# Administration Category > Administrative issues >  Getting Tapatalk tweaked

## Dave A

Just to let you know this caught my attention and I've been working on the issue.




> This is in the scam alert forum.





> Oh sorry did not realise. I'm on tapatalk and it's filled with ads so struggling to navigate efficiently.


Two things:

1. I'm not sure any of the mobile options show the forum associated when viewing the thread. So probably a universal "small screen" challenge. I may come back to this challenge one day, but I'm certainly not going to fret on it now.

2. I've followed up with Tapatalk with the "filled with adverts" issue in mind. When I originally set up Tapatalk, there were no ads. Seems this was so long ago not only have things changed considerably, but I'd forgotten any of the details on how I'd set it up too. Anyhow, after some wrestling with their support (which has proved to be a rather slow process) there should be some progress - logged in members shouldn't be getting *any* ads on Tapatalk anymore.

For those using Tapatalk to access TFSA, please let me know if things have improved on that front.

----------


## PlatinumWealth.co.za

> Just to let you know this caught my attention and I've been working on the issue.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Two things:
> 
> 1. I'm not sure any of the mobile options show the forum associated when viewing the thread. So probably a universal "small screen" challenge. I may come back to this challenge one day, but I'm certainly not going to fret on it now.
> ...


Still have the ads, you need to log into your tapatalk dashboard and disable it under monetizing options, BUT that is your income so I'm not suggesting you stop it, rather tell tapatalk to get their shiat in order and create a better layout. 

We use tapatalk as well, but we are not a commercial forum so don't need the ads, but something I noticed in the beginning since it was turned on by default is that they seriously need to create a better interface because ads taking up two thirds of a mobile screen is quite annoying.

----------


## Dave A

> Still have the ads, you need to log into your tapatalk dashboard and disable it under monetizing options.


I'm avoiding doing that until I have the proper permissions sync running from the plug-in installed here. Within that plug-in I've disabled ads for members - it should only bug guests with ads now. However I only got that far this morning so perhaps there's some lag before it updates (I saw something about a 24 hour lag in advert updates in the Tapatalk dash).

BTW - I see the "income" I'd be giving up is peanuts. Or maybe only *a* peanut. Average of about $0.05 a month  :Stick Out Tongue:

----------


## PlatinumWealth.co.za

> I'm avoiding doing that until I have the proper permissions sync running from the plug-in installed here. Within that plug-in I've disabled ads for members - it should only bug guests with ads now. However I only got that far this morning so perhaps there's some lag before it updates (I saw something about a 24 hour lag in advert updates in the Tapatalk dash).
> 
> BTW - I see the "income" I'd be giving up is peanuts. Or maybe only *a* peanut. Average of about $0.05 a month


Hahahahaha we were on $0.03! Before it was switched off.

Do you spend any money on the forum? When did you start it if you don't mind me asking.

----------


## Dave A

Started in May 2006. And yes, there is a fairly significant hosting cost involved.

----------


## PlatinumWealth.co.za

> Started in May 2006. And yes, there is a fairly significant hosting cost involved.


That's quite some time invested, where do you see forums going in the next 5 years? 

I assume there must have been quite a decline since the earlier years?

----------


## Dave A

> I assume there must have been quite a decline since the earlier years?


Not really. Obviously a lot has changed - in fact there's been a revolution. But the "market" has grown massively too. Plenty of sites have come and gone, but I think the good forums have kept going and growing just fine. Compared to Facebook _et al_ it might seem we've all underachieved our potential, I guess - but that's something very different from "declne".




> where do you see forums going in the next 5 years?


Looking back to project forward:

Even through the revolution of the past 10 or so years in the broader user-generated-content space, the fundamentals of forums and why they are relevant hasn't changed that much. 

From a technology point of view, the software continues to strive to find better ways to structure and represent the conversations. We'll continue to see tweaks, but will we see a great breakthrough? I suggest breakthroughs are inherently unpredictable, so perhaps. Or perhaps not.

On the human side there's little doubt attention span has shortened and people have become less inclined to absorb large slabs of text. So there seems to be a rise in "message" that was delivered in text previously now being presented as video.

Perhaps the future is going to be a case of video killing the texting star???

It's still might have to take a forum format to become a meaningful multi-way dialogue, and it may still require subtitles, text summaries and tags.

About my best guess for now.

----------


## HR Solutions

> people have become less inclined to absorb large slabs of text


This is SO true.  
People were more inquisitive 10 years ago - now people don't have time to read a whole load of a "large slab of text" which more often than not, turns out to be the biggest load of crap.

----------


## PlatinumWealth.co.za

> Not really. Obviously a lot has changed - in fact there's been a revolution. But the "market" has grown massively too. Plenty of sites have come and gone, but I think the good forums have kept going and growing just fine. Compared to Facebook _et al_ it might seem we've all underachieved our potential, I guess - but that's something very different from "declne".
> 
> 
> Looking back to project forward:
> 
> Even through the revolution of the past 10 or so years in the broader user-generated-content space, the fundamentals of forums and why they are relevant hasn't changed that much. 
> 
> From a technology point of view, the software continues to strive to find better ways to structure and represent the conversations. We'll continue to see tweaks, but will we see a great breakthrough? I suggest breakthroughs are inherently unpredictable, so perhaps. Or perhaps not.
> 
> ...


Same page, regarding the attention span of today's humans.
That is why we are now building some clever little bots and push notification features, small little snippets of information on a users phone, but of course we are in a different space the idea is to offer a better method for end users to access profile.co.za's data since the current ways are laborious, expensive and not in everyone's reach. 

So point I am trying to make; People's attention span and willingness to read and write knowledgeable articles/posts have declined quite a bit compared to the ZA IRC days. Which is sad since I would much rather trust the opinion of a forum.

----------


## HR Solutions

> Which is sad since I would much rather trust the opinion of a forum


You can trust some opinions from a forum.  I think you just need to get to know the posters.  You soon get to realise who posts long posts with no substance and copy paste posts that mean absolutely nothing etc etc and people who post and think they know about something, but actually know nothing about a topic.

----------


## PlatinumWealth.co.za

> You can trust some opinions from a forum.  I think you just need to get to know the posters.  You soon get to realise who posts long posts with no substance and copy paste posts that mean absolutely nothing etc etc and people who post and think they know about something, but actually know nothing about a topic.


Definitely.

----------


## PlatinumWealth.co.za

Ads are gone. Tapatalk is now a breeze Dave!

----------


## Dave A

> Ads are gone. Tapatalk is now a breeze Dave!


Excellent  :Smile: 
Looks like the local settings do trickle through then.

----------


## PlatinumWealth.co.za

Dave did you end up buying a tapatalk subscription it seems they are now rolling out ads on free tier by default and you need to upgrade to disable it. 

Nasty tactic imo.

----------


## Dave A

Are the ads back?

----------


## PlatinumWealth.co.za

> Are the ads back?


Not on yours, hence me asking if you still use the free tier or upgraded. 

I am tempted to upgrade as I hate the ads on our tapatalk now, but I feel cheated, like they are forcing us.

----------


## Dave A

I haven't changed a thing - still on the free tier.

You may be right that it's about default settings - remember I customised mine which means they're not "default".

----------


## PlatinumWealth.co.za

> I haven't changed a thing - still on the free tier.
> 
> You may be right that it's about default settings - remember I customised mine which means they're not "default".


Yea that's what I recall I phoned them, told me they began a role out now free tier (once you update the new forum plugin) adds ads by default to turn of or use your own Adsense account you need to update to the tier 1 that entry level. 

Sucks. Guess I'll need to cough up /meh

----------

