Why did you break the Forum for older iPads?

This topic was introduced earlier … and closed WITHOUT an explanation or solution. Why oh why did the recent Forum update break itself as far as iPad viewing goes? I can view any other website just fine on my older iPad but Microsoft has decided to introduce some new formatting to render older (but still viable) devices unusable! WHY? And if there is a solution … what is it??

How old is the iPad / what iOS version?

Also the forum software is not Asobos nor Microsofts, its a platform called https://www.discourse.org (chances are its just been upgraded to a new version which might cause some issues).

It IS an older iPad (maxed out at iOS 12.5.5) but that shouldn’t hamper me. I see it as arrogance for Microsoft (or discourse.org) for not implementing a backwards-friendly version of the forum for legacy users). Not everyone needs the latest and greatest toys in their collection. :frowning:

As noted, the forum software isn’t Microsoft.

The issue you are experiencing has been noted by Discourse Meta. It also effects Android Firefox and Android Edge.

Support for iOS 12 will be maintained until January 2023.

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Maybe the “Discourse Hub” app will work for you?

Discourse Hub on the App Store (apple.com)

Thanks for suggestion Funghie … grabbed the app (for my iPad 2 using iOS 12) and … hmmm, doesn’t work there either. What a surprise! :frowning: Thanks a lot Discourse! Rendering a 4-year old iOS obsolete! That’s just wrong! Imagine simmers, the outcry if Microsoft told us MSFS was no longer going to work on Windows 10 (a 7 year old OS) and that we’d be forced to upgrade to Windows 11.

Funny eh? My iPad uses iOS 12 and it doesn’t work with latest Discourse (thus, breaking the Forum) … and it certainly isn’t 2023 yet!

Why, oh why can’t the Forum website just use good old reliable HTML like everybody else?

As noted, Discourse has noted this to be a bug. There is a fix for it a few days ago, but it has not been applied to the forum.

Microsoft generally updates the forum once a month, sometimes once every 2 months, depending on severity of issues.

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Ok … that’s a little re-assuring. (sorry … didn’t realize Discourse had acknowledged the bug … thought they just flat out said ‘sorry suckers … no more support for iOS 12!’ :stuck_out_tongue: )

I’m in that same boat. Almost all my internet ‘reading’ is on my iPad. When I lost this forum, that seemed to be the end of my daily visits. Now I only check in once or twice a month when I’m on my laptop or desktop. If it gets fixed, great!

Because so many of the nice features that users are used to on this and many other websites rely on JavaScript - Something that is fairly cancerous to write in its naked form, hence the use of libraries, which leads to dependency hell, things getting updated, pain and suffering :wink:

But as a general rule of thumb, if you ever come across something that seems to be broken from a mechanic standpoint, it’s always a good idea to check out https://meta.discourse.org / as the devs post announcements there, or alternatively if you know Ruby and Handlebars the source code is open source so you can always contribute to the code.

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Six year old iPad here. No problems whatsoever with viewing this forum. Or any other website for that matter.

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Ok … but what’s your iOS on that iPad? past iOS 12? Then that explains that.

This forum is pretty bad on Android phones too. You cannot see the reply box when responding to a thread, you are typing blind. Its crazy how bad it is.

Nyx … decided to head over to discourse.org and poke around and found the culprit. It seems Discourse fixed this Javascript bug a month ago! Now the blame shifts back to Microsoft to hotfix the Forum!

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this Was an issue with the Safari web browser (that has since been fixed), Not the OS or this forum
its already been resolved so it is not likely to be the same issue that your experiencing and if it was it would be up to the Safari Devs to fix (an Apple product)

i understand you want to blame ms but the problem just isnt really on them from what we have heard here
i also disagree with the entire “They Must keep backward compatibility, no matter what”
hardware and software particularly must be allowed to ‘move on’ or it becomes static
even if i did agree with you i would disagree that a specific company is responsible to the end user for a product They dont make not being supported by Another product They dont make :stuck_out_tongue:

i do hope discourse.org can support your old equipment for your sake, but it may be time to updgrade
there is no “guarantee of usable lifespan” here, and if there was, it would not be from ms - they are Not responsible for what Android / Apple supports
cheers

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Sorry EzRyder … have to disagree. Discourse post clearly states that it is an iOS problem too. I believe it to now be Microsoft’s responsibility to update the javascript and/or their Discourse build so their Forum website reflects the bug fix.

As for the whole backward compatibility argument … I just think 4 years is not quite enough time to consider something ‘obsolete’. We live in a WAY too disposable society where perfectly good tech is not given the life it deserves because money hungry giants want to force us to upgrade, UPgrade, UPGRADE!

Welcome to capitalism :money_mouth_face:

your saying the tablet is 4 yrs old or the UpGraded OS is?
nevermind answering, from your own words we know, support was dropped 4 yrs ago

it doesnt matter, this forum has done all they can to help you with your ANDROID support, they passed the info on to discourse (i do agree they (the software devs) should support your os/software for more than 4 years but ms did Not make this software)
i seriously doubt ms has the code for the discourse.org platform, they only subcontract a website like everyone (you yourself can create a forum with the tools most of these companies provide)
i would bet money its up to them (discourse) to recompile IF thats what is needed

and thats not to mention that post suggests its Safari that needed recompile with the newer java
NOT the forum software

but again i SERIOUSLY doubt that Month old Post is still a problem, there would be TONS of people with this issue if it was the Safari Browser that was the issue

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So true - specially when it comes to phones. The cellphone manufacturers and service providers have this all wrapped up. I have friends who buy a high powered phone (like latest Samsung Note series) and then a year later they toss it for another one. I ask what was wrong with the old one and they cant really answer. They just want the next shiny thing.

We need to remember the Earths resources used in making these things.

I buy a powerful phone and use it till it gives out. This one is currently 4 years old and if it lasts another 4 i will keep it.

A valid reason for upgrade even if nothings wrong with the hardware is when support for an older OS is pulled compromising security. But these happen years apart.

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