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TapaTalk support to be disabled

Discussion in 'Site Suggestions and Questions' started by 3Pmi, Sep 14, 2017.

  1. 3Pmi

    3Pmi IT Specialist Staff Member Administrator

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    Mar 23, 2008
    Michigan
    Hey everyone,

    We've decided after heavy consideration that it is in the best interest of the forum and our members to remove Tapatalk support as soon as possible. We do not make this decision lightly, but we cannot continue to ignore the issues introduced by Tapatalk in terms of shady business practices, security holes, and invasion of privacy.

    What is Tapatalk?

    Tapatalk is an application that allows members to browse and participate in online fora via mobile devices.

    Why have we decided to drop the application?

    Unfortunately, over the years the company's business practices and the direction development has taken have been to the disadvantage of not only webmasters and forum hosts, but also forum members.
    • Updates are inconvenient and infrequent.
    • Tapatalk support is poor and slow. Critical threads on their own forum are frequently closed or deleted.
    • Tapatalk has in the past opened several possible security holes without alerting webmasters of the vulnerability for months. This vulnerability could have allowed attackers to gain access to members' credentials.
    • Tapatalk started to divert users to login through their own instead of the forum's login function.
    • The Tapatalk search function is now diluted with results from other websites.
    • Tapatalk keeps removing/disregarding usergroup permissions.
    • By default, Tapatalk uploads images to their own servers in an attempt to funnel forum members to their site (super shady business practice)
    • Forum registration via Tapatalk is a potential gateway for spammers (we currently fight 10-20 spam bots per day who register through Tapatalk and skip all of the anti-bot technology we've put in place)
    • Tapatalk keeps adding annoying popups to the site which have to be taken care of after each upgrade
    • Tapatalk seems to be keeping a copy of each forum's content on their servers. They have not asked permission for this and we do not condone that.
    • Last but not least, many site features (blogs, addition planned functionality) do not work or are not exposed through the Tapatalk app.

    So how can we access the forum via mobile devices?

    The forum migration that we performed last November supports a fully responsive theme that we are now using. That means that the forum display, including the navigation menu, automatically adapts to the screen size of the device used.

    We do apologise to those who enjoy the functionality of Tapatalk, but beg you to consider the security and privacy concerns the application raises, not to mention its technical limitations and the company's dubious business practices. I invite you to try out the mobile version of our site through the web browser on your device.

    Downside

    The only potential downside of removing Tapatalk is the lack of instant push notifications. The forum does send out notification emails, however, they are not always instant. If this is a concern to some of our current Tapatalk users we are looking into the possibility of installing add-ons that allow us to send out push notifications.

    Please share your feedback with us as we are willing to do as much as we can to replace any functionality that the community deems critical.
     
    Boik14 and Ohiophinphan like this.
  2. danmarino

    danmarino Tua is H1M! Club Member

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    I do use TapaTalk, but I've found the mobile version to much better and easier to navigate.
     
  3. vizi0n

    vizi0n Boom.. Club Member

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    Well then. I could have just came here and read this instead of attempting to log in on Tapatalk 10 times lol. Sounds like you guys made the right decision.
    :flag:
     
  4. TNphinfan

    TNphinfan Always soo close... Club Member

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    Have to say I did the same thing haha.

    Reading on a browser is ok. The problem I have with it is figuring out where I left off on posts. Tapatalk helped with this.

    If it’s the best thing for the site then I fully support it.
     
    Oboy likes this.
  5. 3Pmi

    3Pmi IT Specialist Staff Member Administrator

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    Mar 23, 2008
    Michigan
    That used to be an issue with the old forum software, but the new is actually very good about keeping track of what you've read. There should be a "Go to first unread post" in several spots when you're browsing that will let you resume where you left off.
     
  6. Oboy

    Oboy Premium Member Luxury Box

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    I just found this today. LOL, obviously I did not use the tapatalk access very often. Glad to know the mobile version is working better... Going in that way now. :D
     

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