It's not about momentum. It would literally nearly double the codebase, unless the "mobile app" was a very very thin wrapper around the mobile platform's web viewer library (i.e. "open this website inside an app"), at which point... you might as well use the website.

More useful would be "mobile friendly website" - but *that* is actually a hard problem and no web developer with the appropriate skills has appeared to volunteer yet.

Would have to hear from the admins/kestas whether or not there is the funding to do that then. There's no denying that a mobile app would bring more users in, but I don't know that it would necessarily double the user base.

It ain't about funding - site is free and open source, no developers are being paid for time, as far as I am aware. And believe me, devs don't come cheap, so we'd have to be collecting a *lot* more donations if we were paying. It would also attract the possible negative attentions of Hasbro if we strayed into that territory due to the project potentially looking like a commercial thing suddenly. Don't go there, it's a minefield. :-)

I didn't say funding as in to pay the developers.

If it aint broke don't fix it? Might be a good attitude towards it.

Thanks thorfi for answering this one like someone who's already asked all these questions :)

Thorfi has covered most of this already - but I'll add a few extra things:

* We're not keen to pay anyone to develop webdip- we don't have the funds, and we like keeping all of webdip free (for many many reasons).

* @Bo - I'm not sure what you meant by funding if not to pay for development - there's no need for additional servers if we made an app.

* My preference is just to improve the current software until it works fine on mobile. I personally spend most of my game time playing from an iPhone, and I have very few problems.

* Having said that, the most recent iPhone software update has introduced a weird problem for some (but not all!?) users where some links on the front page don't work. I haven't been able to find time to look in to that yet. Similarly, the android browser has a bunch of display issues (mis-sized press box, incorrectly sized text). I don't yet know why those issues aren't present for iphone users. I don't have access to an android for testing, though.

* If anyone wants to work on an app, I would be very happy to encourage them. However, my first comment to them would be that I think effort is better spent on improving the current interface so that it's solid for mobile. It's more future proof, too - I'm reluctant to increase the number of languages that webdip is written in. We want any changes to webdip to mean that it's just as easy/easier to maintain the code in the future. Adding more technologies is not the way to do that.

"There's no denying that a mobile app would bring more users in"

Would it? Why?

Meant to sign that previous comment:

~webDip Dev Team

Not sure what else you meant by funding then. :-) As I mentioned, the issue is nobody currently volunteering as a dev is qualified to do a really good job of making the site mobile friendly, as far as I am aware.

If you know (or anyone else knows!) of somebody willing and able to, I am dead certain A_Tin_Can and the rest of the dev team would jump around in joy and accept patches. :-)

Hah, ninja'd by ATC.

* Having said that, the most recent iPhone software update has introduced a weird problem for some (but not all!?) users where some links on the front page don't work. I haven't been able to find time to look in to that yet. Similarly, the android browser has a bunch of display issues (mis-sized press box, incorrectly sized text). I don't yet know why those issues aren't present for iphone users. I don't have access to an android for testing, though.


i had this issue and now the current IOs update corrected it FYI

Oh, awesome! Thanks ssorenn! I suspected it was their problem, since there was no standards issue with that particular part of the page. Frustratingly, the issue didn't affect me, so it was going to be hard to test.

Adding an app expands the reaches of webDiplomacy beyond a simple URL, so it goes without saying that it would add *some* users. I didn't say it would add a ton or anywhere close to make it worth it, and considering we are already adding users at a high rate, I don't think this is a consideration worth pursuing a mobile app over.

I was under the understanding that an app would have to be run from another server or at the very least a server with expanded capabilities (which I figure would cost money, but maybe not), but if not, then I guess we don't have to worry about money.

Improving the current site until it plays nicely with Android is a LOT of work.

Adding an app is a LOT MORE work :)

It would be great to add responsive design so that we fall back to a mobile-friendly interface when the screen size is tiny, but I think we have bigger fish in the improvements pile first. Like for instance preventing page reloads from resending messages, or adding instant press/phase changes (so that live games wouldn't require ANY page reloads).

Having said all that, if anyone is reading this and being all "what is he talking about, I can get this done in a weekend", please contact us :)

I have no problems with webDip on my Android.

Abge, are you sure you want to claim that? whats your excuse going to be next?

"Android" is like... um, it's not the same thing as "Android" at all, depending on what devices people have. Android OS fragmentation is a real thing, and what browser people are using is a huge factor. :-/ So some Android devices will be perfectly great, others, not so much.

As far as an app goes - no, we wouldn't need a new server. Any app should be making calls to the same webserver webDip already runs on. It might maybe call a different page than the existing web users, but even that is not necessarily true, and certainly even if it did it wouldn't be a new server.

There *would* be some benefits to an app - having it show up in the iOS app store and/or Android Market would be good for advertising, no doubt. And having validation be all nice and app like, maybe even some sort of unit dragging interface, and all that sort of thing would be lovely. But it's a *lot* of code, and a lot of it duplicate to the existing web code, which could mean that fixes might need to be done in two places instead of one. Maintenance nightmare. :-/

I dunno ATC I consider the fact I can and do reload the page constantly a major part of my live game arsenal and having that taken away from me seems unfair...

@Valis: you should be hitting the "Board" button.

Yes, that's how I reload the page.

I only learned that yesterday. I'm knew.

Apps are already yesterdays stale pasta and vinegary yet unpretentious wine.

Mobile friendly sites are the future. Web dips is perfectly fine. Thank you for bringing this politically neutral matter to the forum.