For smaller screens, scrollbar-on-scroll (with a slow fade of 0.5 - 2s or so) would be a reasonable compromise, if the scrollbar were also a manipulation interface, and not merely informational.
The default Android PDF viewer operates in this manner, and provides a grabbable scroll control. Much of the rest of the app is otherwise less than impressive, but this would be a useful motif to pick up.
I'd offered the feedback to Ello in the piece as both relevant to the site specifically, and in the spirit of having long offered feedback on both good and bad elements of the site, at least for as long as there was any response to those (this stopped being the case around 2016, the site is now effectively dead).
I am a firm believer in the right to provide feedback on tools and services used. "Go self host" isn't a reasonable or scalable response generally.
> For smaller screens, scrollbar-on-scroll (with a slow fade of 0.5 - 2s or so) would be a reasonable compromise, if the scrollbar were also a manipulation interface, and not merely informational.
> The default Android PDF viewer operates in this manner, and provides a grabbable scroll control. Much of the rest of the app is otherwise less than impressive, but this would be a useful motif to pick up.
I wish I had an Android device laying around to test this on because I have a hard time believing any scroll-bar-manipulation-on-mobile would be anything but terribly finicky. That said I also don't find myself in a situation where I ever want to drag the scrollbar on mobile. I'm perfectly happy just using it as a progress bar.
> I am a firm believer in the right to provide feedback on tools and services used.
That was never in question.
> "Go self host" isn't a reasonable or scalable response generally.
Maybe "then host your own blog" wasn't the best way to phrase that, let me try again:
If you really hate the lack of scrollbars then there are a number of platforms (free, paid, hosted, self-hosted, the list goes on) you can move to that will give you the ability to turn on scrollbars.
Addressing the last: Ello's descent into UI/UX hell was among the reasons I abandoned it.
The Drive PDF Viewer (default PDF viewer on Android) scroll behaviour isn't perfect, but it's a reasonable compromise with minimal surprises (principle of least astonishment) for the platform.
I quite honestly prefer paginated PDFs in general for online reading, as they follow numerous predictable behaviours, with PocketBook and FBReader my preferred apps for this.
The Internet Archive's online BookReader app is also excellent, in its paginated mode. When set to portrait aspect ratios, it converts to a scrolling mode which I really dislike.
The default Android PDF viewer operates in this manner, and provides a grabbable scroll control. Much of the rest of the app is otherwise less than impressive, but this would be a useful motif to pick up.
I'd offered the feedback to Ello in the piece as both relevant to the site specifically, and in the spirit of having long offered feedback on both good and bad elements of the site, at least for as long as there was any response to those (this stopped being the case around 2016, the site is now effectively dead).
I am a firm believer in the right to provide feedback on tools and services used. "Go self host" isn't a reasonable or scalable response generally.