Tapatalk and Forum Runner--what are your thoughts?

jauburn

jauburn

Well-known member
As I consider, yet again, whether to allow these plugins access to my forum, I wonder what your experience with them has been?

In the past, I've used both and was never really quite sure what benefit, if any, they brought.

I do know what downsides they have: namely, they annoy users browsing the normal site from a mobile device with a popup that proclaims their existence. The newest tapatalk, from what I've seen, gets even more annoying, with a banner affixed to the top of your board until you dismiss it.

Thoughts? Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

Do you actually use either of these apps yourself?
 
I think it would be foolish to ignore the apps these days. I have a branded version of tapatalk on my site and it currently counts for about a third of the pageviews. Most of my users are now able to browse the forums from work during the day which has increased posts during these hours.

Regarding the pop up, thats easily disabled in the users cookie preferences on their device.
 
Oh and regarding the new version having a banner on...well I haven't seen this, but I understand tapatalk aren't charging for the app anymore which would account for the banner. Go the BYO option. It's only $40 a month then you get to sell the app yourself which assuming you have a decent sized forum will more than pay for itself and then some.
 
Stevebullman said:
I think it would be foolish to ignore the apps these days. I have a branded version of tapatalk on my site and it currently counts for about a third of the pageviews. Most of my users are now able to browse the forums from work during the day which has increased posts during these hours.

Regarding the pop up, thats easily disabled in the users cookie preferences on their device.
Click to expand...

Appreciate your comments.
 
TapaTalk has become my #1 request .... The request has been to remove it.

It seems the app is to dependent on TapaTalk's own servers. It "calls out".

There was several threads on their support forum on how people's sites kept loading slow, because tapatalk wouldn't load, because tapatalk's servers were offline or slow load. And thus was making their sites slow.

I've been un-installing the app at an alarming rate.
 
The latest Tapatalk iOS app also has a new feature, turned on by default, called 'picks' that drives traffic away from your site. If the users is subscribed to many different sites, the picks will present a consolidated list of 'intelligent' discussions from all subscribed sites, potentially diluting your site and driving the user to read and stay at another site - instead of coming to yours and staying.
It's now all about driving and maximising revenue for Tapatalk, rather than enabling a unique user experience for users.
 
Mouth said:
The latest Tapatalk iOS app also has a new feature, turned on by default, called 'picks' that drives traffic away from your site. If the users is subscribed to many different sites, the picks will present a consolidated list of 'intelligent' discussions from all subscribed sites, potentially diluting your site and driving the user to read and stay at another site - instead of coming to yours and staying.
It's now all about driving and maximising revenue for Tapatalk, rather than enabling a unique user experience for users.
Click to expand...

Why wouldn't they want to maximise revenue? Its their business and it has to build revenue. If people aren't happy piggy backing on tapatalk the answer is quite simple, get the BYO app which is pennies then its all yours including the revenue! Alternatively anyone is welcome to spend thousands of their own dollars developing their own app

If anyone wants to have a look at my BYO iphone app, i'm happy to give away a couple of free promo codes for it.
 
Hey Steve, do you have ads in your BYO ? My users definitely miss our own app since we left vbulletin , but I can't justify a cost of 500$ per year for it easily, especially now that we have responsive design. Do you use ads in your app? do they cover some of the app's cost at all?
 
Ok when I had my BYO before with vbulletin (forumrunner) I had around 1.000 installations in both android and iOS, but I was giving away the app for free, and I don't think I'd like to charge it.
 
Dakis said:
Ok when I had my BYO before with vbulletin (forumrunner) I had around 1.000 installations in both android and iOS, but I was giving away the app for free, and I don't think I'd like to charge it.
Click to expand...
i've not had a single complaint from people regarding the cost....i'd find it hard to keep a straight face if someone did actually complain about such a meagre sum anyway! Its there as an option, if they don't want to pay they are welcome to use the regular forum all they want :)
 
Stevebullman said:
Yes, and more. On average I suppose I sell about 3-4 a day. Yesterday I sold 9.

This is based on a forum of 16,741 registered members, with average new registrations per day at approximately 12. Hope this helps
Click to expand...

Did you buy the subscription to sell just on ios or also android? Which platform sells more if you bought the higher priced subscription?
 

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