Recent topics appearance seems glitchy

I've got my default view set to "most recent topics as table" or whatever the exact wording is. I use desktop view on my phone, chrome browser.

I used to see two columns, one with the name of the person who started the thread and one with the last person to post. A couple days ago I noticed that the second column was cut off. Then today, I noticed the second column wasn't there at all. I refreshed the page a couple times and got the truncated second column back.

Did something change on the site or is it on my end?

Oh, when I scrolled down to attach the screenshots, I noticed a paid content tab. I don't think that was there before...

Hmmmm, I'm pretty sure I've seen that before, but I can't remember why or how it happened.

Maybe try zooming out?

It looks the same zoomed out. I just zoomed in to take the screenshot.

Same thing happened after my last reply. Just one column, then a couple refreshes, and back to two, but cut off. I thought I might be getting one column whenever I backed out of a topic back to the recent topics page, but I tried it a few times with different topics and it doesn't seem to be that.

Weeeird, I don't usually use that view, and I'm not seeing it when I try it.

I think I've seen something like this happen when someone used too many of flags on a post. I'm going to see if I can put too many flags on this thread and see if it glitches things out for me....

Nope, that didn't work. And, interestingly enough, you can't even see flags when looking at Recent Topics as a Table. And there's only one page of results (probably unrelated--is there usually just one page of results when looking at Recent Topics as a Table?).

Is this view also glitchy for you? https://permies.com/forums?dashboardView=17

Yeah, I always thought it was weird that there's only one page, but that's how it always is.

I don't know what the sortable table view is supposed to look like. When I look at your link I just have the last person to post, not the topic starter. Nothing's cut off, though.

That's what I'm seeing for that view, too.

I think we might need to call in the amazing Devaka to see if he can figure out why your "Most Recent Topics as Table" view is suddenly wonky!

Well, it's not that big a deal. I was just curious.

Jan White wrote:Oh, when I scrolled down to attach the screenshots, I noticed a paid content tab. I don't think that was there before...

I think the Paid Content tab is always there when you start a new tab. It allows you to turn the thread into a Digital Market-type of thread, where you can sell stuff. So, I don't think that's related to any of the other changes. There was a new update done to permies on January 29th, and it was related to Digital Market stuff, but I don't know how that could effect Recent Topic as a Table view. But, I also don't program!

I hadn't noticed this before because I never leave the left hand forums column open but that seems to make a difference? I always use desktop on this phone.

The whole view/weidget thing is a desktop feature, which has never been optimized for mobile view.

However, that page would appear without issue on a mobile device if....

A) Your browser / device has sufficient horizontal width, and
B) Titles of threads in the list are not too long.

So, even if there is a single thread with a long title, it can break this view on a mobile device.

And I just made some changes to optimize around this. Please tell me if it's working?

Devaka Cooray wrote:And I just made some changes to optimize around this. Please tell me if it's working?

Devaka, yes, that seems to fix it so that now I see all 5 topic headings when the forum list is dropped down...and in both landscape and regular orientations on my phone screen.

I didn't get a chance to try it with the forums column on the left closed, like Judith suggested, but everything's back to the way it used to be now. Nothing cut off, all columns visible.  Maybe, like Devaka suggested, there's just been a thread with a longer than usual title popping up the last little while, which is why I'd never noticed it before now.

Anyway, it looks good now. Nice work!

Hi @Devaka

I'm using firefox on a mac and it looks like your changes have forced all the columns to be the same fixed % width.

James Alun wrote:Hi @Devaka

I'm using firefox on a mac and it looks like your changes have forced all the columns to be the same fixed % width.

Yes, that's how it looks on my phone, too.

I hope your technical issues resolve.. but I was thrilled to see my post in the screenshot!

I don't know if work is still underway on this, but on the desktop the current format is a big step backward in terms of UX. Five equal-width columns means that the cells with lots of text get crammed and wrapped, and there's now a heap of wasted space, notably in the number of posts column. It's far harder to read and takes a lot more scrolling to get through a page.

Please consider ditching the fixed 20% equal width in the CSS and using proportions tailored to the content. The old design worked well.

Shout out to the team for the fix! It looks great and it's way more usable (improved readability and nowhere near as much scrolly-scrolly) for us old geezers using browsers on desktops.