the "turn off mobile" option does jack squat. Everything is squished together, forums are uncomfortable to go through.


And what's worse? All the articles I don't care about are jumbled up in with the news. Plain bloody garbage. It's actually worse than the site redesign done a while back.

The turn off option should be working now, sorry about that. What's squished together for you? Mind sending in a screen shot and what device you're using?

As always with these kind of updates, you can expect this to be an ongoing process of us addressing issues as they come up.

Thanks again for your patience and support.

-Mud

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Ahh so that was why everything has gone all jumbled up on this phone. It really didn't seem to like that much. But now I found the turn off bit, I can browse unhindered once more. Prepare yourself for some serious back to normal, conservative browsing!

 

[Qui-mono995]

well this was the only reason I stop using my phone and turn on th computer so I could watch the videos.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Checked it out, found reading any forums incredibly awkward, switched it off after 5mins. Moving on

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Not really relevant to me but it has been requested for some time! Glad to see it going forward.

 

[toms]

Funny how this change comes just as Google is about to start punishing mobile unfriendly sites with bad rankings.
At least it passes the test now, good for you.

 

[NLS]

Thanks I do a lot of my Escapist reading on the phone, and constantly resizing stuff on a mobile screen gets tedious. I like this, though the forum doesn't quite work in portrait mode.

 

[hiei82]

Hm... There's some good and bad for it. On the plus side, I like being able to access the groups/PM stuff without difficulty now. That's a huge gain.

Downside is that the forums - at least for my iPhone 6 - don't display the bookmarked threads and the display lacks the link to the most recent posts. Also the button to turn off the mobile site doesn't work.

Still; good work Escapist!

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Quotes look really ugly on the forums, the left sidebar seems really sticky when scrolling (not sure how else to describe it), and I don't really like the unified news/features feed. But other then that I've seen much, much worse mobile redesigns. Probably stick to the desktop site though.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Did this new mobile-friendly site come with new ads that are noisy and can't be paused/muted?

I like this site, I don't want to use the extension-that-shall-not-be-named just to shut them up.

 

[SilverHunter]

It's garbage. Even more so because, as it seems, the "turn off mobile" option does jack squat. Everything is squished together, forums are uncomfortable to go through.


And what's worse? All the articles I don't care about are jumbled up in with the news. Plain bloody garbage. It's actually worse than the site redesign done a while back.

The turn off option should be working now, sorry about that. What's squished together for you? Mind sending in a screen shot and what device you're using?

As always with these kind of updates, you can expect this to be an ongoing process of us addressing issues as they come up.

Thanks again for your patience and support.

-Mud

I'm browsing on an iPhone 5. As for what I meant by it being squished together, on the forums it normally started zoomed in and pressed towards one side, which required me to shift and zoom things out in order to read it fully.
Aside from not seeing any "turn mobile on" options in the full site once I logged back in, I can't help but notice the fact there isn't a "turn mobile off" option until I logged in, which thankfully the site remembered I didn't want it on. Kind of crappy as well, considering if I just want to casually browse (or any other person) does, and doesn't enjoy the mobile layout, then they are effectively told to screw off.

 

[NoShoes]

It's garbage. Even more so because, as it seems, the "turn off mobile" option does jack squat. Everything is squished together, forums are uncomfortable to go through.


And what's worse? All the articles I don't care about are jumbled up in with the news. Plain bloody garbage. It's actually worse than the site redesign done a while back.

The turn off option should be working now, sorry about that. What's squished together for you? Mind sending in a screen shot and what device you're using?

As always with these kind of updates, you can expect this to be an ongoing process of us addressing issues as they come up.

Thanks again for your patience and support.

-Mud

I'm browsing on an iPhone 5. As for what I meant by it being squished together, on the forums it normally started zoomed in and pressed towards one side, which required me to shift and zoom things out in order to read it fully.
Aside from not seeing any "turn mobile on" options in the full site once I logged back in, I can't help but notice the fact there isn't a "turn mobile off" option until I logged in, which thankfully the site remembered I didn't want it on. Kind of crappy as well, considering if I just want to casually browse (or any other person) does, and doesn't enjoy the mobile layout, then they are effectively told to screw off.

Currently I find the forums best navigated via landscape mode, although we do plans to reworking thread display sooner than later. You can also find the 'Turn On Mobile' in the footer on the bottom of the 'More Info' column. I'll also hook up the option soon for non-logged in users here soon.

 

[NoShoes]

Quotes look really ugly on the forums, the left sidebar seems really sticky when scrolling (not sure how else to describe it), and I don't really like the unified news/features feed. But other then that I've seen much, much worse mobile redesigns. Probably stick to the desktop site though.

I think I fixed 'em. And I'll see what I can do about the responsiveness of the menu.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Ehhhh, this needs a lot of fixing. Everything else works well I guess. It's a bit. .. white for my taste. Throw some color in there.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

This would have been great news back when the Escapist had several shows I liked to watch each day. But as things are right this moment, well even if I'm away from my PC I can wait to pull up Yahtzee until I get home. Not trying to be snarky or derisive, that's just the state we find ourselves in with the site's current offerings.

Still, I guess any step forward is a good one. Good luck with your new mobile site. I hope it's useful for those who browse on mobile more than I do. Cheers.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Honestly i like the reg site for mobile nav when i load it up double tap left or right and im on news or forums . it is easier to type replies now though on the forums. Wish i could have both mobile forums and regular site. Mobile chrome is so good now it makes even unoptimized sites no problem to use. So muc so that i almost never use the mobile option.

Edit actually like regular site better to read forums. Everything is too narrow unless i zoom way out on mobile.

 

[Creator002]

I basically only use my phone to browse the Escapist. My only trouble with the full site has been posting though (words would be huge and get bunched up, overwriting the links towards the bottom and hiding the post and preview buttons).
This is great for me.