Is anyone here using Tapatalk?

MasterOne

I'd like to know about the experience with the Tapatalk plugin and if it's working on Vanilla v2.1.

I'm a huge fan of the mobile template, but I know from at least one forum user (at our forum of course) who has been put off because he can't access it by Tapatalk. Being listed in the Tapatalk forums index can also be of advantage.

Any thoughts?

hgtonight

I downloaded it and kicked it around. Then I realized what I was doing and deleted it.

I hate apps that just so me a crappier version of a website.

I got it working but hated it.

MasterOne

In the meantime I've found this thread on the Tapatalk forum, doesn't look good. Crappy implementation, not working with v2.1, although the latest version 1.4.2 of that plugin just recently has been released.

I think people like Tapatalk because they can access all supported forums with that app having a uniform (mobile) interface. I have tested the Tapatalk Symbian app on my good old Nokia N61i in the past and liked it, but well, those were different times with a phone that looks like from the stone age now (320x240 display resolution, no touch screen, no RAM, no processing power).

I don't want to have it in our forum, hopefully nobody cries for it.

Schryvers

Never heart of tapatalk till yesterday.

I downloaded the app and theres a search option. Its like google. If you are on some good tags within top 5 you are gaining some extra users for sure.

I searched on google for "dog forum" and founded not many results in my language. Then i put dog in the search of the tapatalk app and found many forums based on dogs in dutch aswell. Then i go back to google and found some forums on page 3 of google, but they are on the top 5 of tapatalk.

So im looking further into it tomorrow. Gonna sleep early today aha.

Linc

If you can understand that plugin, you are a better developer than I am. I started to lose my grip on sanity when I discovered it was doing regex find & replaces on SQL queries, and doesn't apply limits to its discussions queries. "Kludgy" is too kind a description. It's suicidal code.

MasterOne

Yes, too bad, the guy maintaining the Vanilla plugin at Tapatalk left, and it seems they haven't found a replacement or don't care any more. It's a pitty, Tapatalk has/had quite a popularity, but as formerly mentioned I haven't used that app any more since I've gotten rid of my good old Nokia N61i Symbian mobile ages ago...

One curiosity though, one guy who wanted to join our forum was upset that we have no support for Tapatalk, because he follows a lot of forums and can't live without his Tapatalk, so he decided not to participate because it's too cumbersome for him to use a forum in a web browser...

Schryvers

@masterone i see it like tapatalk is the future. Many kids out there and 00's newborns doesnt know anything about forums. Maybe they have installed tapatalk and found some great forums...

So they never used forums in a browser before... I think tapatalk is a must have, as i see it, a concurrent forums with the same subject as my forum use tapatalk and have over 30% of users on it...

That usergroup will never be intrested in my forum if i dont have tapatalk. And that 30% is over 4000 members so its intresting for me...

also if you find in tapatalk search for my subject, theres only that 1 forum. So if those 4000 members searching for new subject forums on tapatalk they should known my forum if i had tapatalk...

so i want it! i need! and i will get it!

MasterOne

Then we need someone taking over the Tapatalk Vanilla Plugin Development? Any volunteers?

P.S. Not me, I'm definitely not a dev.

Bleistivt

You would have to find someone who understands their framework.
They probably also have in-house development/testing resources they don't opensource.

The plugin doesn't make use of the vanilla event hooks at all.
From what I understood, it extends a bunch of vanilla classes (which confusingly are in the /mobiquo/appExtt/ and not in the plugin folder itself) and hooks them up to their framework which completely lacks documentation.

The methods of these extension classes are mostly copied and pasted from the vanilla 2.0 classes, so for 2.1 compatibility you would have to rewrite most of these.

The only way to get them to make it compatible with 2.1 i see, is users like you requesting it on their forum, to show them they are losing (potential) customers.

MasterOne

@Bleistivt said:
The only way to get them to make it compatible with 2.1 i see, is users like you requesting it on their forum, to show them they are losing (potential) customers.

Already done that: https://support.tapatalk.com/threads/vanilla-os-2-1-released.24609/

Linc

@MasterOne said:
one guy who wanted to join our forum was upset

One guy was upset and that's the basis for a development campaign?

@Schryvers said:
i see it like tapatalk is the future.

I see the opposite: it's a throwback to days when forum developers didn't know what 'mobile' or 'app' meant.

hgtonight

@Schryvers said:
i see it like tapatalk is the future.

This may be.

I don't think it is a good future. Tapatalk essentially puts you another step away from your audience. Another link you have to maintain.

I already have an app that gives me access to all my forums; it is my browser.

MasterOne

@Linc said:
One guy was upset and that's the basis for a development campaign?

Not really. If there were a working Tapatalk plugin for Vanilla I'd use it, otherwise I don't really care much about it.