Posted on 09/03/2026 11:49:09 AM PDT by CaptainPhilFan
Ok look. I have been a daily devotee and frequent supporter of this once-wonderful site for years. Since 1998 FR has had an open tab on all of my desktops for frequent, hourly, reads and commenting.
But. My personal visits are down to a few times a week because life changes and i don't get to my desk too often, and this site has become largely unreadable on cell phone screens.
It gives me a headache trying to read articles and comments.
I believe many others have this opinion and experience. Daily Views are way down and God bless you FReepers trying to keep Jim's Vision alive.
But really, why the Page View change some time ago, and what is needed to fix it?
Is there a reason it's now nearly impossible to read on mobile? Is it a function of my cell phone? Is there a secret to making it how it used to look?
Can this be fixed?
Sincerely, Class of '98
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Yeah, but they I get tired of swishing fingers back and forth from one side of page to another to read a whole line.
I agree. Making the text larger to read means scrolling side to side to read. This makes me go to the links that are usually formatted and I can teas easily.
Sometimes the effort isn’t worth it. I don’t know what can be done, but I scrolled past so many things because I can’t read it.
That’s what I do. I expand my horizons. Literally!
Log in to freerepublic.com w/ your name+pwd, and then expand with the two-finger spread action so that only the portion of the page you want to view is enlarged.
And when you want to renew the page for the latest posts, go about a third a page from the top, put your finger there and drag it down. It'll renew the page without having to reload the whole site.
I started using that default Samsung browser after Brave failed me, and I haven't heard of another that works around the problem. Let me know how that works, please.
If you have a smart TV with WIFI capability you can connect your phone to it to view FR. Also, most smart TV’s have internet capability and you can view FR via the internet. The Samsung smart TV may not work because of its built in propriety browser.
Thank you so much for the 3 dots suggestion. Works great!
Some months ago, after an Android update, FR shrank in my Brave browser, so after asking for help her, I added Opera as a browser because it has a feature that sizes the text properly. (Forget what the FReeper called it.) But I like your method better. So now I can get rid of Opera.
Thank heavens for smart Freepers.
PS: my 3 dots are in the lower right.
I take it the words aren’t wrapping as you zoom in. That’s what is wrong with mine. But by chance I used one of my old phones and it worked good. it might be using a different browser. I’ll charge it up and take a closer look.
If I need to look at FR after I’ve gone to bed, I log in on the phone and leave it upright while I’m lying down sideways...
Unfortunately, at 93, I tend to fall asleep if I lie down for more than 10 seconds, so I don’t know if I was able to read anything ...
I have the Android problem too, so I use the Kindle Fire too and it gives the perfect resolution, even much better than my laptop.
On my iPhone, it looks exactly the same as 13 years ago.
I’m using Brave, Safari, Firefox, DuckDuckGo, and another.
All look exactly the same.
Settings, accessibility, zoom.
Also IPhone, Use the default Safari browser.
Turn phone 90 degrees.
Use two fingers to zoom in eliminating the “Browse By Forum” width from the right. Then just scroll down the page.
Works fine for me, even without my 2.0 readers I can still manage.
Reason? Maybe cause...WE are ALL getting OLDER???
The only time I ever use my cell phone for the web is if I’m away from my laptop. I tried turning my cell phone sideways, but then you’re scrolling 10 times as much.
Yes!
When you click the 3 vertical dots (menu) look for Zoom to increase %%. Depending upon the phone, you may have to scroll down the menu a little to see Zoom. My android keeps whatever Zoom %% I choose. Zoom can also be site specific, so don't freak out if other websites are smaller. Just set Zoom %% for that website also.
IPhones must have something similar.
I was about 45 or so when I needed reading glasses. I was tasked to do a parts inventory for electronic components and couldn't see s@@t on miniature components. 25 years later I've been through 5 or 6 progressive glasses and I am do for another set. Reading a commuter monitor is fine, but iPhones are starting to be a problem again.
Yeah...wait till you have a LaMellar (sp) hole in your retina....then the fun really begins...
No, age has nothing to do with it. The website used to be very readable on mobile phones.
Something changed a while ago and it is now unreadable on mobile phones.
Turning it sideways gets you 3 lines of text - but I guess that depends on how large your phone screen is.
Not helpful but thanks for playing.
Depending on your phone, I guess. I get about 3 lines of text on mine. Pinching it larger does not help, only causes more scrolling.
Thanks, but no cigar.
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