OrchidTalk now Mobile...

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Actually Bruce, I think you're missing something. Yes, the mobile site is free, and apparently works pretty well, but it seems to me that adding Tapatalk might actually broaden the appeal.

It costs you nothing to implement, folks who don't already have it are not required you purchase it, and folks that do have it have the opportunity to use it or not.

By not offering it, you are forcing folks like me - who frequent several different forums - to switch applications in order to read the posts here, making it less appealing.

It is obviously your choice, but unless it interferes with your current script, I cannot see why you'd pass up the opportunity.

Thanks Ray for your thoughts. I do understand where you are coming from and there were other issues that I didn't go into which helped finalized my decision to not go with tapatalk or even the custom vbulletin app (that I could have offered users here for free if I could afford the setup fee and the annual maintenance fee to keep the app updated.)

When I installed tapatalk on our test forum and purchased the app with my android phone (2.99 cost for pro) I found an issue with the interface. It adds a pop-up to the site that offers the tapatalk app/ alerts users of the app. (which seemed cool at first). If a user chooses to go get the app - all is good, but if they ignore the app, then they get re-directed to the main forum and not the mobile forum. It seems to conflict with either VBSEO (our SEO software that rewrites our urls for relevancy or the programing of the mobile site - maybe both??). I was never able to get it to play well with both our mobile site (which is programmed to recognize mobile devices and switch to that version of the site) and the tapatalk application enabled at the same time. And I'm not willing to go exclusively with an application that costs users to post when I can keep it free for everyone with a little extra coding/editing work on my part. The vbulletin app seemed like it was going to be great, but the initial expense kept me from getting it and after some time of it being out - I'm glad I didn't since they have now moved away from that feature and it is buggy and often crashes.

I'm really bummed that you have to switch applications to read and post here using your phone, but at this point with the new mobile skin update nearing completion, I don't see us changing directions for the time being. If Google analytics starts to tell us a different story, then I will obviously look into the application again at that time. I know more and more people are starting to access the net with their phones. I'm hoping that eventually we can have a dedicated application that can go on a phone or tablet that is just for OrchidTalk, but that too is probably a ways off for now.


Sincerely,
BD

[MattWoelfsen]

I was surprised that this Forum was not on Tapatalk because I use Tapatalk app to logon to many forums. However, after hanging out here on this website, using my iPad to view and participate on this forum, I like this website's interface:

1. You see everything on this website. In Tapatalk, you do not see signatures, you do not see "likes" and other pertinent information.
2. You see all of the things you can do when responding to any thread.
3. This website loads just as fast as any other forums accessible via Tapatalk.

I think when you go with a consolidator like TapaTalk, everyone looses a little bit of control for the convenience the app offers. Probably equal in my opinion.

[PEOYofBerg]

This is very nice; kudos.

[dwllama]

Hi,
I appreciate the mobile version of the site a lot especially that you have worked to reduce bandwidth as my mobile Internet is limited bandwidth. However the only internet i currently have is mobile and I can't access functions such as updating my password and user profile (for example changing my location since I moved across the country). I understand if it is a pain to update the mobile site to work with the user control panel. A link to have the option of viewing the full site from a mobile device (currently not possible as far as I can tell) would help a lot as then all the options would at least be available even if I have to suffer a bit to get at them. :-) thanks!
Posted via Mobile Device

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Hi,
I appreciate the mobile version of the site a lot especially that you have worked to reduce bandwidth as my mobile Internet is limited bandwidth. However the only internet i currently have is mobile and I can't access functions such as updating my password and user profile (for example changing my location since I moved across the country). I understand if it is a pain to update the mobile site to work with the user control panel. A link to have the option of viewing the full site from a mobile device (currently not possible as far as I can tell) would help a lot as then all the options would at least be available even if I have to suffer a bit to get at them. :-) thanks!
Posted via Mobile Device

Hello Anna, thanks for your response. The mobile site is limited in functionality by design to reduce bandwidth; however, you can update your information from the mobile site just as if you were on the regular site. Visit this link: Edit Info. I've also added a link on the Grid Menu page to keep things simple. (There are a few special sections of the profile that you can only edit using the full site. I hope this helps!

Cheers,
BD

[dwllama]

Great, thanks. Couldn't update my password, but I got location updated.
Posted via Mobile Device