Baseball Fan iPhone Users: should we style the blog for the iPhone
Posted by Sean Forman on May 21, 2010
If you read our blogs on your iPhone, you will know that the site on the iPhone looks just like it does on a full browser. WordPress has a plugin that can present the blog in a iphone specific format to iphone users. Do you (a user of the blog on your phone) prefer this format on the blogs you read on your phone?
This change would not affect non-mobile users in any way.
May 21st, 2010 at 10:21 am
I'd like to see this blog adapted for the iPhone. And I'd absolutely like to see an iPhone app for the BB-Ref site itself.
May 21st, 2010 at 10:26 am
yes and I definitely vote for an iphone app
May 21st, 2010 at 10:45 am
What I'll say about the iPhone app is that i'm aware B-R is challenging to use on a mobile device
May 21st, 2010 at 10:58 am
Yes in the blog and a big yes on an iPhone App for the stats themselves. I'd pay for it even.
Keep up the good work.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:16 am
I like viewing the blog on the iPhone currently but wouldn't mind if there was a specific iPhone format. As an author here, I currently use the WordPress plugin to access posts and comments. Most of the times when I respond to a comment with another comment, I do that with the WP plugin (although that really has no relevance to our readers.)
May 21st, 2010 at 11:19 am
Yes. While you're at it, maybe an iPad app? Like #4, I'd pay for it too.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:21 am
Evan,
What's wanting about the website on the iPad? Or do you just want access while disconnected? If it is the latter, I suspect that won't be doable given the size of the dataset necessary and given how much functionality we would have to cut out.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:34 am
Yes please.
May 21st, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Yes please!
May 21st, 2010 at 1:23 pm
I vote no with an explaination. In my experience the apps/mobile sites are usually not very useful. It may be a matter of poor design but apps of websites I like (IMDB, NetFlix for example) I downloaded, used about 3 times and just went back to using the full version of the site.
Mobile sites are the same. One of the things I like about the iPhone (and I've been looking into an iPad so extend these remarks to those devices too) is that it is able to display a full version site. The only issue I have with BBRef on the phone is that it is small, well you aren't making my screen bigger and using the two finger slide to make the font bigger is not that difficult.
May 21st, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Sean - since the blog supports full text RSS I just read it in Google Reader which as an app for the Iphone/Itouch. Not necessary for me.
May 21st, 2010 at 3:47 pm
I'd love a BBRef iPhone app or mobile-specific site; most major websites with mobile apps or mobile-specific screens have a link embedded so you can view the full version of a site; I'm not a serious stat-head, but use BBRef regularly for looking up quick bits of info; for BBRef,the mobile site could just provide the major stats for a player and, when clicking on the link to the full site, the full stats for that player would be seen; it would be very helpful
for example, if I'm sitting in the bar and somebody asks how many home runs Alan Trammell hit in 1987 and in his career, it would be on the mobile site; if I click on the link for the full site, then I'd see the OPS, and all or the sabremetric-type stats
May 21st, 2010 at 4:33 pm
yes, I would like that very much
May 21st, 2010 at 4:37 pm
I'm with Lou @11 -- I usually read this blog on Google Reader and thus don't have an issue with it. And I, too, would be willing to pay for a useful app of the site.
May 21st, 2010 at 8:07 pm
you should develope an iphone ap for navigating the whole site.... the blog is nice, but i can usually wait til i get home to read it. however, solving bar arguments about baseball players requires baseball-reference.com and an iphone app would be awesome.
May 21st, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Android app too!
May 23rd, 2010 at 11:56 pm
People read your site with mobile devices other than the iphone, you know.
May 28th, 2010 at 9:47 am
I usually read the blog on iPhone Google Reader and the included data from b-r.com always gets cut off by the edge of the screen. So yes, iPhone-styled site!