TapaTalk will now have ads

[CTXMedia]

Seems Tapatalk don't want to talk about it - thread removed from view.

Let's give it another try. But if they can't answer simple questions about what they plan to do with the app and our site content and traffic - then it's probably time to walk away.

Interestingly they did answer, but then deleted the new thread too. Strange.

 

[Martok]

Interestingly they did answer, but then deleted the new thread too. Strange.

They clearly don't want people to opt-out of advertising as it's another revenue stream for them, irrelevant if we want it or not.

It wouldn't surprise me if they still force this on us rather than honour the promised permanent opt-out.

 

[Carlos]

OK, so you can opt out of the test / pilot program. But once this goes live.... I wonder if this will be an option or will it simply be standard?

It's an option. It has always been. It's just that these ads that they announced - will be pretty "in your face" and not like viglink/slimslinks. It will be right there for you to see.

They clearly don't want people to opt-out of advertising as it's another revenue stream for them, irrelevant if we want it or not.

It wouldn't surprise me if they still force this on us rather than honour the promised permanent opt-out.

Thing is, this ad-serving thing is to do two things: Earn revenue (obviously), from outside advertisers. And make payments to users of the app(s).

I don't think this will be forced on us, I think it's going to be opt-in/opt-out kind of thing like it's always been. But it needs to pay itself if they want to offer a free option.

 

[TPerry]

They clearly don't want people to opt-out of advertising as it's another revenue stream for them, irrelevant if we want it or not.

It wouldn't surprise me if they still force this on us rather than honour the promised permanent opt-out.

They do and I'll be removing it from all my forums (and I've had TapaTalk installed on every forum I've ever ran and paid for the app on both Android and IOS platforms). I like it because it keeps all the forums I like in a central application to use instead of having to go from forum to forum in the browser.
I known they have been getting a lot of kvetching from forum owners because when people use the app the forums lose the ad revenue that is generated by the browser users. It's kind of a delicate line for them to walk on how to implement ad revenue that will be of benefit to the forum owners and not being overly intrusive.

Personally I would be happy if they kept two types of apps - the paid that does something like skimlinks and then a free version that pushes the ad format that they are playing with. That way, those that don't want to pay for the app generate some income for both the forum owner and them. They could additionally have it so that the forum owners can opt in/out for the new format for the paid app owners.

 

[Martok]

Personally I would be happy if they kept two types of apps - the paid that does something like skimlinks and then a free version that pushes the ad format that they are playing with. That way, those that don't want to pay for the app generate some income for both the forum owner and them. They could additionally have it so that the forum owners can opt in/out for the new format for the paid app owners.

I think they are already taking a cut of the revenue from Link Affiliation if that is enabled in the forum owners area. This is with Viglink and previously you could link your Tapatalk account to your Viglink account so that you got the money directly into your Viglink account. Then they changed this - you now put your PayPal email address into your Tapatalk account and any money will be paid directly into that. So why the change (which they didn't inform users about as far as I can tell)? The only reason I can think is so that they can take their cut of the revenue. There's no details about what links are clicked on or anything like you get on the Viglink website - instead in the Tapatalk forum owners area you just get the number of clicks and revenue earned each month.

 

[Deepmartini]

A simple solution is to have an addon that will prompt to put an URL shortcut to your forum on the users homepage if they are arriving from an iphone or ipad. On wordpress, http://www.bravenewcode.com/wptouch/ will do this. We need something similar for Xenforo. Then you don't need tapatalk or forum runner. You can just use your responsive theme.

 

[Wildcat Media]

All I do is save the bookmark in Chrome, and I can then set that bookmark on the home screen on the phones. Sure, a single tap would be easier. It can't be all that hard to code it as I suspect it would be a JavaScript function.

I would probably display the bookmark icon at the top of the forum if that were the case, where one tap of it would save it to the person's home screen.

 

[Shyuan]

Now this explains the ads are not forced, admins can choose to show it or not. https://support.tapatalk.com/threads/how-to-disable-advertising-in-your-forum.20937/

 

[Martok]

Now this explains the ads are not forced, admins can choose to show it or not. https://support.tapatalk.com/threads/how-to-disable-advertising-in-your-forum.20937/

I don't believe that they won't force ads on those using Tapatalk Free at least. After years of providing paid-only apps, they aren't going to give away a free version without some way to generate income from it.

 

[CTXMedia]

Now this explains the ads are not forced, admins can choose to show it or not. https://support.tapatalk.com/threads/how-to-disable-advertising-in-your-forum.20937/

I have asked for confirmation several times on the Tapatalk forums whether ads will be removed from ALL versions of the Tapatalk app if I opt-out my sites, but so far have not received a satisfactory answer.

I also don't like the direction TT is taking - you've gone from a business that provided an app to get uniform access to lots of different forum platforms, to a company that is more interested in the monetisation of my forum traffic and content; and despite your post here and several on the TT forum I do not feel 100% assured that you will not inject ads into my forum content in the future.

There are also a number of security issues that concern me and in one case you've told forum owners you are not going to fix it, but not to worry because it only happens on rare occasions.

I don't feel comfortable with Tapatalk anymore and don't trust you to present my content in its original form with the correct permissions, so I'm removing it from all my forums. I'll keep an eye on development and am not ruling out installing it again at some point in the future, but I cannot retain a third-party relationship where I don't trust the other party. Sorry.

 

[TPerry]

I don't believe that they won't force ads on those using Tapatalk Free at least. After years of providing paid-only apps, they aren't going to give away a free version without some way to generate income from it.

And I don't begrudge them that. Instead of the way they are doing it tho' I'd rather see (on the IOS app) iAd's implemented and the associated format for the Android one. Remove ALL ads from the forum display itself and make the app display a discernible ad that is tied to the application itself. Remove that from the paid apps (and leave the ability for the forum owner to monetize it with ads themselves if they wish).

 

[Shyuan]

@Clickfinity not sure why, but reading your messages make them sound like you are pointing them to me? I am not a staff member/developer of Tapatalk, I am just an ordinary forum admin who uses Tapatalk.

I am just sharing the link without any intentions or stand who's side.

However, I apologise if I misunderstood you.

 

[CTXMedia]

@Clickfinity not sure why, but reading your messages make them sound like you are pointing them to me? I am not a staff member/developer of Tapatalk, I am just an ordinary forum admin who uses Tapatalk.

I am just sharing the link without any intentions or stand who's side.

However, I apologise if I misunderstood you.

My apologies - I did assume you were a Tapatalk representative - sorry, I misunderstood.

 

[Shyuan]

My apologies - I did assume you were a Tapatalk representative - sorry, I misunderstood.

Haha! It's totally okay!