Done with Tapatalk

[GP403]

So, for the time being, I am uninstalling Tapatalk from this site. I know there are several of you who use it, but here are the reasons, short and sweet:

1. I've never been comfortable with this 3rd party app having more-or-less complete control of the forum database. Never.
2. Today I tried to visit the site on my iPad. EVERY SINGLE TIME I was met with a full-screen banner for the Tapatalk app. This is me, as the admin, logged in, and instead of seeing my site, I see their ****ing advertisement. Now, Since I've installed support for the app (back in early 2013 IIRC), I've noticed that mobile views on the site have gone up as a percentage of total views, while overall traffic has gone down. I have a suspicion that this "takeover" by the tapatalk ads may have something to do with this.

So, I will leave it disabled for at least one month, maybe two. I want to see if there is any significant change in site statistics with it gone. Like I said, I know several of you use it, but I fear that the percentage of pure mobile device views is so outweighing it, that the interference by the app's full-screen crap is scaring more people off than are actually using it.

I believe the site to be fully usable on your browser on your mobile device. If you notice any complete disfunction, on any mobile device**, please let me know immediately, the last thing I want is to make the site inaccessible, and I believe that tapatalk has been doing just that.... I need to make this test to know for sure.


** obviously I'm only talking about devices that are meant to be used this way. IOS, Android, Windows, possibly Blackberry but I have no reference for this..... Your 2008 flip phone doesn't count 😛

 

[84sscutty]

I tried it over a month ago and didn't keep it for a day, I did not like it. I got on the the site last night from my phone and was met with said banner after a couple minutes of browsing.

 

[82GPLJ455]

I dont use it.only time i see the banner for it is when my phone decides i should be using the mobile version of the site.if youre worried about losing members itmay be due to all the ads.everytime i load a page here its like 30 seconds of the page jumping around rhe screen while loading.try to touch a topic to open it and end up opening an ad or a topic at the bottom of the list instead of what i wanted to open.i end up getting pissed of and going to another site thats easier to use.

I know the ads are needed to help pay for the site but theres too many and make the pages look cluttered.

 

[GP403]

I dont use it.only time i see the banner for it is when my phone decides i should be using the mobile version of the site.if youre worried about losing members itmay be due to all the ads.everytime i load a page here its like 30 seconds of the page jumping around rhe screen while loading.try to touch a topic to open it and end up opening an ad or a topic at the bottom of the list instead of what i wanted to open.i end up getting pissed of and going to another site thats easier to use.

I know the ads are needed to help pay for the site but theres too many and make the pages look cluttered.

You talking about the small tapatalk banner (at the top of the page) or the one that totally takes over the page? I really don't mind the small one. That's the one I signed up to see. Its the full-screen one that is definitely not what I expect to see, and is really off-putting IMO. There's no indication you're on the right site at all, and when you try to close it, nothing much happens.

As for the ads, I'm rolling out a membership option where you can get rid of the 3rd party ads, and all you'll see is two supporting vendor ads at the top of the page and nothing else. Otherwise, not sure what else to say. Its the way of things.

phpBB just made a major update to their software, and when the release stabilizes a bit, I'll move over to that, and/or a different theme, or go all in and move to vBulletin or Xenforo. Either way, the "responsiveness" of the site on mobile platforms should improve then. The site as it is is based on an old theme that's been hacked together over the years.

 

[Blake442]

I access the site on my phone 95% of the time and that banner across the top was driving me out of my mind!
Everytime I came to a page I had to wait and wait for it to load 100% so the banner could pop up.
If I tried to click whatever I wanted before it was fully loaded, it would wait, then the banner would pop up, shifting the page down and selecting a different item. Then I got to go back and do it over again...

I even tried installing it in the hopes of making the banner go away.
I browsed around for about 20 minutes and uninstalled it. Garbage.
Maybe it's better on other devices, but it sucked on my windows phone...

Good riddance I say!

 

[88hurstolds]

Aside from the Taptalk this site has become too busy to visit on a cellphone, rather a pain if you ask me... Ad overload and touching one wrong spot on my phone can lead to a maze of misery with the ads... I get it that you want to reap all the benefits with Google ads and make some extra money but man I am at my wits end...
What's with the pop up asking me to log in or join? That's extremely offensive and screws up my whole experience in two ways.
1. If I don't log in then I can't use the back button on my browser, did you plan that????
2. Completely screws up my cell phone to the point where I want to throw it against the wall... and I have a huge Note 4.

 

[GP403]

Aside from the Taptalk this site has become too busy to visit on a cellphone, rather a pain if you ask me... Ad overload and touching one wrong spot on my phone can lead to a maze of misery with the ads... I get it that you want to reap all the benefits with Google ads and make some extra money but man I am at my wits end...
What's with the pop up asking me to log in or join? That's extremely offensive and screws up my whole experience in two ways.
1. If I don't log in then I can't use the back button on my browser, did you plan that????
2. Completely screws up my cell phone to the point where I want to throw it against the wall... and I have a huge Note 4.

See my reply to your post in Forum Support. The back button should always work, its not supposed to act that way. The registration popup should only show up to "guest" users once, or once in 30 days or something not offensive. That's a new thing, and if its not working correctly, I need to fix it.

I get the increased need for being more usable on mobile devices. The forum software was never built with that in mind, and the themes are practically impossible to get to play nice. Like I said above, once phpBB 3.1 gets a bit more stable, I'll be upgrading, and hopefully then I can find a new theme that is "responsive" and plays nice on a little tiny screen. But, there's just too much information on any given forum page to really make that possible.

If you can be more specific in your other thread, we can figure out what's breaking it....

 

[GP403]

This is what I see on my iPhone 5s



and my iPad mini...



I'll fire up the old 7" Galaxy Tab 2 tonight and do the same. If you all are seeing something markedly different than I am, I really really would like to know. I think it comes across quite usable and readable....

EDIT: Yes, I realize there are fewer ads in my screen shots. What you're seeing there is the new "Silver" option. It still isn't much different.

 

[88hurstolds]

The issues with the ads it that sometimes they don't fully load and when you go to click on a post reply or whatever you really are clicking on the ad.

 

[liquidh8]

TBH, I love the tapatalk interface with my android device. Browsing the site from the web from my phone is a hassle, I won't do it. I don't hardly visit maliburacing anymore since there is no tapatalk. I will still come here, don't get me wrong, I love this site, just less often now. Since I would browse on my phone whenever I was just farting around. Browsing and replying on the forum is a pain in the rear on a phone.