the app is really really disappointing
 

Whatever the reason for not using tap talk it's not good enough.

It's the difference in chicken salad and chicken ****.

the app is really really disappointing
 

My only real complaint is lack of ipad support and the fact that if you get a private message the app will crash after you read it.

Thanks for the feedback Chilly Bear. We are somewhat limited by the version of vBulletin software we're using for the forum. If we upgrade to the newer version it would support more functionality, however that would be a rather large change. What would you like the mobile app to do that it doesn't currently do? We are actually working on submitting new bug fixes and patches to accommodate the new version of iOS.

Gilboa:

One thing I've noticed is that when you try to reply to a post it doesn't include the post you're replying to.

I am using the mobile app to respond to this. You need to tap the post you are replying to and it then let's you choose to reply or quote. If you just tap quick reply from the thread level it doesn't offer the option to quote.

.... Oh.... My bad. Thanks :)

the app is really really disappointing
 

No problem, thanks for the question, it took me a few mins to figure that out actually.

Not being able to mark all read with the app Having to manually select go to last unread then scrolling through lots of read posts before actually getting to last unread. As I type this the B Aa and smiley cover 1/4 of the bottom line of what I'm typing. Just lots of little things.

When reading a private message I can't see the whole message and it won't let me scroll down. I have to go to the website to read it.

This. Don't know if we're both missing something or not, but it's aggravating.

That's odd. i can scroll down PMs by using my finger swipe. I'm using an iphone 4s running ios7.x. What about you guys?

that being said, the app is definitely not ideal and it has flaws but it gets you most of the way there usually.

I can imagine that'd be annoying but it would be a really big task to sync up what you've read via the site with what you've read on the app and to do it seamlessly; it would have to work both ways.

On my app i see an icon that says "last unread" which takes me pretty close to the end; is that not working for you?

The B Aa and emoticon tabs are there for your convenience; i'm not sure where else they'd go and still be useful but i agree it's not ideal.

Thanks again for the feedback. If there are real bugs like the app crashing or things not working properly then please let me know. We don't have a plan to make big enhancements to the app at this time but if things are broken we can definitely try to fix them. I do recommend that everyone update their OS and the app since we did recently push a few updates to it.

the app is really really disappointing
 

After the update the search, subscribed and top buttons don't work. IOS7.

Sorry you are having that issue Chilly Bear; i can't replicate this one. I just updated the IOS to the latest version of 7 last night and those buttons are working for me. Are other links or buttons working on the app but just not the bottom row? Worth a try: log out, log back in and see if you are still having the same issue.

I just did the update to iOS 7.0.4 last night, as well. No change in the problems I was already experiencing with the most recent APF Mobile app update.

List of noticeable problems:

1. None of the bottom buttons work in the following places:
- On the home screen: Newest, Top, Subscribed, and the little search magnifying glass. No response whatsoever.
- Within a forum: Reload, Subscribe, and Search. No response whatsoever.
- Within a thread: Reload, Subscribe, Search, and Last Post (one of my favorite functions). No response whatsoever.
- Within a post: Report, Reply, Quote. No response whatsoever.

2. Private Messages: None of the bottom row buttons work. Reply to message never quotes the message, that is a much needed function when trying to reference the PM one is responding to.

3. No Community anywhere in the app.

4. Profile doesn't have the option of seeing previous posts by a specific user.

I like the fact that y'all optimized the app for the iPhone 5's taller screen, but losing functionality is unacceptable.

There doesn't appear to be a fear of "rather large change" in other areas of the website, beginning with the masthead and working on down. APC is using vBulletin v.3.8.6. Another aviation website for Pro Pilots uses vBulletin v.4.1.2. More functional, and more aesthetically pleasing.

I, too, wish you'd get over your squabble with Tapatalk already, but I realize this site has morphed from a labor of love into a commercial enterprise, and common sense now takes a back seat to dollars and cents.


But could you fix the dang clock? DST is over now. :rolleyes:






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the app is really really disappointing
 

Cannot reply or quote. Can only use quick reply.

Log out doesn't fix anything.

Thanks for the detailed feedback, that helps a lot. I was able to replicate the bugs in #1 and #2 above and have reported that with urgency to the tech team. #4 is more of a feature request and that will be reviewed to see if we can include that in the feature roadmap. Stay tuned.

Regarding #3, not entirely sure there's a quick remedy to that perception. APC is still best experienced through the browser version rather than an app, and I think that's true of most communities (e.g. facebook, linkedin, etc.). The mobile app was designed to be a useful way to access the information on the go and not a replacement for the browser version but it looks like the bugs are definitely hindering that for you all and that's something we're working on. I do appreciate your patience with this.

Cool, thanks for the quick response.

I agree that the Community feature is extra stuff, so no worries there.

TonyC, I'm glad you're in favor of upgrading to vb4, that's a good endorsement. However, updating the site header or "masthead" is not that disruptive or complex compared to an upgrade to vb4. It's like comparing a paint job to a full transmission replacement; different order of magnitude. If the rest of the community is on board, we can definitely upgrade and you're right, it will noticeably improve the interface and some features. There are some subtle changes though and changing the way people use a product like the forum is not to be taken lightly. The upside for you mobile users is that going to vb4 will allow us to fix some of the issues with the app that we may not be able to do staying on v3.8. I do anticipate though that many of you will say that we are fixing something that isn't broken and grumble about a myriad of annoyances that the change has brought.

Lastly, you are correct that this is being run as a business, but that actually keeps us aligned because if you're not happy with our product and the way we run things then we're not doing a good job of running a business. Although dollars and cents are important, we actually focus more on supporting this community and not forcing tech changes for our own benefit unless absolutely necessary (e.g. the airline profiles). Every product and business decision we make boils down to this question: is this something good for the community and will it increase engagement? If you think we have fallen short of the mark please let me know. Ultimately, you are the judge.

And my question is this. How can someone who is not part of a community presume to know what is good for that community? What are your pilot credentials?

I didn't intend to engage beyond my first comment, but your response reeks of disingenuity, dishonesty, insincerity, or hypocrisy -- I'm not sure which, but none are good.


So let's just skip the big words and say, that's not true.

Tapatalk is something that "is good for the community and it will increase engagement."

When a participant at the other Pro Pilot forum approached the Administrator with the idea of installing the Tapatalk plugin so users could use the app, it was installed the very same day. That Forum runs on the latest version of vBulletin and the latest version of Tapatalk, and the result is more people have more access to the Forums, and there's no thread where people complain about the limited or broken features of a home-built smartphone app.

Same thing happened with ForumRunner. User asks, Administrator responds. (Bonus: Starting with vBulletin 4.1.12, ForumRunner is built in.)

The thing is, the decision to not use Tapatalk here has nothing to do with what "is good for the community and will increase engagement." It has to do with the fact that Internet Brands now OWNS ForumRunner, so it would be a conflict of BUSINESS interest to run a competing app on an Internet Brands Forum.

The first sentence of the first post of this thread exclaims, "Whatever the reason for not using tap talk it's not good enough." You've conveniently failed to address that issue, and instead made excuses for why the current app falls short. That's a dollars and cents decision that makes NO common sense, and it has nothing to do with what "is good for the community and it will increase engagement."

That's just the truth.


Finally, and I'll hush.

If you were a part of the community, or knew anything about it, you would know that pilots always complain. It's part of our DNA. If pilots grumbling will keep you from making improvements, there will never be any. ;)


Upgrade vBulletin, install Tapatalk, pilots will whine, and then they'll be happy again.

Or not.





.

I think this whole tapatalk decision from about 3 years ago was previously addressed elsewhere in the forum but just to clarify, we went with a custom-built mobile app rather than pay a third party to control the user experience and be reliant on them for feature roll-outs and quality of service. Tapatalk is a fine product and makes sense for a lot of standalone communities but ultimately we made the rational business decision that we would prefer to control our own destiny and hopefully build a better product. This all pre-dates our ownership of ForumRunner, which you don't see me pushing, btw, although you are welcome to use it rather than our mobile app.

Even if we went with tapatalk, by your own admission you'd probably be grumbling about that too so clearly there's no winning with you TonyC. Alas, we still push forward with our apparently insincere motivations, in direct consultation with the moderators (i.e. pilots) and Admins (the pilot founders of APCF who are still actively engaged in running the community, fyi). Looking forward, we will start exploring migrating to vb4 and fixing the mobile app. Thank you, as always, for your candid feedback.

Steve,

I'm just trying to keep everybody honest about this issue, OK?


http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/si...martphone.html

August, 2010: HSLD explained that the plugin for the site would cost $3000. That's a reasonable reason to choose not to install, even though someone posted that the Tapatalk website implies it was free.

January, 2011, same thread: Request renewed, text from website copied in post to show that it's free to the Forum Owner. No answer.

February, 2011, same thread: Request renewed, denied, no reason given.

October, 2012, same thread: Request renewed, no response.

June, 2013, same thread: Request renewed, still free to the forum owner, no response.

July, 2013, same thread: Broken record: Request renewed, still free to the forum owner.

YOU, Steve, replied, "we have looked into tapatalk in the past and decided it was not the right solution for us." So, you knew all that.

So, let's clarify ...

... is a ... let me be generous ... is a misrepresentation. It has NOTHING to do with paying a third party. It's FREE, as in NO cost, NO paying ANYbody ANYthing.

Instead, you pushed the APF Mobile App which is the subject of this complaint thread.


In that endeavor you have fallen short.


But it does NOT pre-date the August, 2008 acquisition by Internet Brands of Airline Pilot Central.


I doubt you care about winning with me, and that's not important, that's not the point. If you install Tapatalk, great -- I might use it. I used the APF Mobile App once -- uninstalled. I am happy with my Chrome browser on my Nexus 4, thankyouverymuch.

I was motivated to post because there were misrepresentations made about the "history" of this forum and Tapatalk, and I just want to set the record straight. It's so much easier to keep the stories straight when you just stick to the truth.

This is why Internet Brands will not install Tapatalk on any Internet Brands Forums -- Internet Brands owns Forum Runner, a competitor of Tapatalk.

Plain and simple.

:)

It's only because the pilot founders have become (for understandable reasons) less actively engaged that they've been reduced to consultants, and we see more strange names with ADMINISTRATOR under their names telling us why we're wrong.

;)


(BTW, did you ever get HuggyU2 an answer to his PM Inbox question?)






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the app is really really disappointing
 

Good job on the bug fixes, Gilbola. Now there's a very large empty space below most posts.

i see the expanded white space which is for the quick reply area. Are you still experiencing the bugs previously reported?

Nope but numerous news ones have shown their ugly little heads:

1. Lots of space below some posts that isn't put there by the poster.
2. Overlapping text from one post onto the next.
3. Inability to read posts in their entirety when a single post is selected for reading. It cuts off the last few lines of text.
4. App doesn't not recognize non-English symbols (e.g. pasión typed via the app produces pasión). No bueno, señor :cool:

I'd take screen shots and stuff but that's a little more time-consuming than I'm willing to work considering this is pro bono.

Also, I put in quite a few updates to my airline's profile and still haven't seen any changes. Brandi knows about it, said she'd try to get whoever's in charge of that to contact me but I haven't heard from her/them either. I'd keep it super up-to-date, you guys just gotta give me the opportunity.

OK, thanks for the detailed feedback; I'll send over to the tech team. Screenshots not likely needed in this case since there appears to be larger issues going on.

Regarding the airline profile updates, i know we're working on them. Not sure what the specific hold-up is but sometimes when airlines merge and/or change names, etc it's not as easy to make those changes. We definitely appreciate the updates so please keep them coming in, usually it's a relatively simple straightforward process that gets quick turnaround.

Don't know if you all saw the announcement: http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/ru...t-central.html

I hope the Tapatalk app (or Forumrunner) are better experiences than the current mobile app. We are working on a simple mobile skin for the browser experience but I don't have a time table on launch for that since development has just begun. Thanks for your feedback and patience.