All I want to know is why change something that isn't broken? Also, did you REALLY link a fuckin wikipedia page of first world problems? Seriously? Would you prefer I talk about my fear of not being able to pay my college tuition fees...on a site for looking at waifus?

We fixed something that wasn't broken because Google insisted that it was and that we fix it or stop showing up in search results for mobile users. We did not have a choice.

Why did Google have such a problem with it? Were you even told why?

you know it's bad when even degenerate furry boorus have a better mobile UI.

Google will tell you the things they dislike about your site and why it's being penalized in search results. I've seen Gelbooru mods mention some of the things in another thread, such as the desktop UI can have thumbnails load late, causing the layout to shift around. On mobile Google hates that, it has to stay the same from start to finish of the page load. That's why it's all square thumbnails now. There is no arguing with them, as you can rarely even find an actual person to talk to. It's just, "this is what the algorithm wants, do it or have your search ranking destroyed."

And then later on they'll change things again and you'll have to redo everything to make their new algorithm happy.

Basically this; except that it's incorrect to say you can rarely even find an actual person to talk to. It's literally impossible. Even our lawyer couldn't get a hold of someone at Google when they had taken way longer to process DMCA counterclaims than they're supposed to.

Holy shit that's extra horrible.

The only reason I said rarely is because I've been able to talk to humans at Google in two different instances. One was when I was running a fairly large website that used AdSense. We were assigned a real person as account manager and could talk to them via e-mail and phone. The other time was when I had trouble buying some packs in a mobile game through Google Play. I ended up talking to someone on the phone that was extremely helpful, friendly and had no foreign accent. Ironically, it was one of the best support experiences I've had in my life. That shows they can do it when they want to, and do it well.

The difference is probably that both of those cases involved situations where Google could earn some money. When it doesn't, they don't give a fuck.

I’d be ok with any of these changes if we just got an option to disable them. How hard would that be? (Genuine question btw)

The black bar is absolutely awful if you’re using landscape on mobile, and I hate how much more scrolling I have to do now that everything is so zoomed in.

Requesting desktop site straight up doesn't work on my phone either. I know at one point, I think when the mobile site was brand new, there was an on-site option to disable that. It’d be nice if that were brought back.

Again, I have no idea how easy that would be or if it’s even an option considering whatever this google business is. Just venting

The same people who run google, telling you to fix what isn't broken or be destroyed in google search are the same people who will destroy you for posting "sExIsM", "mIsoGYnY", "bIgOtRy", and "HaTe SpEeCh" right? They'll come after you for being "oFfEnSiVe", "BiGoTeD", and "hAtefUl", so why capitulate to them at all?

Because if we don't, we won't be able to keep running. It's as simple as that.