Tapatalk's purpose is to manage several forums at once, the way MyMail can mannage several e-mails at once. It's not about how the forum looks, it's about how accessible the forum is. Tapatalk puts Wordforge right in front of your target audience. Trucker'sReport forum saw a large drop in membership when they removed Tapatalk, and Volconvo just closed it's doors due to lack of membership for the same.
I haven't tried. I started using tapatalk a while ago, liked it, and saw no reason to do anything else. Now I need to start trying something else.
That may be the key deference. I, for example, belong to 16 forums, only 3 of which are political like Wordforge.
Wordforge ThePoliticsForums Volconvo DebatePolitics OutdoorForums Fireingline CrossFire TheHighRoad DefenciveCarry USACarry Geocash PrepperForums EnWorld SigTalk TruckersReport BhuddismForBeginners Through a brouser I would have to check each forum individually. Through tapatalk every notification appears in one place.
Back when Lanzman had the place and made an unpopular decision, there was a boycott where a bunch of people moved to TK. But that was different in a number of ways: 1) At the time, TK was still a viable forum. And an influx of refugees actually bolstered it. As much as I love TK, right now it is a front porch for about 6 people and John Castle to sit around and talk about the weather and what was on TV last night. And they don't seem that hot for a bunch of new traffic on politics and debate. 2) At the time, the boycott was by WF's Movers and Shakers. Right now WF doesn't have any Movers and Shakers. 3) Lanzman was actually open to change and applying pressure was an effective way of making him reconsider a decision. This Gang of Idiots would rather see this place burned to the waterline and stinking of kerosene before they'd admit they were wrong about something. So we're fucked. Win-Win isn't an option. Neither is Win-Lose. So the only endgame at this point is Lose-Lose.
Removing Tapatalk is like removing Facebook from the internet. Remember writing hand-printed letters to family and friends one at a time? Maybe you don't.
Lanz open to ideas? What a laugh. He basically asked if we wanted rep changed (no one did) and then said "fuck it, we're changing it anyway." We were pissed and then after a while no one cared. Well, Volpone did, because Volpone but the rest of us with maturity above an angry toddler went about our lives and nothing of value was lost. This isn't a knock on Lanz, but to point out that this place has never been a democracy and that yes, some decisions that came down.the pipe without a popular vole were ultimately for the betterment of this place.
This is not about the betterment of this place. Changing over to Xenforo. That was about betterment. Having a system of post ratings. That was about betterment. Going after posters who have not broken the rules because they personally annoy you? That's not betterment. If you were worried about posters driving people off you'd have gotten rid of Dinner's racism long ago - not least because that is far more unsavoury for the place than gturner ever has been. No, this has always been making up excuses to go after people who you personally don't like, and to hell with the rules. Lanz was the man of inaction. But he was also a hell of a lot fairer that the current clown show. He disliked how some posters behaved, but he never went after them unless they broke the rules.
"Not a democracy" is not a catch all excuse for acting like double standard tossers - not least because some of the current mod team were once upon a time very, very vocal about what they saw as bullshit decisions under previous admins - not least Gul himself. What's more, whether or not it's a democracy is immaterial when you have a set of rules that you have people agree to when then post here that sets out what people shouldn't do and then people are gone after for totally different reasons. It's just plain courtesy to treat your members with fairness. You know the arrogance from you, Gul and Anna this past day has been astounding. Talking down to us as if we're slow minded plebs who should thank our lucky stars we get to post here. This is not the person I thought you were.
When do I ever talk down to anyone here? I'm the only one that made any attempt at all to answer your questions...again, in the middle of a holiday week, the first I've gotten to spend with my own family since I shipped off to boot camp. And as John said, for what end? You've made up your mind coming into this, no matter what we say or do. And you're treated every staff member, admin and board owner with the same level of contempt since Martok's Sweetheart opened the doors here.
Oh look, here's John, the self proclaimed purveyor of love and friendship - acting like a nasty little shit as soon as he's called on his own actions. Nice.
I am about love and friendship, but just like all friends, people fight. I like you a lot, I respect you, and I didn't really mean what I said, but yeah, it's hard for me to care about what's going on when a dozen people have decided it would be fun to form a lynch mob.
Really? I forced all of you to behave like a recreation of the Lord of the Flies. Goddamn, I didn't know I was that charismatic and influential. I'm either history's greatest monster or the second coming of Kim Kardashian.
I'm sorry, I didn't get that. I was too busy looking into the eyes of Ms. Piggy, aka John, the self-appointed, delusional god of the universe.
That would be Piggy. Not Ms. Piggy. You're like Barney Fife, aren't you? Do you post this electronally? Are you a kleptominarac?
It's not a lynch mob (well, certain of the alt-righties might want it to be, but the rest of us don't). Contrary to what @Anna says I have not had an issue with every moderator action in 14 years. I just believe very strongly in fairness. Not democracy. Fairness. In society. In the workplace. In families. In friendships. All over. People should be treated fairly here for as long as this place is meant to be held out as a place that is prepared to welcome old timers and new people alike. When I see bullshit like this I'm gonna bang on about it even if the poster in question is someone I otherwise don't care for, because that's what good people do. It's why I banged on about discouragement. It's why I banged on about Dayton having his PM access removed. It's why I would call Tamar out on her bias. Fairness is important because this is basically a place of leisure for many members. It's where people come to blow off steam. People should feel free to be able to do that within the parameters of the rules presented to them. Instead you have helped to create a climate where people don't feel they will be treated fairly. I just don't see how that is a good thing - and were you not personally involved in making this decision, I'm not convinced you would either, because it's not in the spirit of what you're about.