Tapatalk

Dave

Adventurist
Founder
Senior Staff
Editor
First off, if you do not use Tapatalk to view the forum, disregard this thread. Second, if you don't use Tapatalk but are considering it now that you've heard of it, don't bother.

Very soon, American Adventurist will no longer support Tapatalk.

Why? In a nutshell, because what started out as a great app for forum viewing that helped increase speed while minimizing data use, has steadily gone downhill over the last couple years and has devolved into what we consider to be blatant "Ransom Ware".

As of now, they've become another "pay us or mandatory X" entity. Unwanted ads will be present on the app for our forum, Tapatalk users are (perhaps unknowingly) forced to host photos/videos on Tapatalk. This creates a black hole for content here - your content intended for AAV is being diverted offsite. Think about that long term.

Signatures (again, forced) have a Tapatalk addendum on them, and we lose control over the pop-up "Use Tapatalk!" spam on mobile browsers.

It recently came to my attention that Tapatalk even hijacks user accounts (you) and sends spam to other users on your behalf, urging them to use Tapatalk. This is simply unacceptable. And ponder this - if they can hijack your account and send spam PM's... What next?

Now, we can pay them $120 a year to stay their hand in all this nefarious control stuff, but it sticks in my craw. I don't care about paying for a service. What I care about is paying "or else". It goes against everything this site was founded on. And the fact that they've forcibly done many of these things here already through their EULA says it all to me.

For me as the forum owner and an admin with "god powers" here on AAV, the occasional pop-up on the top of the page and being harassed to upload their app when I open the page is getting old... and the only way I can turn it off is if we pay tribute.

Their lack of business ethics coupled with the aforementioned abuses of power make this an easy decision.

Effective 1 February 2017 American Adventurist will no longer support Tapatalk.

Good thing we have a shit hot mobile version of this forum from our friends at XenForo ;)
 
Happy to hear any arguments in support of said Ransom Ware ;)

:lawyer
 
I use it, as it is convenient, but I agree with your position. Other forums have dropped support for similar reasons. I will workaround.
 
Glad I never took the time to figure out what the heck it was to begin with! (old and lazy does pay off now and again)
 
Paranoid about using too many apps I'm not familiar with, nor felt the need. Being analogue has its benefits. In other words " I Never Touched the Stuff "!
 
I use it but it's fairly annoying so I'm happy to stop. Is there an app you suggest or does this site have a mobile version? I'd just log in on my phone but I'm streaming hockey on it now. Go Reign Go! And.. we just scored!
 
Migration solved on my phone. I went to the mobile site in Chrome on my phone, clicked the "new posts" button, then clicked the drop down menu, clicked "Add to Home Screen." Now I have an icon on my home screen that takes me directly to the new posts here, which is how I usually look at the forum. That icon took the place of the Tapatalk icon on page 1, and Tapatalk has been kicked to page 2.
 
First off, if you do not use Tapatalk to view the forum, disregard this thread. Second, if you don't use Tapatalk but were considering it (or are now that it hit your radar), don't bother.

Very soon, American Adventurist will no longer support Tapatalk.

Why? In a nutshell, because what started out as a great app for forum viewing that helped increase speed while minimizing data use, has steadily gone downhill over the last couple years and has devolved into what we consider to be blatant "Ransom Ware".

As of now, they've become another "pay us or mandatory X" entity. Unwanted ads will be present on the app for our forum, Tapatalk users are (perhaps unknowingly) forced to host photos/videos on Tapatalk. This creates a black hole for content here - your content intended for AAV is being diverted offsite. Think about that long term.

Signatures (again, forced) have a Tapatalk addendum on them, and we lose control over the pop-up "Use Tapatalk!" spam on mobile browsers.

It recently came to my attention that Tapatalk even hijacks use accounts (you) and sends spam to other users on your behalf, urging them to use Tapatalk. This is simply unacceptable. And ponder this - if they can hijack your account and send spam PM's... WTF else do they have their hooks into here?

Now, we can pay them $120 a year to stay their hand in all this nefarious control stuff, but it sticks in my craw. I don't care about paying for a service. What I care about is paying "or else". It goes against everything this site was founded on. And the fact that they've forcibly done many of these things here already through their EULA says it all to me.

For me as the forum owner and an admin with "god powers" here on AAV, the occasional pop-up on the top of the page and being harassed to upload their app every time I open the page is getting old... and the only way I can turn it off is if we pay tribute.

Lack of business ethics coupled with abuse of power make this an easy decision. Effective 1 February 2017 American Adventurist will no longer support Tapatalk.

Good thing we have a shit hot mobile version of this forum from our friends at XenForo ;)
I don't like the app anyways. whatever u do Dave I will follow. Maybe we all pitch in and get r own website? Or something along them lines?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
I use tapatalk and it was convenient, however totally understand reason for the switch. I look forward to using the new platform. Thanks for the heads up.
 
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I tried the "mobile" thing a few years back, I didn't like it.
mobile.jpg
 
It's all automatic. AAV is naturally touch capable, and it knows how big your screen is and will automatically adjust to make sure you can read and post. :)

The only real change that happens dropping to mobile (or tablet) is that as the screen gets smaller, those menu items up top will hide into a "hamberger" to save space like so...

Untitled-1.jpg



You can actually test this out on the desktop as well, just shrink the browser window and you can watch it all happen on the fly. Most used features (like New Posts and Watched) are always visible so they'll stay just one tap away.
 
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