Dragonfly Cave on the Go?

[kyeugh]

I've spoken with DragonFree on more than one occasion, although she may not remember, but now I ask; what about a Dragonfly Cave iPod app? Sure would be convenient, agreed? That's what I thought you don of a washtub.

 

[Aisling]

I'm confused, why is everyone calling her DragonFree lately

 

[hopeandjoy]

It's one of the usernames listed on her About Me page (though there it's Dragonfree, not DragonFree), but it seems weird anyone would use it since she only uses Butterfree on here.

I don't really see the point in a iPhone app, though. The site doesn't have any flash and only some Javascript (I think), so it runs fine on the iOS Safari app (and other mobile browsers like my own).

 

[Butterfree]

I'm perfectly down with people calling me Dragonfree, but it does not have a capital f, just like Butterfree does not have a capital f. The site is also called The Cave of Dragonflies, not Dragonfly Cave. (Yes, these things annoy me irrationally.)

With that out of the way, I'm not sure what kind of app you're proposing (an offline version of the site? Something else?) and even if I were I wouldn't be in a very good position to make one seeing as 1) I don't have a smartphone myself and 2) I'd have to learn Objective C. If there were a good reason to make some kind of an app, sure, that wouldn't really stand in my way, but currently I'd need a bit more convincing than "it would be convenient, don't you agree?" before I'd bother. What do you want an app for? My site is about content more than functionality, so it doesn't seem like the kind of thing that calls for a separate mobile app. Apps usually do things, but most of my site doesn't do anything.

 

[Frostagin]

I think maybe the idea here is it would be more convenient, as it would have larger, easier-to-click-with-your-thumb buttons. I don't see the point though, I've managed the site before on my mom's phone with no problems.

 

[Butterfree]

A mobile style and an app aren't the same thing. If this is about just making the actual site easier to navigate on mobile devices, I could look into that (although don't iPhones etc. have zooming features precisely to make the size of things not a problem?).

 

[1. Luftballon]

don't mobile styles generally just involve stylesheets and then linking them specially somehow or ... something like that.

it's pretty usable just by zooming in if one doesn't want to run the risk of fatfingering, though. and the relevant parts are just mostly text anyway.

 

[Datura]

Mobile stylesheets are really easy to implement, but in TCoD's case I think it would be unneccessary. The entire site is text already.

 

[ultraviolet]

are there really enough mobile visitors to warrant the effort of making a mobile style when really on most smartphones you can just zoom in or switch to landscape anyway?

 

[Vipera Magnifica]

I don't see why using a smartphone would be a problem. I go on TCoD all the time with my phone (I'm using my iPhone right now) and navigating the site still seems pretty effortless.

 

[Phantom]

I pretty much only go on TCoD on a cellphone. The site is fine, I don't see why it'd need a mobile version.

 

[Abwayax]

Your phone already has a perfectly good app to view sites with. It's called a browser. If what you're suggesting is a mobile version of the site, then that's probably more justified (and more useful to those of us who don't have an Apple toy).

(I'm confused now. I thought the whole Clown, er, Cloud Computing thing was about turning apps into websites? Now we're turning websites into apps? What's the point here?)

 

[kyeugh]

Aha. I never said there was anything wrong with the mobile version. Also, excuse my calling it Dragonfly Cave. Yes, I hate that too. I was a little ignorant back then, but I've gotten to know it a little better.

I'm just saying that it would be awfully nice to have an app version, as in offline version that updated every time you found an internet hotspot. That way you could read posts and shiz like that without wifi, and respond later. Just a thought, anyway.

 

[Butterfree]

It would be basically impossible to do that, because it would require actually keeping a continuously updated copy of the entire forum database on your phone.

 

[1. Luftballon]

totally doable! database full of text is full of redundancy! good compression can probably get a database down to ... seemingly about sixth of the size empirically from what database dumps I have lying around, but that might be biased. get rid of forum games, that's probably not an interesting thing if you can't post at it ... actually, just filter out things. totally practical!

... oh, right, it's the updating part that's hard, isn't it.

 

[Phantom]

A mobile version.... depends. More often than not I'm on the site on a cellphone, and the site runs fine, just bits like spoilers you have to quote to read, or than for some reason my phone hates member profiles.

But some forums have mobile versions that just outright suck. Like PC's, I can't stand it. You can't see what the new posts are so you literally have to go to every category and check... just aaaaaagh.

 

[kyeugh]

There are several DeviantArt apps that match what I'm talking about.

 

[Butterfree]

Presumably those fetch new submissions from people you're watching, rather than letting you browse the entire site offline.

 

[kyeugh]

Most of them.

I have one that lets you browse the whole site, but it refreshes whenever you get wifi.