Site News - TapaTalk, Mobile App, Attachments (4 Viewers)

[Tommy]

TapaTalk has been officially removed today.

After the recent site move and forum software upgrade, the outdated TapaTalk add-on I was holding onto needed to be updated. After the update, all the features and options that I pay TapaTalk monthly for stopped working.

What are these features?

1) By default, TapaTalk forces users to host attachments on their servers. While that may sound like they are doing the forum owners a great service by saving us server storage space, it is a way for them to hold hundreds is not thousands of your attachments hostage and keep myself (and other site owners) from uninstalling their add-on. Remove TapaTalk, and lose your forum attachments!

They started doing this sometime last year without any notification. As soon as I found out, I paid the monthly fee to have the option to disable it. No attachments will be lost!

2) Remember those "Sent from my blah blah blah device using Tapatalk" post signatures? We used to be able to disable those on the server side but they removed that option and we had to pay to get it back.

3) Just recently I found out that TapaTalk added their own chat feature which is branded on top of PCF and its content without notice, consent, or ability to disable it. This is the straw that broke the camels back. This person hit the nail on the head...

The main problem I foresee is that the TT-controlled chatroom essentially hijacks your site's mobile users to drive traffic away from your site to a section controlled by TT, and may result in 'vendor lock-in' quickly. I doubt such an advantage wouldnt eventually be leveraged by TT. At that level, they're pretty much creating a social network overnight

So what now?

There are about 28 members using TapaTalk. For now, please try using the web browser on your mobile device. It works well.

A native PCF mobile app will be available soon for iOS and Android. The iOS version will be out first then Android a little bit later. I'm happy to pay for such apps and not have the content here hijacked or risk privacy and security issues by using TapaTalk.


Members with 10+ posts can now upload attachments in their PMs aka Conversations.

 

[moose]

Tapatalk made it easy for me to post photos taken on my phone though. This is the main reason I was using Tapatalk. The PCF app has to have this functionality

 

[David O]

TapaTalk has been officially removed today.

After the recent site move and forum software upgrade, the outdated TapaTalk add-on I was holding onto needed to be updated. After the update, all the features and options that I pay TapaTalk monthly for stopped working.

What are these features?

1) By default, TapaTalk forces users to host attachments on their servers. While that may sound like they are doing the forum owners a great service by saving us server storage space, it is a way for them to hold hundreds is not thousands of your attachments hostage and keep myself (and other site owners) from uninstalling their add-on. Remove TapaTalk, and lose your forum attachments!

They started doing this sometime last year without any notification. As soon as I found out, I paid the monthly fee to have the option to disable it. No attachments will be lost!

2) Remember those "Sent from my blah blah blah device using Tapatalk" post signatures? We used to be able to disable those on the server side but they removed that option and we had to pay to get it back.

3) Just recently I found out that TapaTalk added their own chat feature which is branded on top of PCF and its content without notice, consent, or ability to disable it. That is the straw that broke the camels back. This person hit the nail on the head...




So what now?

There are about 28 members using TapaTalk. For now, please try using the web browser on your mobile device. It works well.

A native PCF mobile app will be available soon for iOS and Android. The iOS version will be out first then Android a little bit later. I'm happy to pay for such apps and not have the content here hijacked or risk privacy and security issues with using TapaTalk.


Members with 10+ posts can now upload attachments in their PMs aka Conversations.

I am one of the TT users and really liked it for a while. I guess the only thing I will miss are the pop up alerts on my phone. I do agree we would hate to see our uploads being held hostage.

I cannot wait to see the app you are speaking of. I also like that we can now upload pictures in to the PM's instead of having to host the image somewhere. These are all great moves!

Thank you,
David O

 

[chkmte]

That's interesting. I DL'ed TT last night. Today it quit working. Now I know why.

 

[Tommy]

post photos taken on my phone though

No problem.

pop up alerts on my phone

It will have push notifications.

 

[David O]

No problem.

View attachment 55482



It will have push notifications.

I am ready. Beta testers?

 

[Ben]

Historically I used TT a lot but pretty much stopped just in the past couple of weeks (really needed to see all notifications immediately for a bit, then never went back) so not sure if I counted as one of the 28 or not. The main advantage was very easy pic uploading from a phone so I hope that can be worked out in the new app. Otherwise, good riddance!

And THANKS for the ability to upload pics directly in PMs - I've wished for that several times.

 

[abby99]

I've uploaded several photos from my phone and thought it was very easy, or at least as easy as posting them from my laptop. I have a Note 4 and have a shortcut to PCF using Chrome. (y) :thumbsup:

@Tommy, I especially appreciate the ability to upload photos in conversations.

 

[Tommy]

Uploading photos from your device is simple too.

 

[jbutler]

Loved using tapatalk, really dislike using the web version on mobile, but looking forward to trying the app when released.

 

[Ben]

Testing (also shameless plug for set in classifieds )

Edit: interface was easy (not quite as easy as TT, but easy.) Took forever to upload - could be current connection, possibly...

 

[bergs]

Count me in for beta testers. I don't like the experience via mobile browser and loved TT, but I appreciate Tommy's openness around the decision to drop it. He obviously cares about the site and the content (and the users) and I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that we appreciate his diligence with this.

 

[Chicken Rob]

I switched from TT to my mobile browser a long time ago.

Looking forward to the new app.

 

[Ronoh]

Loved using tapatalk, really dislike using the web version on mobile, but looking forward to trying the app when released.

This

Count me in for beta testers. I don't like the experience via mobile browser and loved TT, but I appreciate Tommy's openness around the decision to drop it. He obviously cares about the site and the content (and the users) and I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that we appreciate his diligence with this.

And this

Looking forward to the app

 

[moose]

Ok seems to work. Thanks for the instructions Tommy.

 

[MegaTon44]

What the hell am I going to do without the little orange Tapatalk notification light on my phone? I can't imagine how much pointless shit I won't see real-time.

 

[TheBigTater]

Wondered why my TT stopped working today. Like TT for the ability to view multiple forums in one place, but would rather use an app than the mobile page.

 

[Payback]

TT user here as I use it for several others forum as well so it's nice that they are all together. As long as another app is coming I'm good with that so when it gets to semi usable then count me in. Until then...ugh.

 

[dew4au]

TT is a nice to have, not a have to have. Some forums I'm on use it, some don't. I stopped using it years ago when mobile browsers got to th point where they could handle forum tasks. This site in particular is very friendly for mobile and I see no need for TT.

 

[Puggy]

Thanks Tommy. Stop. Uninstalling TT. Stop. Using browser. Stop. Looking forward for the new app. - message ended

 

[catalyzeme]

I am (or was, now) a TT user and I much prefer it to the browser, since I am constantly using the browser for other things. I appreciate the openness though and will be happy to download a dedicated app in the future!

 

[hod]

Sounds well thought out to me. I ditched tapatalk a few years back when they changed the viewing format. Always surprised me how profit driven they were, as opposed to balancing that with what users wanted more. I never found an alternative app I liked that did a (simple) similar thing.

Looking forward to the pcf app though.

 

[moojersey]

Glad I saw this thread I was just about to ask about TapaTalk. Totally understand your concerns Tommy.

I was wondering why my TT stopped working. I use TT almost exclusively because I jump around several forums and TT makes it easy to keep up with them all. I am def looking forward to the PCF mobile app. If you need beta testers, I'd def be in for that.

 

[moojersey]

It is definitely not as easy or nice to look at PCF using Safari, but I'm sure I'll make do

 

[detroitdad]

It is definitely not as easy or nice to look at PCF using Safari, but I'm sure I'll make do

I use FF to access the web version on my phone and it works/looks fine.

 

[links_slayer]

I never cared for the TapaTalk experience much. I've had no issues using Safari on my phone or tablet. Interested to see what the PCF app will look like!

 

[CdnBeerLover]

I switched from TT to Chrome on my phone and tablet after the last major site upgrade, and never saw a need to go back. Interested in seeing what the Android app will be like.

 

[atomiktoaster]

I've been using Chrome on mobile for photo uploads instead of TT lately. Push notifications are super nice when I'm after something on the classifieds or doing a lot of PMs. Glad they'll be available in the app.

 

[k9dr]

Push notifications were all I was using Tapatalk for - then I would access the site on the mobile browser.

 

[Poker Zombie]

I use Chrome on my iPad. I'm sure it's the same experience using Safari, but I like having my bookmarks available the same way on every device. It allows me to bounce around different forums and frequently visited webpages with ninja-like agility. TT was no longer useful.