Xenforo 2.1.3 and Tapatalk

[Morg22]

I am currently setting up a test site with Xenforo 2.1.3, because I am looking to move from VB5. I wanted to know how compatible it is with Tapatalk.

We are having nothing but issues since upgrading from VB 4.2.5 to VB 5.5.3, including Tapatalk not functioning correctly and a large portion of our users browse our site with Tapatalk, so we have seen a huge decrease in our traffic, which is why we are looking at alternatives to VB5 and so far Xenforo seems to fit what we are looking for.

The biggest concern I have is how compatible it is with Tapatalk. Has anyone been using 2.1.3 with Tapatalk, and if so how is it working? I just tried to use it for a forum using Xenforo (AVS) and when I tried to read a large thread with 15K posts Tapatalk would just crash on me.

I have a fairly large forum with over 6 million posts so I have plenty of threads with several thousand posts, and that's one of the issues I a having with Tapatalk now, any of my threads with over 3K posts won't open at all on Tapatalk.

Any help you all can provide would be greatly appreciate. Thanks so much!

 

[hurricane_sh]

Sounds like a bug on Tapatalk's side, you should report it to them.

With XF's superb mobile experience, why don't you remove tapatalk?

 

[Morg22]

Sounds like a bug on Tapatalk's side, you should report it to them.

With XF's superb mobile experience, why don't you remove tapatalk?

That is the ultimate goal, but I have a large forum (over 6 million posts) and a significant percentage of my readers access us through Tapatalk, so we need it working.

I am in constant contact with Tapatalk, but they keep saying the developer is looking into it.

 

[hurricane_sh]

a significant percentage of my readers access us through Tapatalk,

With tapatalk I only trust posting stats. How many posts are made by tapatalk users daily.

Even tapatalk users are displayed in your online member list, they may be just automate check by Tapatalk, not real visits.

 

[Paul Buonopane]

Keep in mind that unless something has changed, when integrating XenForo 1.x with Tapatalk, you're essentially providing a public API for your forum that bypasses many of the security and spam prevention mechanisms built into XenForo. Additionally, you're sending all your content--public and private--to Tapatalk's servers. I haven't tested this on other forum software or versions, but I assume it's a similar story elsewhere. (The intention was for Tapatalk to look at the user IDs of the people involved and send out push notifications as appropriate, but it was still extremely intrusive, and there are better ways to go about that.)

Shortly after our forum was featured in Tapatalk, we noticed a surge of suspicious registrations, as well as content from those users that bypassed our spam checks. Further investigation revealed that they were part of a spam campaign that was abusing Tapatalk. Initially we hoped to rewrite the add-on so that it didn't bypass all the spam and security checks in XenForo; however, due to the manner in which Tapatalk interfaced with forums, there was no way for us to run our own checks, and Tapatalk's checks during registration were inadequate.

Around that time, Tapatalk made a big announcement stating that they were improving security and privacy, but they didn't act accordingly in a timely manner. Eventually we gave up.

 

[User37935]

I am in constant contact with Tapatalk, but they keep saying the developer is looking into it.

That maybe should worry you.

I was in a similar situation with a lot of members of my forum using Tapatalk. The perception was that removing it would cause great harm, however after I ditched it there wasn't really much in the way of complaints and everyone is now fine using the responsive web version.

I agree with Paul above, the privacy implications could be worrying.

 

[Paul Buonopane]

The perception was that removing it would cause great harm, however after I ditched it there wasn't really much in the way of complaints and everyone is now fine using the responsive web version.

We were also concerned about removing it, but, after digging through various metrics, we discovered that almost all of our Tapatalk traffic was automated or otherwise low-quality. Only a handful of our legitimate users ever even noticed.

 

[Wes of StarArmy]

In my opinion, Tapatalk is parasitic garbage and no forum owner should still be using it. Why let them run their ads and monetize the content that was created by you and your users? Maybe Tapatalk once served a purpose before most forums supported mobile devices but I think that time has passed a few years ago.

 

[TheTourVan]

In my opinion, Tapatalk is parasitic garbage and no forum owner should still be using it. Why let them run their ads and monetize the content that was created by you and your users? Maybe Tapatalk once served a purpose before most forums supported mobile devices but I think that time has passed a few years ago.

While I don't disagree with your thought on the software, which I can't stand, our sponsors are searching for engagement and the difference in that with and without is fairly staggering. The move to Xenforo this week will convert some to the mobile browser, but some users want to use what they like and we don't want to keep them from posting on our forum.

Now if we made our living strictly off google ads, CPM or RPM, it would be a different story.

 

[zappaDPJ]

Now that Invision Community are working towards releasing a native app with push for iOS & Android https://theadminzone.com/threads/new-invision-community-apps-for-ios-android.151723/ I would have thought it's something Xenforo has to consider.

Also I've got to say having looked at your forum TheTourVan congrats on the conversion, it looks like a job well done!

If you have the time I'd love to hear a brief overview of how your staff and members view the conversion. Any gripes? Any loss of function? Or is it all positive?

 

[mysiteguy]

While I don't disagree with your thought on the software, which I can't stand, our sponsors are searching for engagement and the difference in that with and without is fairly staggering. The move to Xenforo this week will convert some to the mobile browser, but some users want to use what they like and we don't want to keep them from posting on our forum.

I've heard this worry before and had it myself. It started to be a false dilemma. I removed it from four of my own forums, and from some rather large client forums to no ill effect. The key is to let them know in advance - and remind them more than once it's going to happen.

 

[pierce]

I had a byo with 10k+ installations like 4+ years ago.

When you remove it some percentage will think your gone forever. There's no concept of a website behind the app.

Or worse that the website is just horrid to use!

Other than constant less than 14c(if even) ecpm malware admob ads driving users to everywhere but your site. Constant trouble supporting "my app crashes when I do this" trying to figure if they are iPhone or Android. Packaging and submitting to Apple. Constant new graphics requirements for apps. It really wasn't worth the effort. It won't be unless I have 4+ people working for me. I barely have me as it is. That's before you even take into account the horrid changes Tapatalk were making in their apps!

Yeah not worth it unless you have total control.

 

[TheTourVan]

I've heard this worry before and had it myself. It started to be a false dilemma. I removed it from four of my own forums, and from some rather large client forums to no ill effect. The key is to let them know in advance - and remind them more than once it's going to happen.

We had a different outcome. We did warn them in advance. And continued to warn them. After years of using it, there are some very active on our forums, that just weren't interested.

Im not a fan of the software, but do understand that pleasing everybody, while a goal is unobtainable. Since our "health" is not based on CPM and RPM, there was no reason for us to keep it away. The interesting part of the equation, is how many users find us FROM tapatalk. We have had thousands find us this way and many have abandoned that software for our mobile platform.

Having the variety of choices for engagement has kept us busy, but that time without Tapatalk, was far slower than any other time we have had. Something our sponsoring partners are not okay with. In our niche, there are a lot of choices, but really only 3-5 that are large and only a couple as large as us. All have it installed, which again, is not ideal, but its a necessary evil with how our business is set up.

We are integrating more features available only natively to hopefully bring more away and onto our software.

 

[TheTourVan]

Now that Invision Community are working towards releasing a native app with push for iOS & Android https://theadminzone.com/threads/new-invision-community-apps-for-ios-android.151723/ I would have thought it's something Xenforo has to consider.

Also I've got to say having looked at your forum TheTourVan congrats on the conversion, it looks like a job well done!

If you have the time I'd love to hear a brief overview of how your staff and members view the conversion. Any gripes? Any loss of function? Or is it all positive?

Thank you sir. It couldn't have been done without Pixel Exit and our team. It has been tremendously smooth for us. 7 hours of downtime only, which was planned. 5 hours for migration. 2 hours for doing add ons and plugins. Then we were back up and running and incredibly fast.

The only thing we are having issues with are signatures and custom smileys. Thank you for the kind words. Next up is the Wordpress website attached, that needs to be overhauled asap.

 

[Dubbed Navigator]

A great many users on here are quite against the use of TT. I confess I havent properly looked into the reasons why, but if this is anything to go by, I really dont understand why anyone would use it. Its no less than an invitation for SPAM and security issues.

Keep in mind that unless something has changed, when integrating XenForo 1.x with Tapatalk, you're essentially providing a public API for your forum that bypasses many of the security and spam prevention mechanisms built into XenForo. Additionally, you're sending all your content--public and private--to Tapatalk's servers. I haven't tested this on other forum software or versions, but I assume it's a similar story elsewhere. (The intention was for Tapatalk to look at the user IDs of the people involved and send out push notifications as appropriate, but it was still extremely intrusive, and there are better ways to go about that.)

Shortly after our forum was featured in Tapatalk, we noticed a surge of suspicious registrations, as well as content from those users that bypassed our spam checks. Further investigation revealed that they were part of a spam campaign that was abusing Tapatalk. Initially we hoped to rewrite the add-on so that it didn't bypass all the spam and security checks in XenForo; however, due to the manner in which Tapatalk interfaced with forums, there was no way for us to run our own checks, and Tapatalk's checks during registration were inadequate.

Around that time, Tapatalk made a big announcement stating that they were improving security and privacy, but they didn't act accordingly in a timely manner. Eventually we gave up.

And if you needed another reason, this is it.

In my opinion, Tapatalk is parasitic garbage and no forum owner should still be using it. Why let them run their ads and monetize the content that was created by you and your users? Maybe Tapatalk once served a purpose before most forums supported mobile devices but I think that time has passed a few years ago.

Personally, rather than going to all the effort of integrating a leech into your forum, I'd be using the various communications options XF offers you, and whatever TT does, to give your users a months notice that you will be depreciating it.

 

[\o/]

I really dont understand why anyone would use it.

From a user's perspective, Tapatalk is the best (= only existing) forums aggregator, allowing one to subscribe/post to multiple boards without even having to think about it too much.

 

[zappaDPJ]

The reason why I stopped using it was because of an update that allowed them to email all my users which they did. That was damaging on sites that I own and disastrous on commercial sites that I manage. I believe they now have that option set to off by default which it should have been in the first place but the damage was done for me.

They also scrapped my sites and claimed the content as their own. It took an age to get that taken down.

 

[Dubbed Navigator]

From a user's perspective, Tapatalk is the best (= only existing) forums aggregator, allowing one to subscribe/post to multiple boards without even having to think about it too much.

With push notifications subs to multiple boards shouldnt really be an issue.

Apart from that, if they treat user data like they do the forums, thats another reason not to use it.

 

[TheTourVan]

So many are against it, and rightfully so, but the users like it and for us that is important.

What is interesting from a security stand point is I view it the same way I do Google and Facebook. I dont like what either does, but if I had the option to not be indexed in Google where others had an easy way to find our board organically, I wouldn’t take it.

 

[Dubbed Navigator]

Google doesnt take ownership of your data though. Thats a crucial difference.