ANNOUNCEMENT Status of Tapatalk

Jman423

Original poster
Administrator
Mar 24, 2014
1,874
United States
In the recent days, Tapatalk has made changes to their offerings for forum owners. They have disabled some features that we've had access to (for free) for years now, and they're holding those options ransom for a monthly subscription fee.

At the moment, it's only a few features... but this is most likely the beginning of an expensive, already unnecessary add-on for our community. Taptalk often causes problems for mobile users and limits them from accessing all the features our site has to offer. Polls aren't supported, third-party add-ons, prefixes, the gallery, the upcoming member map, and other features are also unsupported. Our lack of support for the product, the limitation of the features, and now Tapatalk holding site admin features hostage for a monthly fee... we don't feel it is necessary to continue offering it.

Tapatalk also displays small advertisements on our behalf, and they take a percentage of our income, which typically nets us about $10/mo depending on usage stats. They're getting too greedy and it could potentially get worse.

Our statistics show that right around 27 members use Tapatalk on a daily basis. We're hoping that, even though those members are fond of and comfortable with Tapatalk, they'll give our new responsive mobile style a chance. We know there will be some unhappy members of that small group of active members that use Tapatalk, so let's discuss it here.

What are your thoughts?
 

BlazingTrails

Member
Apr 27, 2014
19,409
I am more than willing to give the new mobile site a try. Tapatalk is a very simple, user friendly interface. The mobile site was just horrible to use imo and it was difficult to find things and navigate. I hope that the new site is a big improvement.

It sounds as though you just sealed tapatalk' doom?
 

Jman423

Original poster
Administrator
Mar 24, 2014
1,874
United States
I am more than willing to give the new mobile site a try. Tapatalk is a very simple, user friendly interface. The mobile site was just horrible to use imo and it was difficult to find things and navigate. I hope that the new site is a big improvement.

It sounds as though you just sealed tapatalk' doom?
I would have had no intention of removing Tapatalk if they had kept things they way they were. That's why I reinstalled it here after the migration, or I wouldn't have bothered. They already stick their hands in the pockets of forum owners to take ad revenue, now they want to charge for basic options and control of the system on our site.

Do you disagree?

I think you guys know we love installing things that help members enjoy using our site and make it more useful for the community.
 

littleblazer

Member
Jul 6, 2014
9,265
The mobile site was such a pain that I used to open the full site on my phone... that was much better imo. I haven't checked it out yet though.
 
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BlazingTrails

Member
Apr 27, 2014
19,409
I would have had no intention of removing Tapatalk if they had kept things they way they were. That's why I reinstalled it here after the migration, or I wouldn't have bothered. They already stick their hands in the pockets of forum owners to take ad revenue, now they want to charge for basic options and control of the system on our site.

Do you disagree?

I think you guys know we love installing things that help members enjoy using our site and make it more useful for the community.


I can definitely see your point, and I agree, but I can also understand from their side too. Nobody writes software to give it away for free, after beta releases and testing is time to make some money. I say If it's a reasonable cost why not, on the other hand if they are costing a fortune forget about it.

That's not my decision to make, and after I try out the new mobile forum I may enjoy that experience better and not care about tapatalk.

Either way I'm not going anywhere :smile:
 
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Sparky

Member
Dec 4, 2011
12,927
FWIW with my limited testing (only a short while earlier today) the new software seems a little more mobile friendly. I have no tapa experience (never bothered given so many issues it has that people always complained about) so I can't really compare.
 
Dec 13, 2013
1,490
Osceola,Ia
Tapa is nice for the push notifications. Not having to go through email notifications is simpler. If there would happen to be an app for Gmtn with push notifications, that would be ideal. But yeah just my .02
 

Mounce

Member
Mar 29, 2014
13,667
Tuscaloosa, AL
Tapa is my preferred mode of viewing but if they want to be difficult I can understand if it has to be removed.

Would be better if they charged us, the users, a one time fee to purchase the app than for them to continually nickel and dime the forums. I know they used to have a pro version. I guess they make more charging the forums for features than they'd make selling the app.
 

Jman423

Original poster
Administrator
Mar 24, 2014
1,874
United States
That was my though too... charge a dollar or two for the apps, or add features that can be purchased buy the users. The forum owners are the ones that are installing this software that allows them to sell ads to a giant network of users, and they make plenty of profit that way.

All that aside, if Tapatalk wants to revert to the way it was, we'll stay with it. I just have to wonder if this is step one of a plan to make everyone pay now that they're hooked on it. I was helping the development team with beta testing new builds when Tapatalk was first coming out, and they wanted to charge the forum owners back then... and it backfired on them. They changed their minds and now years later they're trying it again. The first step they can logically take here is to introduce a paid plan and charge for formerly free features, then wait a period of time and say they're discontinuing the free package. That is all speculation of course... but it's a decent possibility.

So, anyway, give the mobile site a try and give us feedback. I have control over improving the mobile site, I have zero control over supporting on customizing Tapatalk.
 

Mounce

Member
Mar 29, 2014
13,667
Tuscaloosa, AL
Went to go to the mobile site, looked at the full site via phone just to see how it handled it, now can't find the button to get back to mobile. It's scaled to fit a phone but it has everything that the full site via computer has, is that what I'm supposed to be seeing on the mobile site? Total mass confusion here lol. I know on the old mobile site there was a button at the bottom of the page that you could hit to switch between full and mobile, not finding one now.

Here's what I'm seeing..
 

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Jman423

Original poster
Administrator
Mar 24, 2014
1,874
United States
Went to go to the mobile site, looked at the full site via phone just to see how it handled it, now can't find the button to get back to mobile. It's scaled to fit a phone but it has everything that the full site via computer has, is that what I'm supposed to be seeing on the mobile site? Total mass confusion here lol. I know on the old mobile site there was a button at the bottom of the page that you could hit to switch between full and mobile, not finding one now.

Here's what I'm seeing..
What you're seeing is the mobile site. If you take a regular PC browser and slowly shrink the window... you will see it go through a few transformations until the window is as small as a typical smartphone screen, at which point it is the final mobile product. There is absolutely no difference between the full site and the mobile site, just a "responsive" design that loads everything to fit the current "browser window". That's what makes it so nice, all site features are available, although a few aspects and menus may look a bit different to save space on your screen, it will all be there.

What you see in that screenshot is exactly what I want you to see. My question is... do you like that?
 

littleblazer

Member
Jul 6, 2014
9,265
It's not all that bad. I just checked it out actually.
 

djthumper

Administrator
Nov 20, 2011
14,950
North Las Vegas
When I started on Tapa I had to pay for it. They changed it to free and now they want to charge site owners.
 

Mounce

Member
Mar 29, 2014
13,667
Tuscaloosa, AL
What you're seeing is the mobile site. If you take a regular PC browser and slowly shrink the window... you will see it go through a few transformations until the window is as small as a typical smartphone screen, at which point it is the final mobile product. There is absolutely no difference between the full site and the mobile site, just a "responsive" design that loads everything to fit the current "browser window". That's what makes it so nice, all site features are available, although a few aspects and menus may look a bit different to save space on your screen, it will all be there.

What you see in that screenshot is exactly what I want you to see. My question is... do you like that?

Oh I gotcha, I just assumed I got on the full site but since the full site is the mobile site, we're good lol.

And I mean, yeah I like it. After browsing a few minutes and making one post then editing it the only thing I don't like is that when you go to type in the text box it jumps off screen then you have to get it back on screen if you want to review what you typed and if you need to retype something it wanders off again. This happens as the key board pops up, as in, the page scrolls up as the keyboard comes up.
 

Jman423

Original poster
Administrator
Mar 24, 2014
1,874
United States
Oh I gotcha, I just assumed I got on the full site but since the full site is the mobile site, we're good lol.

And I mean, yeah I like it. After browsing a few minutes and making one post then editing it the only thing I don't like is that when you go to type in the text box it jumps off screen then you have to get it back on screen if you want to review what you typed and if you need to retype something it wanders off again. This happens as the key board pops up, as in, the page scrolls up as the keyboard comes up.

I'll look into this and see if there something I can do to fix it. It could be your phone's browser, but if it is something I can tweak, I will.
 

Eric04

Member
Dec 3, 2014
392
West Michigan
I've never been that fond of Tapa but used it because it was the fastest interface for a lazy user. I'll go ahead and uninstall the app and just use the mobile site. Definitely not worth paying more for what Tapa offered, IMO.

****
After using the new mobile site for a bit I can say I definitely like it. Very nice.
 
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Darkrider_LS

Member
Jan 25, 2013
9,332
I remember when we tried the mobile site idea before. My phone flat out didn't like them. Now granted that was with the pos Sony I had at the time on 4g...this Motorola on 3g seems a bit more forgiving.
 

HARDTRAILZ

Moderator
Nov 18, 2011
49,665
Please kill Tapa!
 

Blackwater

Member
Aug 14, 2015
477
Lawton, OK
I'm too new on here to have that experience. FNG
 

Jman423

Original poster
Administrator
Mar 24, 2014
1,874
United States
We have decided, based on staff and member input, to discontinue the use of Tapatalk on our forums. We invite everyone to provide feedback that might make your mobile experience more enjoyable on our responsive mobile template via web browser.
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
Embrace the change! You will survive. I dumped Tapa a long time ago when mobile sites came along. Also found it too buggy.
 
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Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
No more taco neck pics!! :celebrate:
 

xavierny25

Member
Mar 16, 2014
6,323
Staten Island, N.Y
Oh wow. Your right @Blckshdw it didn't taco neck.I was going to post this on what you did to your gmt today yesterday but it taco necked so I didn't bother. :dance: Me likes
 

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Jman423

Original poster
Administrator
Mar 24, 2014
1,874
United States
What Tapatalk can't do, but the mobile style can:
  1. Polls
  2. Prefixes
  3. Smilies (all of them)
  4. Member Map (coming in November)
  5. Gallery (coming soon)
  6. Articles System (coming soon)
  7. Resource Section (coming soon)
  8. Use our extended search system
  9. Display custom navigation links/buttons
  10. ...there's plenty more
Tapatalk also circumvents our advertisements, which are now mobile friendly. We depend on "revenue" to keep the site running and offer the latest and greatest features and web technology we can.

Our mobile style is free (because we've already paid for our site's style, and we have control over making changes and providing support. This is not the case with Tapatalk. We can't support, it we can't tweak it to make the user experience better, and we can't control what Tapatalk does to it. They are constantly pushing out new versions of the server-side software and it can be a pain to keep up with the latest version, but if we don't... something may not work for a mobile user.

We'd like to hear your feedback on the mobile style, we can actually do something about that!
 
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HARDTRAILZ

Moderator
Nov 18, 2011
49,665
Woo hoo. Crapatalk is gone! :wink:
 
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BlazingTrails

Member
Apr 27, 2014
19,409
I will make due with the decision that was made, however I have been using tapatalk for a long time and I am disappointing to see it go. I know ultimately it is tapatalk' fault for charging too much money, but still.......

The only thing I have really ever disliked about tapatalk was the upload limit size. I usually can't upload a single photo from my phone anymore. But it is simple to navigate, and I am used to it.

It is just like anything else though, no one really likes change but once you get used to the change, it becomes normal.
 
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dmanns67

Member
Apr 3, 2013
32,979
Ohio
Embrace the change! You will survive. I dumped Tapa a long time ago when mobile sites came along. Also found it too buggy.

It is what it is, no big deal. Just have to start getting use to using the mobile site. I also understand the revenue side of things since this site is paid for out of pocket.

@Jman423 , when is GMTN cutting ties with Tapa?
 

Jman423

Original poster
Administrator
Mar 24, 2014
1,874
United States
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Boricua SS

Member
Nov 20, 2011
3,080
Ohio
I haven't been on much lately and hardly contribute anymore since the platform is so old now and almost every single thing has been covered that can be searched for to find your answer instead of making threads if you're not lazy. Plus there's just not as much info/knowledge as ssowners for us SS folks.

That being said, I bought tapatalk specifically for this site when I was in my hayday and posting everyday. Now I use it for ssowners and I used it to lurk on here. It was extremely simple to use. I had to log on here to find out that tapatalk is not offered anymore because I tried using tapatalk and it wasn't working.
Will it make me leave the site? not really. I've been through enough in life and had personal experiences to know that a business and its owners will do what benefits the business and them. Its just the way of life. As stated earlier, 27 members out of the 12-14,000 that are registered, use tapatalk. It's just a no brainer to cut ties with tapatalk and what they were trying to do.

So far from what I've seen on the mobile site, it doesn't bother me. Just have to get used to things again. No biggie.
 

Sib

Member
Sep 6, 2014
3,446
When I first got here, I used the mobile version, but then I switched over to Tapatalk. At first, I wasn't sure about Tapa, but the more I used it the more I became familiar with it, and actually enjoyed it.

I am good either way. The mobile version is nice. I will get used to it. I do appreciate all the hard work that has been spent to make this site that much better.

Thanks to all involved in the process! :tiphat:
 

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