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Seriously, all they need to do is throw in Twitter Bootstrap, re-change some div classes, and bam mobile friendly.. It's not like the site has a lot of eye cand

• jacquesm 12y ago
  And bam lots of stuff that works today might break.
  • krapp 12y ago
    If you're referring to tools that crawl the site, there is an official HN API now for exactly that reason. If you expect the HTML to never change and then it does and your thing breaks that's no one's responsibility but yours.
    • jacquesm 12y ago
      No, I'm not referring to tools that crawl the site. I'm referring to the fact that simply replacing a bunch of working code to placate one segment of users will surely create issues elsewhere. Crawlers are a (small) subset of that. Pleasing everybody on a fixed budget is impossible.
      • krapp 12y ago
        How big is that one segment, though? I honestly don't know, so maybe dang or kogir could clue us in. If a significant number of users are on mobile, and it's reasonable to expect that number to increase for the foreseeable future, then placating mobile users makes sense. I doubt that increasing their SEO is really a priority for the HN staff either way. Also, two out of the three issues on the google site come down to simple typography and UX. Elements being too close together (links, line-height to add my own personal pet peeve) or too small (font size and the oft-complained about vote arrows) or too poorly contrasted (grey text on a lighter grey background) making things difficult to read and navigate. I don't see anything wrong with improving the readability of a site which is meant to be read... that makes the experience better for everyone.