Tapatalk Removal

[StuartG]

Do I detect panic at TapaTalk Towers?
Received this morning ...

Dear Forum Owner,

Thank you once again to continue using Tapatalk. Connecting people to their passions is what we do, and we know we can’t accomplish that mission without you.

We also understand as Forum Owners you expect having full control over your forum. From the beginning, we have always provided Forum Owners the ability to control various features that we provide, for example image sharing. We are extending that control to the advertisement option.

Last month we sent out an email to you that Tapatalk was going to begin a testing Promoted Topics ad unit as a mean generate ad revenue for Forum Owners. Today, I want to assure you that Forum Owners have full control on displaying ads and receiving revenue on Tapatalk, and this control extends beyond any test period.

While over 84% of our forums have ads on their desktop site, we understand that there are many forums where ads are not appropriate. If you prefer to turn off advertising in your forum, you can go into your Tapatalk dashboard, and disable ads/revenue from Tapatalk. You can use the dashboard to change the settings at anytime.

For instructions on how to turn-off ads, go to our Support Forum/Monetization and Engagement, here is the link to the full instruction

If you previously change the settings, or previously sent a request that ads from Tapatalk be turned-off, those settings remain in place and no action is needed.

In the next update, we will provide you some of early results of our advertising tests, including the payment schedule etc.

If you have any question, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly at eric@tapatalk.com

Regards,
Eric Sternbach
Head of Community Monetization
Tapatalk

 

[Dan B]

Head of Community Monetization

That says all I needed to know, I think.

 

[ianrauk]

[QUOTE 2703532, member: 259"]So does this mean that the potential ads problem isn't a problem then?[/quote]


It's not just the ads Mort. Read Martok's post above.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

I've seen some of the tapatalk

Do I detect panic at TapaTalk Towers?
Received this morning ...

Dear Forum Owner,

Thank you once again to continue using Tapatalk. Converting your forum traffic into £ in our bank account is what we do, and we know we can’t accomplish that mission without hardworking forums to leech off.

We also understand as Forum Owners you expect having full control over your forum. From the beginning, we have always talked a load of buzzcocks and made promises we couldn't keep. We are telling you we are extending that control to the advertisement option but don't really mean it.

Last month we sent out an email to you that Tapatalk was going to begin a testing Promoted Topics ad unit as a mean to generate ad revenue for us. Today, I want to assure you that Forum Owners have no meaningful control on displaying ads and are receiving no revenue from Tapatalk, and this control lacks extension beyond any test period.

While over 84% of our forums have ads on their desktop site, we failed to understand that ads are not appropriate on any forum. If you prefer to turn off advertising in your forum, you can go into your Tapatalk dashboard, and disable ads/revenue from Tapatalk. You can use the dashboard to change the settings at anytime,if we let you.

For instructions on how to turn-off ads, go to our Support Forum/Monetization and Engagement, here is the link to the full instruction

If you previously change the settings, or previously sent a request that ads from Tapatalk be turned-off, those settings remain in place and no action is needed other than removal of tapatalk from your forum software entirely.

In the next update, we will provide you partial figures of what your hardworking forum earned us.

If you have any question, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly at eric@tapatalk.com

Regards,
Eric Sternbach
Head of Community Monetization
Tapatalk

Fixed it I think

 

[phil_hg_uk]

That says all I needed to know, I think.

Something I don't understand everyone is complaining about these adverts, from what I am reading the forum owners are getting paid per click to show the ads. It also look to me like the displaying of the ads to look like a forum topic was an attempt by Tapatalk to make the ads less obtrusive but this seems to have backfired.

Here is what I have seen about this:


We would like to introduce an additional monetization feature in Tapatalk that has ability to display "Topic Style" native advertisement that has the same look and feel of an ordinary topic, just like the way you see Promoted Tweet on Twitter, or Suggested Post on Facebook that is non-intrusive, non-banner style native advertisement that is finding its way into mobile app.

We have been quietly perform pilot with many existing forum owners in past few months. The result is satisfactory and we are going to roll this out to the rest of the forum owners who are looking for additional monetization opportunities.

• Advertisement is delivered as part of the topic listing as "Promoted Topics", with the blue corner-icon to denote the promotion nature of the topic.
• When user click on it, it shows the same style as in the thread view, except it has a more complete message from the sponsors
• Currently only English language forum is supported and majority is U.S. based.
• You will get paid by both impression and clicks, and has much higher eCPM than the ordinary banner ads
• The fill-rate would be low at launch but will be improved as we gradually adding new campaigns
• You will have the option to turn this feature off completely, or only showing to guest users or both guests and membersThis feature settings is located in Forum Owner Area -> Monetization tab - we will be starting this service officially in Septmeber 2013 and you will be able to see the impression / clicks / revenue right inside the Promoted Topic dashboard.

 

[Martok]

Something I don't understand everyone is complaining about these adverts, from what I am reading the forum owners are getting paid per click to show the ads.

Does Shaun force us to see adverts? No he doesn't, if we register and login here then we don't see any. The concern is that these adverts will be forced upon us, or at least those who have the free Tapatalk app, even though the forum owner might not want it. I mean come on, after all these years of providing paid-only apps they are suddenly giving away a free version with little difference from the Pro version. They are hardly doing that out of the goodness of their hearts, are they? They'll be wanting to generate income from that (naturally) and the only way to do that is to cripple it compared to the Pro version (which isn't looking likely) or to display adverts on it.

With the advertising that Shaun uses (and I also use on my forum), we have complete control over who sees the adverts and also what type of adverts are shown. So if we don't want a specific type of advertising e.g references to Sex and Sexuality, we can block them. We have no control over the type of advertising that Tapatalk displays to our users.

I am not at all convinced yet that what they are saying is the complete truth. There are various other things that Tapatalk have done in recent times that forum owners aren't happy with which I don't want to go into here.

Shaun won't have made this decision just to make life difficult for members. I know that he will have deliberated over this for quite some time and is doing this in the best interests of the community. So whilst you may be disappointed, please bear this in mind and do at least try out the responsive design on your mobile browser.

 

[Spinney]

And contrary to what that screed from Tapatalk implies, I DO find the 'suggested posts' on Facebook intrusive. I don't want to see them, they get in the way of seeing posts from my friends/likes.

 

[StuartG]

Can I just say to those who feel disadvantaged by losing TapaTalk that as a Forum admin I agree wholeheartedly with @Martok.

Providing TapaTalk is a burden. It requires frequent updates to the forum software. It is not often clear why. It is a security risk (as is all other software so if you can do without you do without). I was happy they did include some discreet ads in their free version in return for enabling people to access the forum who otherwise could not or find it very difficult.

Two things have happened. Smartphones with decent screens and browsers are now the norm and rapidly getting better. Meanwhile forum software has got much more mobile friendly. The need for TapaTalk has considerably reduced. Whether you think this is zero or just to cover some special non-forum functionality or for very old phones on 2G is an admission that why we installed it in the first place is no longer a why for keeping it.

These facts have not escaped TapaTalk faced with a failing business model. What they have to do is to find another way to:

a) Make money
b) Retain/Expand the Forum base

It is how they addressed b) that has lost them the trust of many forum admins. First they tried to make money by stealth and when they were found out we get stuff like the email I posted above. To anyone who knows the background it is embarrassing to see such guiltless spin. So, to me (and I suspect Shaun and other admins), they can not be trusted and they are not really needed any more. A double whammy. Well unless you want to make money out of community forums. And how much are we going to make from TapaTalk? Not enough (according to my logs) to make it worth calculating.

 

[ianrauk]

Something I don't understand everyone is complaining about these adverts, from what I am reading the forum owners are getting paid per click to show the ads. It also look to me like the displaying of the ads to look like a forum topic was an attempt by Tapatalk to make the ads less obtrusive but this seems to have backfired.

Here is what I have seen about this:


We would like to introduce an additional monetization feature in Tapatalk that has ability to display "Topic Style" native advertisement that has the same look and feel of an ordinary topic, just like the way you see Promoted Tweet on Twitter, or Suggested Post on Facebook that is non-intrusive, non-banner style native advertisement that is finding its way into mobile app.

We have been quietly perform pilot with many existing forum owners in past few months. The result is satisfactory and we are going to roll this out to the rest of the forum owners who are looking for additional monetization opportunities.

• 
  
  
  • Advertisement is delivered as part of the topic listing as "Promoted Topics", with the blue corner-icon to denote the promotion nature of the topic.
  • When user click on it, it shows the same style as in the thread view, except it has a more complete message from the sponsors
  • Currently only English language forum is supported and majority is U.S. based.
  • You will get paid by both impression and clicks, and has much higher eCPM than the ordinary banner ads
  • The fill-rate would be low at launch but will be improved as we gradually adding new campaigns
  • You will have the option to turn this feature off completely, or only showing to guest users or both guests and membersThis feature settings is located in Forum Owner Area -> Monetization tab - we will be starting this service officially in Septmeber 2013 and you will be able to see the impression / clicks / revenue right inside the Promoted Topic dashboard.

How many more times can people explain to you?.... it's not just about adverts.

Edit: just seen @StuartG 's post above.

 

[Longshot]

I like Tapatalk and find it very convenient to use across a variety of forums.

Having said that, I've never been given the impression that Shaun has anything but the best intentions for this site and I'm happy to trust his judgement on the issue that he must have known was going to alienate some users.

I have noticed ads appearing on a couple of forums that I access via Tapatalk and that has started me to question its usefulness. Like someone else said above, I detest the "suggested posts" on Facebook and don't need any more advertising in my life.

 

[StuartG]

I like Tapatalk and find it very convenient to use across a variety of forums.

Yes - it is great to have a unified window to view multiple forums. But that does not have to be TapaTalk. On my forums we provide two feeds:

* RSS - for the geeky. Combined with a great RSS app it is the most convenient and flexible way of seeing posts by thread/forum/universe
* Twitter - for the Twitterarte. Fits in the rest of your life. This is set up simply by using a Twitter service to read RSS and re-post as tweets

Of course these are read only options. But they are a click thru to the real forum software for posting. Which removes a major security risk. CC does RSS and anyone could setup a Twitter feed from it.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

How many more times can people explain to you?.... it's not just about adverts.

Edit: just seen @StuartG 's post above.

No I gather that Ian which is why I was trying to find out just exactly what it was about.

I like to know these things given that I have spent almost my entire adult life working in the computer industry it is nice to share such information so that if this problem should crop up I know what it is and why it is happening as problem solving is what I do.

 

[Longshot]

* RSS
* Twitter

Nope, don't so either of those

 

[Shaun]

Thanks for the feedback. I anticipated that the removal of Tapatalk would impact on some of you negatively - but I have looked long and hard at this and despite the potential risk of losing members / content, I still feel it is currently in the best interests of CycleChat.

I'm going to close this thread but if anything changes I will let you all know; otherwise expect it to be removed on the 20th.

Shaun