This is not better. (Kinja on mobile complaint)

"Garrett Davis" (GarrettDavis)
02/27/2014 at 12:28 • Filed to: None

Let me start off this round of whining with some drifting Ford GT porn to make you feel all fuzzy inside:

Good. Now that we have that out of the way, I would like to address how broken the new Kinja format is, primarily on Mobile. I don't really care for the desktop version, but I do much of my browsing in bed at night or in the morning from my Nexus 7 tablet, and there are some serious issues on the mobile site (which I can't turn off).

So, let's go down the list:

1. Here is a screenshot of what the Oppo page looks like with Tiger off:

It's so pretty! There are nice big pictures of cats, clearly THEBIGBOSSYBOSS is "de best," you can see how many recommends and replies a post has, and it gives a lovely preview of what each post contains. Everything is as it should be.

Now let's look at what it looks like with Tiger on:

Fantastic. Now only some pictures actually show up, the number of replies isn't there, Alex's lovely GIF isn't rolling, and it looks like Nighthawkwill7 posted a blank page instead of cats. CATS, guys! In fact, If $kay scrolls the Oppo page on her phone, she probably won't see that beautiful GT up there! How can they deprive her of what Google images would already show her anyway?!?!

Now let's look at the Jalopnik FP with Tiger off:

Beautiful. Nice big pictures, a lovely preview of each article, and the page is filled out very nicely. All is right in the world.

Now for Tiger on: (Young children in the audience may now want to take this time to look away)

What the actual and horrendous fuck. "Ok," you might be thinking to yourself, "maybe this guy's shitty tablet just won't load the pictures." Wrong, my friend! Because my shitty phone won't do it either! Just look:

Big text, some meaningless numbers, and no fucking pictures! As the world renowned James May would say, "Oh, cock all."

Ok. Fine. I can deal with that. Travis just made a post about how he lost his shit and tried to kick Jeff Gordon in the back of the head for like, no reason at all , and I want to post a funny picture in reply. Wait, shit, it won't let me link a picture! What if I want to show Raphael a much better ripoff Jeep than the ones he posted? Here's what I get:

Well shit. I can post a picture, but only if I download it and then re-upload it from local storage, when I would normally just copy and paste a link to the image. How the hell is this better? Let's see what it looks like with Tiger off:

Look at that! I have a full array of formatting options, and I can even slide that text box around and scroll the page behind it! How handy is that? Apparently a little too handy, because now they want you to have NO formatting options, and trying to comment will bring you to a new page where you can't go back and re-read the article you're about to complain about just to make sure you've got your facts straight.

Come on, guys. I tried posting a lot of these issues on the page where you're supposed to show your Kinja suggestions, but I got nothing back. I can deal with a new page style, but why, oh why make things more difficult? Why remove functionality? Honestly a big part of why I love Jalopnik, Oppo, Gizmodo, etc. is because of how great the commenting system is, and how easy it is to have good, well put together conversations in the comment section. In my opinion, pre-Tiger Kinja was the best commenting platform out there. Miles ahead of the systems Disqus, Reddit, YouTube use.

There is a whole lot I'm missing here, I'm sure, and I won't go into how terrible I think the new thread formatting is, you know, how now you have to scroll through the entirety of the first comment thread before you get to see any of the others, and then have to actually click to open a comment before you can recommend it, which is stupid, and... Shit.

I say these things because I love you, Jalopnik. Please help us out, here. We just the functionality back that we already had.

DISCUSSION (8)

Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna > Garrett Davis
02/27/2014 at 12:31

WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CAT GIFS.

Mercedes Streeter > Garrett Davis
02/27/2014 at 12:55

The thing that really angers me the most (it's no different on iOS) is that the commenting system is now 100% broken. In order to get out of the gray on the FP, you have get a comment or a recommend from the article's author. That's ridiculous.

So what happens is that you get 10 or so comments up at top and 300+ hidden from view...And don't think those are easy to read either. Expanding all comments is horrific, to say the least.

So what happens is that you may make the greatest comment ever written on the FP, but if the author doesn't see it, likely nobody else will either.

oldirtybootz > Garrett Davis
02/27/2014 at 12:55

Kinja'd!!!

See?

Slow4o > Garrett Davis
02/27/2014 at 14:17

Well if it makes you feel any better, it really isn't much better on the desktop.

And you can't see my cool picture of a Mardi Gras float that is a train!

Garrett Davis > Slow4o
02/27/2014 at 14:26

It's still pretty bad on desktop, but not function destroying like it is on mobile.

dean_acheson > Slow4o
02/27/2014 at 15:10

My posts are back to grey, and half the time I can't post at all.

Slow4o > dean_acheson
02/27/2014 at 16:38

Well hopefully I just un-greyed you? But maybe you have to be readded as an author.

dean_acheson > Slow4o
02/27/2014 at 18:08

Thanks, it's all so confusing to us old people!