Tapatalk Removal

[djb1971]

The browser is no where near as good as the iPad tapatalk hd. One click and I'm straight onto unread posts. The iPhone tapatalk is used for other forums too and it's quick and convenient to access them all in one go. The reason I never go on BR anymore is because they don't use tapa, mind you that's actually a good thing!

 

[Shaun]

Tapatalk has always been a useful app; forum members can post at multiple forums using a familiar and standardised user interface; Tapatalk profits from the sale of their app; forum owners are able to offer their members a useful tool for accessing their content.

Unfortunately Tapatalk have recently moved towards monetising the forum content that passes through the app (which belongs to forum owners and members and not to Taptalk) and I don't feel this is reasonable. App developers should not be allowed to inject ads into our content for their own gain.

The responsive layout should work well in most cases on tablets and phones and shouldn't take much getting used to.

If some of you choose to visit less often (or stop visiting at all) then that would be a real shame, but I refuse to allow our content to be hijacked, manipulated, or profited from by a third-party developer.

I am not ruling out the future use of Tapatalk but I would need to be completely assured that they present our content as-is without any interference.

Shaun

 

[phil_hg_uk]

Tapatalk has always been a useful app; forum members can post at multiple forums using a familiar and standardised user interface; Tapatalk profits from the sale of their app; forum owners are able to offer their members a useful tool for accessing their content.

Unfortunately Tapatalk have recently moved towards monetising the forum content that passes through the app (which belongs to forum owners and members and not to Taptalk) and I don't feel this is reasonable. App developers should not be allowed to inject ads into our content for their own gain.

The responsive layout should work well in most cases on tablets and phones and shouldn't take much getting used to.

If some of you choose to visit less often (or stop visiting at all) then that would be a real shame, but I refuse to allow our content to be hijacked, manipulated, or profited from by a third-party developer.

I am not ruling out the future use of Tapatalk but I would need to be completely assured that they present our content as-is without any interference.

Shaun

Tapatalk have just release a FREE version of the Tapatalk App is it this you are talking about ? there is still a paid for version as well and there are no adverts on it.

 

[Shaun]

Tapatalk have just release a FREE version of the Tapatalk App is it this you are talking about ? there is still a paid for version as well and there are no adverts on it.

Unfortunately, for me, I cannot differentiate between which versions can and cannot access CC and I have no control over the ads that are included with the free version. The ads are also formatted to look like forum threads so appear to be CC endorsed content - which they are not.

They do offer a white-label program, which I looked into before making my decision - but the CC branded app would only work on CC (it wouldn't work with all of your favourite TT-enabled forums) and the cost for us to maintain the program is currently prohibitive.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

Well I can see your point about the ads looking like forum posts but I still think it is a backwards step. Most free apps I use have some sort of adverts in them to support the writer, and these apps also attract a certain amount of traffic to the site for you as people want to be able to access multiple forums from the same place that is the way the mobile internet is going no one wants to have to access just 1 site out of hundreds in a different way.

 

[Martok]

I fully support @Shaun on this.

As the admin on another forum, I am likely to be removing Taptalk too for the very same reasons.

Tapatalk have made changes in recent months that aren't positive ones. This latest one of monetising through adverts (which I believe will be on the free Tapatalk app but that's to be confirmed if it is indeed restricted to that) is being forced on forum owners. As has been said, these adverts are styled like forum posts and are not endorsed by forum owners. Just like here, I only show adverts to guests but this would then be showing adverts to registered members too.

Shaun didn't mention a recent security issue, one where a user was receiving alerts (including ones for personal conversations which included the author and the PM title) that were supposed to be for the admin! There have been concerns about Tapatalk security in the past and this just highlights this issue again. Quite clearly you can't have an add-on for a forum that is a security issue.

To those who are disappointed that Tapatalk will be going, I can understand that as I also use Tapatalk as a user. However, the recent update to the site makes it very usable using a phone browser (including on older phones like my Android one running 2.2 and having to use Dolphin mini). Using it on a browser also means you get the full site including all of the features that Tapatalk just cannot deliver. In fact, Tapatalk can't even show basic post features such as different fonts, font sizes, font colours, strikethrough text, the various custom smilies etc!!

So if you've not yet tried it on a mobile browser then do try it out for a few days and see.

 

[Dan B]

I am as disappointed as all the other people who use Tapatalk as their primary means of access: "responsive" design or no it's still much snappier than the mobile site, especially on a slow or flakey network connection. However, it sounds like our collective complaints would bve better directed at the Tapatalk developers than at Shaun and other forum admins

I'm old enough to remember NNTP (in this context, more specifically NNRP). I don't suppose there's a modern-day equivalent open standard, is there?

 

[ianrauk]

[QUOTE 2701459, member: 259"]I'm sure the mobile version is great for people with good 3g and 4g connections, but mobile access is pretty poor for me. Tapatalk is far better.[/quote]


Mort, please re-read Shauns, Martok's and Dan B's posts above regarding the reason's why it being pulled. Tapatalk have given Shaun no choice but to pull it. Tapatalk want to surreptitiously place adverts on the furum, not only that, make them look like official CC advert toos. That really is not on.

I use Tapatalk all the time too. But see the reason's why Shaun is pulling it.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

However, it sounds like our collective complaints would bve better directed at the Tapatalk developers than at Shaun and other forum admins

Already sent them an email this morning

 

[StuartG]

I'm an Admin and I have abandoned TapaTalk on my forums. Just too much trouble and trying to screw money out of a free service is bad. The need we all had for an app for very small screens has disappeared with the advance of responsive themes. TapaTalk is dying so the multimple forum arguement is weakening. And why should the majority have to suffer because a minority want a device specific app to work?

Go Shaun - they look like badgers to me ....

 

[phil_hg_uk]

The need we all had for an app for very small screens has disappeared with the advance of responsive themes.

Clearly this is not correct otherwise we would not be having this conversation.

 

[potsy]

New mobile site is very good, but like others I have mainly been using tapatalk recently, only thing I use the main site for are convo's as tapatalk won't play nice with those for some reason.

Would like to see the last post by option though, sometimes depending on who has posted I'll ignore a thread for a while

 

[Dan B]

For me it's less about the screen size, more about the performance on bad networks [*]. And I'd quite like some equivalent for the tapatalk "participated"view

[*] Firebug says that the site sends about 14 separate http requests on each page for images and other assets. That's a lot when each tcp connection takes ~ 2 seconds

 

[potsy]

Just been reminded of how buggy the reply editor is, looks like my post count will be going down a lot until it's sorted

 

[BigonaBianchi]

I have never used taptalk ..I only access this and other forums via the browser on my laptop and mostly my phone...no real issues.