Slashdot Mirror
Which do You Prefer: Mobile Web Apps or Mobile Websites? (Video)
On December 28, 2015, Larry Seltzer wrote an article for Ars Technica provocatively titled (by Ars editors), The App-ocalypse: Can Web standards make mobile apps obsolete? A link to this article was posted on Slashdot, where it provoked a spirited discussion. In this video conversation, we talked to Larry about mobile aps vs. Web standards. Not surprisingly, he had some interesting things to say.
Give me a real website. My screen resolution on my phone is crazy big, and it can zoom with a flick of two fingers if I need to. Reduced functionality/UI mobile sites are grandfathered crap intended for web-enabled Moto Razr phones from pre-smartphone days.
Why are we getting videos at all? This isn't TV. I come here to read things, not watch them.
Why should I have to install software on my device just to do the job that an image, an html table, a couple of text fields, and a couple of buttons can do?
Screw that. I don't need to give some corporation access to my location and personal data just to find me a damn restaurant.
It's simple: Slashdot is a dying website. Dice appears to be throwing shit at the wall, so to speak, desperately trying to get something to stick in an attempt to salvage Slashdot from the pits of hell.
Videos are popular at YouTube, so maybe Dice thought they'd be popular here, too. So we get subjected to shitty videos. Of course, that ignores the fact that Slashdot isn't YouTube! Like you're well aware, we don't want any goddamn videos here.
"Social justice" is popular on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook, so maybe Dice thought it'd be popular here, too. So we get subjected to idiotic submissions about non-issues, rife with false accusations of various -isms or -phobias. Of course, that ignores the fact that Slashdot's users, aside from a few whackos, are very much the opposite of Twitter/Tumblr/Facebook "social justice" freaks and thus don't support the totalitarian, unjust, bullying tactics of "social justice".
Politics are popular on Huffington Post, so maybe Dice thought politics would be popular here, too. So we get subjected to irrelevant submissions about political issues that have nothing to do with technology, science, math, or anything relevant like that. Of course, that ignores the fact that Slashdot's users want to read about technology, science, math, and everything but politics.
It's really quite sad. All that Dice needs to do to restore Slashdot to its former glory is:
1. Get rid of the videos, the "social justice", and the political articles.
2. Get rid of the moderating. It no longer works well, and only serves to stifle discussion instead of enabling it.
3. Get rid of the posting limits. Again, they stifle discussion instead of enabling it.
4. Enable discussion instead of stifling it!
We don't come here for the videos. We don't come here for most of the submissions. We come here to discuss things, and we need to be able to do that unhindered if this site to remain viable!
Wake the hell up, Dice!
And worse, when "Request desktop site" doesn't work. I'm looking at you, Slashdot.
Even worse still, when the mobile site doesn't do everything the desktop site does. Slashdot, do you feel my gaze?
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
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From now on, for me it is mobile websites only.
I don't want to download your stupid app. Just make your website not suck on mobile devices. End of story.
If your app really truly has enough complexity that a mobile site is too slow, and a native app is the only way to get decent performance, your app is probably too complicated. Keep it simple stupid.
Maybe 1% of apps actually honestly need to be a standalone app.
Seriously. They both suck. So it's like asking which I'd prefer to eat. A bucket of solid shit or a bucket of diarrhea.
So I avoid "mobile" options like the inferior plague they are.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!