I wouldn't say it's impossible to read on my 4S, but it is certainly not "optimal", due to the table-based layout (with large margins). The page is zoomed out quite far when first loaded. Text is rendered pretty small, even when you double-tap to zoom in on the content "column". It's readable for me, but I still have pretty reasonable eye-sight. I can imagine it would be a lot harder if your eyes were even just slightly less capable than mine.
As for the original question "why?" - my guess is because a) it works, and b) it's quick. Sometimes you need to be pragmatic about these things.
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What mobile device do you have? It's impossible to read on my iPhone.
I wouldn't say it's impossible to read on my 4S, but it is certainly not "optimal", due to the table-based layout (with large margins). The page is zoomed out quite far when first loaded. Text is rendered pretty small, even when you double-tap to zoom in on the content "column". It's readable for me, but I still have pretty reasonable eye-sight. I can imagine it would be a lot harder if your eyes were even just slightly less capable than mine.
As for the original question "why?" - my guess is because a) it works, and b) it's quick. Sometimes you need to be pragmatic about these things.
Do people really read the desktop version on mobile? The hn.gethifi mobile site is excellent!
Renders perfectly well on my Blackberry (foist upon me by work)