Tapatalk Forum App for xenForo - iOS / Android / Windows Phone Mobile App [Deleted]

[dvsDave]

I can use a google query like https://www.google.com/#q=controlbooth.com+site:tapatalk.com, and I see a list of content that, frankly has no rhyme or reason to it.

@tapatalk really needs to respond here with what is actually going on and why there was no clear communication about this BEFORE it was implemented.

Update:
https://www.tapatalk.com/topic/106 <- this appears to be an activity feed of some content on my site.

The page that describes this option: https://blog.tapatalk.com/tapatalk-seo-monetization-update/ says that you can disable this feature for $10 a month.

Let me get this straight... I have to pay you ten bucks a month to keep you from copying my content to your site (which has your ads on it). Frankly, not sure how this is legal. Looks like extortion to me.

I understand that they are trying to make money, but this is insane. Just kill the free option and make Tapatalk $10 a month period. They did not obtain prior authorization to use this content, and I'm seriously considering a DMCA takedown request.

 

[SneakyDave]

Did a search for my userid on Tapatalk, and found this. Screen scraping XenForo.com?

https://www.tapatalk.com/topic/7738-156192

Forum has a lot of XenForo threads copied, posted by guest usernames from here
http://dbd.tapatest.com/testforum/xf/140/index.php?forums/s-ub1.3/

 

[ŽivaAkcija]

so tapatalk stalking people, is there any slasher to keep eye on us?

 

[Amin Sabet]

It's the only conclusion I can see. I removed the plugin in May, 2 months before this was announced. I also unpublished my site then as well. So the only possibility is that they were collecting this data way before this announcement.

Did any of the content they collected happen after the announcement? In other words, are any of your threads from June-September copied to Tapatalk.com? I'm wondering if they continue to copy sites after the plugin is removed.

 

[Amin Sabet]

Your link is for Tapatalk, but when I click it, it immediately redirects here: https://www.talkemount.com/threads/how-to-tame-a-dragon.15259/ Is that not the original content?... But everything else redirected to the original content. So...what is the issue exactly?... What am I missing?

They did those redirects after I made the post that you are quoting. After I complained and posted here. Those links were to pages on Tapatalk.com where in many cases whole threads were copied and displayed along with ads to enrich Tapatalk.

Here's an example of a thread they copied from Pentax forums: https://www.tapatalk.com/topic/326959-1876

As you can see, it's not one sentence and a word. It's most of the thread. And in many cases, I found that they copied and republished the whole thread.

Even the redirects are problematic though. Google tends to punish any form of SEO which is perceived as unnatural, ie not organic. Thousands of Tapatalk results being indexed and redirecting to my sites is highly unnatural, and I can get dinged for that.

I have asked Tapatalk to remove, not redirect those pages. I want those Tapatalk URLs to return a 404. Only then will I be assured that the harm to my sites has been contained to the extent possible. So far they have not responded to that request. I will be sure to update this thread when they do.

 

[Digital Jedi]

Even the redirects are problematic though. Google tends to punish any form of SEO which is perceived as unnatural, ie not organic. Thousands of Tapatalk results being indexed and redirecting to my sites is highly unnatural, and I can get dinged for that.

How would that be different from syndicated content?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Even the redirects are problematic though. Google tends to punish any form of SEO which is perceived as unnatural, ie not organic. Thousands of Tapatalk results being indexed and redirecting to my sites is highly unnatural, and I can get dinged for that.

I never thought of it this way and I can't disagree. Tapatalk really screwed the pooch here. They turned their mobile app into a web version of the app essentially, I noticed this a long time ago, like early 2016 and didn't think anything of it because I thought it was just my "feed" when I was logged in. Now I can see this is not the case. Because you don't have to be logged into a particular site via TT in the mobile app in order to see content either...

Another example of how TT "tries" to make their product better for their users by screwing the site owners.

 

[dvsDave]

Tapatalk support got back to me on the ticket I opened.

All sites, including in the Free Tier, can remove the SEO option in the Tapatalk Dashboard at anytime. I just disabled the setting for your site.

Within a couple of hours, the links will redirect to your site. And in a few days Google will clear the redirect links will be cleared by Google.

and I can confirm that the tapatalk link now goes directly to my site. I'm still closing down my account.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

According to this

Google has announced that web content content from indexed in apps will be featured more prominently in search. Tapatalk was one of the first apps included in Google’s app indexing program, and is a Google Featured App.

For more information also see the Tapatalk Blog and Google Webmaster Blog

The dashboard below provides a snapshot of your App Indexing status and potential action steps.

Please note that it takes 7-10 days for updates from Google to be reflected in the dashboard. (Index Status, Verification requests to be sent)

Helpful Hints

• Make sure you update the Tapatalk Plug-in
• Make sure your domain is claimed on Google Search Console
• For a step-by-step Guide to the SEO Dashboard go to Tapatalk Knowledge Base

doesn't that pretty much say that this will help SEO? Also on mine it shows SEO Status as "verification not sent" does that mean that there isn't any mirrored content?

Now I'm confused about what is bad and good and ugly or pretty.

 

[ŽivaAkcija]

I hope @Slavik orange room will be ready for android in 3-4 month, i use tapatalk om my forum before one years ago and its so buged to hell.

 

[dknife]

Tapatalk support got back to me on the ticket I opened.

and I can confirm that the tapatalk link now goes directly to my site. I'm still closing down my account.

I don't have this option anywhere. I looked as soon as I saw what they'd done. Could you screenshot where you see it?

 

[m1ne]

I don't have this option anywhere. I looked as soon as I saw what they'd done. Could you screenshot where you see it?

Sites > "Your Site" > Monetization Settings > Tapatalk.com SEO and Ads

 

[dknife]

Sites > "Your Site" > Monetization Settings > Tapatalk.com SEO and Ads

I don't see that there. Likely because:

Warning! This site is currently unpublished from Tapatalk, some settings are disabled until the site is returned to Published state.

However, I can't publish it unless I reinstall and activate the plugin on my site. How nice of them to hide that setting huh?

 

[m1ne]

However, I can't publish it unless I reinstall and activate the plugin on my site. How nice of them to hide that setting huh?

I think if you've removed it, they will also remove any mirrored content. Maybe.

 

[dvsDave]

I don't see that there. Likely because:

However, I can't publish it unless I reinstall and activate the plugin on my site. How nice of them to hide that setting huh?

Open up a support ticket with them. I opened my ticket around midnight last night and heard back this morning.

 

[dknife]

I think if you've removed it, they will also remove any mirrored content. Maybe.

I mentioned earlier but I removed the plug in and unpublished the site in May. This update apparently happened in July. The content shouldn't even be there let alone maybe they'll remove it.

Open up a support ticket with them. I opened my ticket around midnight last night and heard back this morning.

I submitted a ticket yesterday, no response yet.

 

[Amin Sabet]

Tapatalk support got back to me on the ticket I opened.

and I can confirm that the tapatalk link now goes directly to my site. I'm still closing down my account.

But those redirect links to your site are not good for you either, for the reasons I discussed earlier in the thread. And there is no reason whatsoever to believe them when they say that Google will drop those pages from the index within a few days. They have absolutely no control over that.

What they can do - but repeatedly ignore my requests to do - is delete the copied pages from their website so that they return a 404 Error in Google. That is the best way for them to undo the damage.

According to this

doesn't that pretty much say that this will help SEO? Also on mine it shows SEO Status as "verification not sent" does that mean that there isn't any mirrored content?

That is something else. That page and your verification not sent are referring to deep linking in the app. In other words, Google indexing the app content so that if someone has the app installed, your content that has been indexed from within the app will rank high on that person's mobile search. That is something Tapatalk says is good for SEO, and that may be true.

But the fact that they are re-publishing your content on their website, putting ads on it, and linking to you from there is unrelated to the deep app linking. It's another completely separate issue which they are also saying is good for your SEO but almost certainly isn't.

 

[SneakyDave]

Bottom line is, if Tapatalk says it's good for your site, it means that it's only good for THEIR site

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Thanks for that @Amin Sabet

 

[karll]

Sites > "Your Site" > Monetization Settings > Tapatalk.com SEO and Ads

I can confirm that this does the trick.

I'll be removing the TT add-on and all its files in the near future. I'm just not comfortable with this add-on any more. It's a shame, because the TT app works quite well on my low-spec, outdated mobile phone, but now it's time to upgrade!