No discussion board guru, but been around the computing game longer than many have been alive. Most of that time in business solutions, but for the last few years, involved with a well known board in a niche genre. Very few BBS's left in our subject area - most have migrated to big tech - if they exist at all.
Seems to me making your theme responsive is only part of the challenge. Many of these devices don't lend themselves well to the concept of a discussion board. With all the options and choices typically available. So you have to rethink what you're offering and how. A responsive theme intuitive for a mobile device might appear overly simplistic to some PC users. So do you cater to mobile, or take an adaptive approach? With the duplication of effort that entails? Finding the sweet spot will be a big part in adapting to internet usage metrics.
I support mybb's approach in revising the technical underpinnings of 1.9 - rather than releasing a responsive theme which uses css to hide overflows for certain screen sizes. Not sure what these changes will mean to a good-sized and long term board like ours. But keeping the 1.8x series alive - even without a default responsive theme - gives us some choices.
We've made a responsive theme available - one of @WallBB's in fact - but you have to join to use it. It's a well thought out theme, and works very well, but not many take advantage. Does that mean we're obsolete? Maybe. But responsive themes by themselves are not a complete solution. IMO...
Seen many things come and go over the 40+ years I've been involved with tech - over 30 as a salaried professional. Wish I had all the answers, but don't. Just know this paradigm change in internet usage can't be resolved by a theme. Could be wrong - been wrong before. But I find that answer overly simplistic.
cheers...
