Tapatalk Forum App for xenForo - iOS / Android / Windows Phone Mobile App [Deleted]
- Thread starter tapatalk
- Start date
melbo
Well-known member
My removal of TT had nothing to do with revenue.
Tapatalk began to email ALL of my members with a 'Likes you've received, click here to download Tapatalk' solicitation email. This went out to members who don't even own smartphones and I was accused of selling or sharing my member list by some of our members. They mined my entire member database without my knowledge and began to use this list of usernames and email addresses to try to sell their app.
Tapatalk began to email ALL of my members with a 'Likes you've received, click here to download Tapatalk' solicitation email. This went out to members who don't even own smartphones and I was accused of selling or sharing my member list by some of our members. They mined my entire member database without my knowledge and began to use this list of usernames and email addresses to try to sell their app.
MySiteGuy
Well-known member
Don't assume you know anyone's situation, thank you. I acquired some of my forums with TT already installed and an existing TT user base. I turned it off immediately, met with huge protest from a small but vocal group of users, and turned it back on.
Additionally Tapatalk "then" is not the same TT we have now. Over the passing years they have had a horrible security track record, poor coding and QA, disregard for forum owners, deceptive monetization practices and shody customer service. Over time the reasons to remove it have gone from a few to many, compelling enough now to risk losing the small but vocal group who uses it on my sites.
The problem here is you lump everyone in one category. This is more than a single issue of revenue, at least in my case. Read the thread again, there are many issues.
No.....
(a) Tapatalk tries to promote competing forums to my users
(b) the forum loses it's "flavor" and instead of being something on it's own merit it becomes a co-branded product with Tapatalk being the primary brand
(c) I'm tired of all the updates because of buggy code, security issues and lack of QA
(d) I'm tired of putting support tickets and waiting a week for a reply (by then I've usually resolved their bugs myself)
(e) in reference to security issues half the time they don't even bother to tell their site owners, leaving them vulnerable
I suggest you take it at face value some of us don't want or like the product in it's current forum, instead of trying to convince us it's our fault for using a product which later turned sour. Do you blame the person who bought a car when it later turns out to be a lemon?
raytrails
Well-known member
Well said, @ftsservice
tapatalk
Well-known member
We received similar suggestions from other site owners and we are going to update the plugin to add a Settings so that you can decide whether you want to enable it to all users or just Tapatalk users, or completely turning it off.
Currently you can disable the full screen message in the AdminCP - we are actually in the process of removing it entirely just to be sure it won't affect your SEO ranking at all, and as part of transition to fully support the Google App Indexing as well.
Both of these will appear in the upcoming plugin update which is currently in regression testing.
- Winter
Mouth
Well-known member
Should have been done this way from the beginning, and default to off completely unless specifically wanted/activated by the site owner.
Too late, and too many times, tapatalk have disregarded site owners and remembering who owns the content. Any and all trust is gone, tapatalk is toxic when speaking with site owners.
tapatalk
Well-known member
We (Tapatalk) are going to try be more responsive to questions on this board. There are a lot of questions, and misperceptions about Tapatalk, and hope improved communications will help.
Since this is a 55-page thread, we can't answer all the issues raised in this thread, but let me tackle a few of the more recent concerns.
Monetization
A couple of years ago, the most frequent concern we heard from site owners was the opportunity cost of Tapatalk. “If a member viewed content of my site on Tapatalk, then that was one less impression on my site and I lost ad revenue.”
That is why we introduced monetization on Tapatalk in early 2014. Because we can aggregate users, we can use that scale to improve monetization. We are currently paying a $1.50 CPM for impressions of your content on Tapatalk and our goal is to have you earn more per user when they view your content on Tapatalk than you can earn on your desktop or mobile site.
For those sites that are large enough to have your own ad sales, we will soon be adding the ability to traffic your ads through DFP. So you have the option to have advertising supplied by Tapatalk at a guaranteed CPM, or your ads through DFP. (And of course, you also have the option to turn off all ads if that is your preference).
Security
Tapatalk has invested heavily in making sure our Plug-In does not create security vulnerabilities for your site. About two years ago, we hired an industry veteran as of VP of Security and Infrastructure who is continually monitoring and reviewing potential vulnerabilities. Just as Apple and Microsoft provide updates based on new threats, we will from time to time making updates to make sure our Plug-In remains secure.
We have over 150,000 installations of our Plug-In and we have been at this for over 5 years, and we do not know of any forum that has been hacked as a result of the Tapatalk Plug-In.
In a day and age where entities like Target, Sony, and the U.S. Dept. of Defense can get hacked, anything is possible, but we are proud of our security efforts, and we are continually updating to make sure we do not create vulnerabilities.
Focus on Forums
Tapatalk's success is directly tied to continued success of forums. We want to make forums continue to relevant as users move to mobile, and as users focus their attention on sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We want and need forums to remain relevant going forward. People have tons of options on how to 1) get new information and 2) socialize on the modern Internet. As a car guy myself, I've seen quality content move from forums to article comments, mobile app chat rooms, Instagram enthusiast accounts, FB groups, and more. We want to work with forums to keep the best content written by the smartest people on forums, where they started.
Over 85% of our users come to Tapatalk already following two or more forums. By making it easy to follow forums on our app, our goal is to have all forums benefit from increased engagement. We focus on ways to engage people back to your site through push notifications, making easier to add content (especially photos), and making it easier for people to find your great content by improving your SEO rankings through Google app indexing.
I know there are individuals who feel that they can wall off their site, and their users will only want to see content from their site. But finding information is just search away, or on a bookmark on a member's browser.
By providing a native app to follow your content, we want to actively engage users so we can keep them coming back to your site, and make forums a relevant alternative to Facebook.
Support
Over the past year, we have increased our support resources, including the introduction of a support ticket system. In general, most tickets and posts are answered in two business days. That time can go up and down, but we do try and answer request in a couple of days. Looking through our support forums and tickets today, most issues have been answered in a couple of business days.
While we will continue to monitor this board, our primary focus is the Tapatalk support tickets. Additional information also available in the Tapatalk Support Forums.
XF Support xenForo Discussion | Tapatalk - Community Chat & Support
General Site Owner Discussion Community Chat and Support | Tapatalk - Community Chat & Support
Eric
Since this is a 55-page thread, we can't answer all the issues raised in this thread, but let me tackle a few of the more recent concerns.
Monetization
A couple of years ago, the most frequent concern we heard from site owners was the opportunity cost of Tapatalk. “If a member viewed content of my site on Tapatalk, then that was one less impression on my site and I lost ad revenue.”
That is why we introduced monetization on Tapatalk in early 2014. Because we can aggregate users, we can use that scale to improve monetization. We are currently paying a $1.50 CPM for impressions of your content on Tapatalk and our goal is to have you earn more per user when they view your content on Tapatalk than you can earn on your desktop or mobile site.
For those sites that are large enough to have your own ad sales, we will soon be adding the ability to traffic your ads through DFP. So you have the option to have advertising supplied by Tapatalk at a guaranteed CPM, or your ads through DFP. (And of course, you also have the option to turn off all ads if that is your preference).
Security
Tapatalk has invested heavily in making sure our Plug-In does not create security vulnerabilities for your site. About two years ago, we hired an industry veteran as of VP of Security and Infrastructure who is continually monitoring and reviewing potential vulnerabilities. Just as Apple and Microsoft provide updates based on new threats, we will from time to time making updates to make sure our Plug-In remains secure.
We have over 150,000 installations of our Plug-In and we have been at this for over 5 years, and we do not know of any forum that has been hacked as a result of the Tapatalk Plug-In.
In a day and age where entities like Target, Sony, and the U.S. Dept. of Defense can get hacked, anything is possible, but we are proud of our security efforts, and we are continually updating to make sure we do not create vulnerabilities.
Focus on Forums
Tapatalk's success is directly tied to continued success of forums. We want to make forums continue to relevant as users move to mobile, and as users focus their attention on sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We want and need forums to remain relevant going forward. People have tons of options on how to 1) get new information and 2) socialize on the modern Internet. As a car guy myself, I've seen quality content move from forums to article comments, mobile app chat rooms, Instagram enthusiast accounts, FB groups, and more. We want to work with forums to keep the best content written by the smartest people on forums, where they started.
Over 85% of our users come to Tapatalk already following two or more forums. By making it easy to follow forums on our app, our goal is to have all forums benefit from increased engagement. We focus on ways to engage people back to your site through push notifications, making easier to add content (especially photos), and making it easier for people to find your great content by improving your SEO rankings through Google app indexing.
I know there are individuals who feel that they can wall off their site, and their users will only want to see content from their site. But finding information is just search away, or on a bookmark on a member's browser.
By providing a native app to follow your content, we want to actively engage users so we can keep them coming back to your site, and make forums a relevant alternative to Facebook.
Support
Over the past year, we have increased our support resources, including the introduction of a support ticket system. In general, most tickets and posts are answered in two business days. That time can go up and down, but we do try and answer request in a couple of days. Looking through our support forums and tickets today, most issues have been answered in a couple of business days.
While we will continue to monitor this board, our primary focus is the Tapatalk support tickets. Additional information also available in the Tapatalk Support Forums.
XF Support xenForo Discussion | Tapatalk - Community Chat & Support
General Site Owner Discussion Community Chat and Support | Tapatalk - Community Chat & Support
Eric
tapatalk
Well-known member
Re: The two factor authentication is a feature in XF1.5
Tapatalk currently only supports 1.4 and below and while the plugin will work with 1.5, there are specific features that have no support yet. 2FA support is being developed but we do not have a definitive date for release. The existing xF implementation is built for web browser only, and time is needed to make sure we implement the app version securely as well. We are also working on putting together a transitional update for 1.5.X so that you can actually dis-allow Tapatalk users to login if the users have turned of 2FA.
We are also currently looking into integrating the iOS (and upcoming Android) fingerprint facility and believe the fingerprint is the ultimate solution. If your phone was stolen, the thief could have access 2FA code, but not fingerprint.
Eric
Tapatalk currently only supports 1.4 and below and while the plugin will work with 1.5, there are specific features that have no support yet. 2FA support is being developed but we do not have a definitive date for release. The existing xF implementation is built for web browser only, and time is needed to make sure we implement the app version securely as well. We are also working on putting together a transitional update for 1.5.X so that you can actually dis-allow Tapatalk users to login if the users have turned of 2FA.
We are also currently looking into integrating the iOS (and upcoming Android) fingerprint facility and believe the fingerprint is the ultimate solution. If your phone was stolen, the thief could have access 2FA code, but not fingerprint.
Eric
Mouth
Well-known member
This is representative of the Tapatalk attitude and why I continue to stay away. Not having Tapatalk is not "walling off" our sites. You are not doing us a favour, it's a shared partnerships between 3 parties - you, us, and the users. Users will not turn to Tapatalk to do their searching, they'll stay with search engines. All my organic traffic comes from search engines, I was getting none from Tapatalk. Tapatalk never increased my user engagement or signup, but has grown when I removed it. Your focus on forums is content aggregation and agnostic presentation, not a community feel and engagement in other functionality of the site (which YOU "wall off" and not allow).
So they roadmap being followed by Tapatalk is content aggregation, transparent presentation of all content, lack of community engagement but wanting to make it Tapatalk engagement and the users are yours not ours, "walling off" my other content and engagement, introduce features and functionality that drive your branding into my content without advising me or getting my opt-in.
Ingenious
Well-known member
I have to agree with @Mouth - I see Tapatalk as the ones doing the "walling off" but in any case, it's wrong to suggest forum admins not liking Tapatalk are somehow resistant to change or failing to embrace the future. You only have to read any of the threads on the subject here and elsewhere to see that forum admins are CRYING OUT for a quality, reliable app to allow their members a great forum experience. But one that acts in their interests. Given there is no alternative to Tapatalk I'm shocked the developers haven't therefore grasped just how wrong their product roadmap now is, if people are uninstalling the one single product available.
To put it bluntly, we don't want aggregation with other forums. We want to remain unique and we want to retain our membership base in the face of stiff competition from social media. It's our individual brands, communities and "vibe" that makes us unique. Tapatalk strips all that away. Resistance is futile?
To put it bluntly, we don't want aggregation with other forums. We want to remain unique and we want to retain our membership base in the face of stiff competition from social media. It's our individual brands, communities and "vibe" that makes us unique. Tapatalk strips all that away. Resistance is futile?
Floyd R Turbo
Well-known member
I think that XF admins are most vocal about the dislikes of TT because of the highly effective and completely functional Responsive Design incorporated into XF. Other forums like old VB, phpBB, etc have zippo for responsive design, so to users of those sites, TT is a godsend. Try viewing this site on your mobile browser: www.reefcentral.com. Now try this one: www.reef2reef.com. I never - NEVER - go to the former on my mobile, even on iPhone 6+ it's nearly completely useless. This is why TT has such a level of success, IMO.
Now, what WOULD be nice is that if TT simply provided an interface to the non-mobile friendly sites in the same fashion that they do now, BUT...for sites with responsive design, it would simply take users directly to an integrated browser version of that site. I envision this like so: you get an alert on TT for a XF site. You swipe the alert, it opens TT, which then immediately slides out to the left to a browser window and connects to the pertinent content on the mobile browser. TT acts as the go-between to bring the push notifications, but then takes you (within the app) directly to the browser version of the site. All content and functionality of the destination site is maintained. This could even be something that could be selectable by the site admin via the TT control panel, OR it could even be allowed to let the user select which one they wanted to use.
I installed Pushover as a test run on one forum and of the little feedback I have received, one guy mentioned that for every alert link you click, it opens a new browser window. So if you go through the Pushover app and click 10 links, you've got 10 browser windows open. While some may not see that as a big deal, others find it a total turn off. Personally I'm OK dealing with it but I see the other side. If TT implemented such functionality as I outlined above, the browser-within-the-app function would effectively eliminate multiple windows open.
I just came up with that on the fly and quite honestly I don't think that has really ever been suggested. I think it's a killer idea, what do you think @tapatalk?
Now, what WOULD be nice is that if TT simply provided an interface to the non-mobile friendly sites in the same fashion that they do now, BUT...for sites with responsive design, it would simply take users directly to an integrated browser version of that site. I envision this like so: you get an alert on TT for a XF site. You swipe the alert, it opens TT, which then immediately slides out to the left to a browser window and connects to the pertinent content on the mobile browser. TT acts as the go-between to bring the push notifications, but then takes you (within the app) directly to the browser version of the site. All content and functionality of the destination site is maintained. This could even be something that could be selectable by the site admin via the TT control panel, OR it could even be allowed to let the user select which one they wanted to use.
I installed Pushover as a test run on one forum and of the little feedback I have received, one guy mentioned that for every alert link you click, it opens a new browser window. So if you go through the Pushover app and click 10 links, you've got 10 browser windows open. While some may not see that as a big deal, others find it a total turn off. Personally I'm OK dealing with it but I see the other side. If TT implemented such functionality as I outlined above, the browser-within-the-app function would effectively eliminate multiple windows open.
I just came up with that on the fly and quite honestly I don't think that has really ever been suggested. I think it's a killer idea, what do you think @tapatalk?
Wildcat Media
Well-known member
After I nearly got screwed out of earnings from a few of my sites, which required the intervention of a third party to receive my payments, I dumped TT. Any time I inquired, I would never receive a response. (I would have sued, if they had been located in the US.) The ironic thing is that with all the fuss made over mobile monetization, I dumped TT and all of a sudden, started actually monetizing a few of my sites through mobile usage.
Just the way it is implemented is highly insecure, and the issues with them are all over the Internet. I need not list them all. Support for my sites was always terrible. We did have a few vocal users who complained when I removed it, but we took the "tough love" stance. Nobody misses it now. Responsive design got rid of most of the reason anyone needed a third party app, and the only thing that's left is push notifications. (I have tested two services for that, and they are both lacking.)
Sorry, I've read too many of these "we're going to improve...." messages over the past few years to trust anything at this point.
Just the way it is implemented is highly insecure, and the issues with them are all over the Internet. I need not list them all. Support for my sites was always terrible. We did have a few vocal users who complained when I removed it, but we took the "tough love" stance. Nobody misses it now. Responsive design got rid of most of the reason anyone needed a third party app, and the only thing that's left is push notifications. (I have tested two services for that, and they are both lacking.)
Sorry, I've read too many of these "we're going to improve...." messages over the past few years to trust anything at this point.
Wildcat Media
Well-known member
It wasn't so much that as it was using something like Viglink or Skimlinks, link insertion, Google custom search, etc., things I've had across various forums and sites I manage. Although it doesn't surprise me that even voluntary dues (and donations) could be affected.
If you think about it, any third party app accessing the forum strips away quite a lot of functionality. We could have a separate tab in the navigation leading to threads we have "bookmarked" for easy access, or to our forum policies, a donation page, or a list of sites with related content. I won't even get into something like @Brogan's portal page, which would not even appear in an app, but which might be the most vital landing page on a site. All of these are lost. Sure, a bog standard XF (or any forum software) could convert easily, but the bigger and more popular a forum is, the more it is customized. And the larger a forum gets, the more it could depend on those donations, or dues, ads, monetization, etc.
If you think about it, any third party app accessing the forum strips away quite a lot of functionality. We could have a separate tab in the navigation leading to threads we have "bookmarked" for easy access, or to our forum policies, a donation page, or a list of sites with related content. I won't even get into something like @Brogan's portal page, which would not even appear in an app, but which might be the most vital landing page on a site. All of these are lost. Sure, a bog standard XF (or any forum software) could convert easily, but the bigger and more popular a forum is, the more it is customized. And the larger a forum gets, the more it could depend on those donations, or dues, ads, monetization, etc.
Ingenious
Well-known member
@Rudy I agree, this became an issue for me. When I compared the TT view side by side with responsive, it was scary just how much of the custom features to drive traffic to site advertisers was missing in the app. With responsive, I know that whatever theme changes I do, or features I add, will be viewable by all.
As a lot of us have said, we'd love to have an app and give members the choice, but the app has to be centered on our interests and needs, no the app providers IMO.
As a lot of us have said, we'd love to have an app and give members the choice, but the app has to be centered on our interests and needs, no the app providers IMO.
adrian4ever
Member
Thanks guys !!!We (Tapatalk) are going to try be more responsive to questions on this board. There are a lot of questions, and misperceptions about Tapatalk, and hope improved communications will help.
Since this is a 55-page thread, we can't answer all the issues raised in this thread, but let me tackle a few of the more recent concerns.
Monetization
A couple of years ago, the most frequent concern we heard from site owners was the opportunity cost of Tapatalk. “If a member viewed content of my site on Tapatalk, then that was one less impression on my site and I lost ad revenue.”
That is why we introduced monetization on Tapatalk in early 2014. Because we can aggregate users, we can use that scale to improve monetization. We are currently paying a $1.50 CPM for impressions of your content on Tapatalk and our goal is to have you earn more per user when they view your content on Tapatalk than you can earn on your desktop or mobile site.
For those sites that are large enough to have your own ad sales, we will soon be adding the ability to traffic your ads through DFP. So you have the option to have advertising supplied by Tapatalk at a guaranteed CPM, or your ads through DFP. (And of course, you also have the option to turn off all ads if that is your preference).
Security
Tapatalk has invested heavily in making sure our Plug-In does not create security vulnerabilities for your site. About two years ago, we hired an industry veteran as of VP of Security and Infrastructure who is continually monitoring and reviewing potential vulnerabilities. Just as Apple and Microsoft provide updates based on new threats, we will from time to time making updates to make sure our Plug-In remains secure.
We have over 150,000 installations of our Plug-In and we have been at this for over 5 years, and we do not know of any forum that has been hacked as a result of the Tapatalk Plug-In.
In a day and age where entities like Target, Sony, and the U.S. Dept. of Defense can get hacked, anything is possible, but we are proud of our security efforts, and we are continually updating to make sure we do not create vulnerabilities.
Focus on Forums
Tapatalk's success is directly tied to continued success of forums. We want to make forums continue to relevant as users move to mobile, and as users focus their attention on sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We want and need forums to remain relevant going forward. People have tons of options on how to 1) get new information and 2) socialize on the modern Internet. As a car guy myself, I've seen quality content move from forums to article comments, mobile app chat rooms, Instagram enthusiast accounts, FB groups, and more. We want to work with forums to keep the best content written by the smartest people on forums, where they started.
Over 85% of our users come to Tapatalk already following two or more forums. By making it easy to follow forums on our app, our goal is to have all forums benefit from increased engagement. We focus on ways to engage people back to your site through push notifications, making easier to add content (especially photos), and making it easier for people to find your great content by improving your SEO rankings through Google app indexing.
I know there are individuals who feel that they can wall off their site, and their users will only want to see content from their site. But finding information is just search away, or on a bookmark on a member's browser.
By providing a native app to follow your content, we want to actively engage users so we can keep them coming back to your site, and make forums a relevant alternative to Facebook.
Support
Over the past year, we have increased our support resources, including the introduction of a support ticket system. In general, most tickets and posts are answered in two business days. That time can go up and down, but we do try and answer request in a couple of days. Looking through our support forums and tickets today, most issues have been answered in a couple of business days.
While we will continue to monitor this board, our primary focus is the Tapatalk support tickets. Additional information also available in the Tapatalk Support Forums.
XF Support xenForo Discussion | Tapatalk - Community Chat & Support
General Site Owner Discussion Community Chat and Support | Tapatalk - Community Chat & Support
Eric
