Mobile version
 

Forgive me if this has been discussed, but is there a mobile version of dvdtalk? I'd like to read on my android phone.

Re: Mobile version
 

/\ Why not visit on your browser? That's what I do on my Android.

Re: Mobile version
 

I've done that a couple of times, but it's a pain in the ass resizing and scrolling sideways.

Re: Mobile version
 

I believe this has been requested for years, but the sticking point was that a mobile version wouldn't serve up as many ads.

Re: Mobile version
 

Why not a phone app where there are pop ups once and a while?

Re: Mobile version
 

This was the previous discussion. Wow, I didn't realize it'd been over a year since we stopped flogging that horse.

Is there a mobile version of this forum?

Re: Mobile version
 

Also touched on here:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/forum-feedb...e-support.html

So a thread from 2008 and 2009.

Re: Mobile version
 

It's never going to happen.

Re: Mobile version
 

going to this site on my phone while taking a crap would be much easier if this site had a mobile version. It's a bitch to work the site on a Blackberry...granted..maybe I could get another phone..but..no.

Re: Mobile version
 

I'm scared. I saw the above post in my email and knew who posted it without looking.

Re: Mobile version
 

Blackberries are so yesterday but if it helps to go to the bathroom...............

:horsepoo:

Re: Mobile version
 

I'm going to bump this up instead of creating a new thread for it. I know, this topic is indeed like beating a dead horse, but something truly needs to be done. The last official word I can remember was that you guys were not going to add the Tapatalk app so we could use that, but were instead trying to create an alternative option, possibly an actual DVDTalk app itself. Time has gone by, and it has now been many years since first requested, but nothing has been done about it to this day. Yes, you can view it in a browser, but that isn't remotely close to the mobile type of option that everyone wants.

I love this board, I've been coming here for ten years or so now (once I post this I'll know for sure) and that's not going to change, but I feel like a lack of a proper mobile option is slowly chipping away at the activity here on the site since there are more and more people using message boards on mobile devices, and especially using the Tapatalk app.

I wont name names, anyone reading this will know what I'm talking about anyway, but there is another movie/Blu-ray board that has gained a ton of steam over the past year or two and I attribute at least part of that to the ease and convenience of being able to access that other board on Tapatalk. You can even take pictures and post them directly to threads using the app itself. It is a fantastic experience using that app to access that other board, and the tons of other boards that have got on board with it as well. There have been quite a few people under the same name that have become far more active on the other site, and who knows how many more there have been that signed up under totally new names.

I just wanted to toss this out there once again. I've seen it time and time again where certain groups wanted to be stubborn about things and keep denying what should be seen as obvious must have upgrades, only for it to bit them in the ass and then allow others to totally bypass them and then just fade away. I am not saying something like this would cause that sort of thing, but I certainly don't want to see that happen.

Give it a look once again, rethink it, and I think you'll see just how happy it would make a ton of people. I'm not going to post over and over about this, I know it's been talked about in the past, but I wanted to bring it up just once more, especially after noticing all that I have noticed over the last year or so, and especially here lately. Thanks.

Re: Mobile version
 

:clap:

Re: Mobile version
 

Well said. I'm finding myself using this site less often and sites with mobile apps more often.

Re: Mobile version
 

This issue is the sole reason I don't have a top hat any more.

Re: Mobile version
 

Ditto that.

Brent L :clap::clap:

Re: Mobile version
 

Yeah, this is one of the main reasons I did not allow for my "premium" subscription to renew. I was hanging in there, supporting the site in that way, holding onto hope that something would actually be done. In the end I just kept feeling more and more like I was being ripped off by stubborn corporate stubbornness and we were all just being strung along. Add into that how I think it is ridiculous that we had to pay for the "privilege" to have something as simple as a small avatar, and that was just it for me.

Yeah, the entire avatar thing...also on the other board, for free.

Whoever the faceless IB identity in charge is, you need to realize this is only gonna get worse. It'll just be a natural decline, over time, as has already begun to take place. Sure, viewing it on the browser allows us to view most of the same content as an app like Tapatalk, but it's a vastly inferior experience. It's like a movie studio continuing to release material to VHS or DVD only instead of finally jumping on board with Blu-ray. It reminds me of the idiocy of situations like when Kodak refused to jump on board with the digital camera and everyone else left them in the dust all alone. I know, hyperbole and all that, but still, there is a point to be realized here.

Don't let that happen to DVDTalk, please. All you have to do is glance at the various boards here to realize that something is wrong and things are declining. It isn't just me.

I'm just glad that at least a few other people agree with me.

Re: Mobile version
 

I am glad this issue has been responded to in a timely fashion.

Re: Mobile version
 

I believe they said they couldn't control ads in Tapatalk or something. They couldn't monetize it. Maybe that's true but I'm thinking there is some way to monetize it or no sites would use it.

And for the record, I would NEVER read this site via browser on my iPhone 5 unless I needed to for some reason.

Re: Mobile version
 

At the very least, some transparency on this and other issues would be if not helpful actually respectful, IB.

Re: Mobile version
 

Yeah, it's all about money, they wont add Tapatalk because they can't make any money off of people while they are out and about wanting to view the site. I used to read the site via the browser on my iPhone every now and then while out in a store or something until I discovered Tapatalk and how freakin' easy and fantastic it is to view other boards, such as the Blu-ray.com forums (there I said it) when to compared to the awful experience of DVDTalk on mobile. Never again, those days are over, if I need to view a site like this on mobile it'll be a site on Tapatalk.

If they actually cared about keeping the site financially viable and flat out alive then they would get on board. The activity here seems to drop more and more every day, especially in the categories that the site is built on (home releases of all sorts, bargains, etc...). They better do something to keep that trend from continuing. As silly as it may sound, I still consider this site my home base. I certainly don't want to see it go downhill as more and more people seek out a better, and far more user friendly, options.

Forget about when I bumped this thread, but they haven't even responded to this thread since it was originally started back in July of last year. I'm sure it worked out great for Geoff when he sold DVDTalk to IB back in late 2007, and I don't blame him a single bit for doing so. I likely would have done the same. It sure screwed things up here though, in a ton of different ways. It has been a slow downhill decline ever since then and this issue isn't helping things a single bit.

To you guys officially at IB, at least respond to us and say once again you aren't going to do anything about it since you don't think it would benefit you financially. At least it would be a response of some sort. At least show us that much respect for being members of this site for so long.

Re: Mobile version
 

Here's the deal guys, and thanks for being patient. I know we've given one or another answer over the last few years.

Tapatalk: is not going to happen. Same reasons as before.

Other solutions: We're talking (meaning me, my boss Brent, and our project manager Mike) about three possible solutions, one of which involves upgrading the site's VB software to a new version. If that one gets selected, it'll be a bit more involved to make mobile happen. The others are somewhat less dev-intensive.

All the solutions are suboptimal next to using the full site on a mobile browser, but we definitely appreciate the desire to have an easy browsing-and-posting "tapatalk-like" experience.

I'll get you a final answer as soon as I can. But I assure you we're ruminating and exploring the technical implications actively.

Please let me know if you have any specific questions/concerns, and thanks again. Feel free to PM me or email me at paul(dot)obrien(at)internetbrands(dotcom).

Paul O'Brien
Community Manager

Re: Mobile version
 

Throw my vote in the hat that a mobile version would be a great improvement. I am not a member of other boards and would hate to see this site decline any more than it has thus far or shut down. I have noticed a sharp decline in traffic & use. Hopong for a goodsolution to make the mobile experience better & drive appropriate traffic to this site.

Re: Mobile version
 

What a shitty answer. The other thread was started almost 4 years ago. Go ahead and spend another 4 years talking about possible solutions. The problem will solve itself when everyone is gone. So glad I gave up the premium subscription.

Re: Mobile version
 

Yeah, tell me about it. This was first requested just two months after IB bought the site, going on six years now. The last time they even responded to this was two years ago, and THAT reply was just IBobi quoting IB-Dick's initial reply to the requests one year prior to that.

Wait, IBobi replied once more a few days later after they quoted the year old reply from IB-Dick. Here it is, from 6/7/11:

It's all just excuses. This isn't rocket science. There are only two reasons it would take SIX years - one, they haven't figured out how to milk us all financially from it (such as with ads and that sort of thing) or two, they are just putting it off with excuses because they don't actually have anything planned.

Here is the thread...

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/forum-feedb...ion-forum.html

Even if they were to come up with something like NEOGaf wouldn't be enough now. It may have been fine had they done a proper mobile site that automatically came up when you went to it in the browser had they done so in 2007, but that wont cut it now. Tapatalk, and other such things, have been on the market now to show people just how great of an experience it can be when truly done properly. Even just a basic mobile site wouldn't be enough (although, yes, it would be better than nothing). They may have already fallen too far behind to even make up for it at this point. If you don't stay on top of the game when it comes to this sort of thing other sources will leave you in the dust. DVDTalk has a ton of catching up to do since they are now six years behind the times.

Blah, this just sucks, I don't want to talk bad about the site but we all know that it hasn't been the same for years. It isn't even the same now as it was when IB first took over in 2007. It was a decline on day one, but the real decline didn't really start until a year or two ago. That is when I first noticed the traffic here dipping in a big way, and the traffic at the sites that are actually moving forward really started to gain steam.

The only part of DVDTalk that hasn't taken at least a huge hit is Other, but that is by the power of the Otters and nothing IB has done.

Re: Mobile version
 

I'm not sure if you guys have considered this, but you can use the vBulletin Mobile Suite.

http://www.vbulletin.com/vb4-mobile/

It's compatible down to version 3.7.5 (so you'd just need some minor updates to the forum software).

The cost outlay is minimal. $199 for the Mobile Suite, and then $99/year for the App Store developer account and $25/one-time for Android Marketplace. You'll have native iOS and Android apps, which are DVDTalk branded and can be monetized with ads. Or you can create both ad-free and ad-supported versions of the apps.

And it should only take a day or two of engineering effort to do minor updates to the forum software, and submit the information to generate the Apps and submit them to the app stores.

Edit: Err yeah, totally forgot that IB owns vBulletin, so why they don't just install the Mobile Suite and be done with it is beyond me. Are they not aware of their own software's requirements? All you need to do is go 3.7.2 > 3.7.5, install the Mobile Suite, and you're done.

Re: Mobile version
 

Good post Todd B.

Re: Mobile version
 

What the heck is the "Mobile Suite" advertised on the vBulletin website? This can't that difficult. After all this time, there isn't at least a responsive version of vB?

I wish I could use this excuse. Upgrading is a normal course of business and not always pleasant. Maybe they have numerous sites running off the same vB platform and updating one means updating them all. That's just poor planning and execution and it seems at this point, they are just allowing the site to wither on the vine and collect what they can while it lasts. I mean the site DOES have a limited lifespan based on its name alone.

Re: Mobile version
 

From the other thread, again, two years ago...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nuA5wI1_9xw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Re: Mobile version
 

I appreciate IBobi's response, but I agree with pretty much everyone else. It's pretty clear that IB just doesn't want to do the update because:
#1: this site brings practically no revenue,
#2: this site's activity is falling, and
#3: not only is it falling, but it's low enough already that there's just no need to even attempt to "revive" it.

Re: Mobile version
 

All of that may be, and likely is, true. That just confuses me even more why they wouldn't just add Tapatalk or some other option along the same lines. At least then it would make the site more accessible to people, and that could lead some people to jump back on board. It may be to the point where they don't care regardless though. People, and especially new members, follow the traffic and that is now at other sites at this point. The AVS forum also waited around on a mobile option and they are close to being in the same position that DVDTalk is now. They aren't there yet entirely, but a lot of people have moved on from there. It's just a darn shame, that's all.

I realize that there is more going on causing the drop in traffic, I'm not blaming it all on the lack of a mobile option. That certainly has hurt things though.

Re: Mobile version
 

I thought AVS Forum had a mobile option. I remember using something (ForumRunner?) to access the site.

Re: Mobile version
 

They do, but I'm fairly sure it was a somewhat recent (as in the last year) addition. I could very well be wrong, I rarely visit AVS. The only times I really went there was for their reviews and ranking threads. Since I started collecting, DVDTalk has been close to the only forum for this sort of thing that I've visited. Until the past few months or so that is.

I believe they settled on an in browser mobile site, sorta like how the gaming site NeoGAF has.

Re: Mobile version
 

:sad: :sad: :sad:

Seriously.

Re: Mobile version
 

I was just thinking about this yesterday. It's tedious and annoying trying to use this board from my phone. I saw a post going back to 2010 where someone from IB said they had been in alpha stage on a mobile app for the iPhone. That was now 3, 4 years ago...what happened? That kind of app isn't hard to create.

I've also noticed a sharp drop in usage. Gone are the days when you could make a post and by the next day (or sometimes that same day), it was off of the front page. Hell, in our DVD Talk forum, there are still threads over 20 days old on the front page...on HD Talk, a week.

By my guess, the two most active boards on this forum are the Movie Talk forum and the Other Forum. Now, in Movie Talk, it's dwindling...lots of other forums, namely the one that was already mentioned above, have much more activity...so the activity we have here is mostly older vets, some of which have started posting at other forums as well. If you're new, you want to go to where the traffic is...heck, that's how a lot of us found this site in the early 2000's. And Other is ALL older vets (it's not very "noob friendly", just by nature). I haven't seen a newer person survive there for quite a while. IB isn't keeping our most used forum alive, it's us. I'd say the average join date for people who post in the Other forum is over 6 years ago.

Basically, IB, you need to change something if you want to keep people here, and more importantly, get new people in. Shit like contextual advertising and failure to keep up with technological advances in a world gone mobile (some of which YOU OWN) is not going to drive traffic here, it's going to divert it. I understand the need to make money, but if no one is here to use the site, the money can't come in.

Re: Mobile version
 

Well put Tarantino. It is all true, every bit of it. If I didn't know better I'd say that they were actually trying to kill this property off for some reason. That is certainly how they have treated it since they took over.

More than anything, I hate seeing the DVDTalk family splinter off like this after so many years. Most of us regulars have been chatting together for ten years or more. It's a darn shame, but IB has no one to blame but themselves. :(

Re: Mobile version
 

Hi all,

At the risk of going off topic here (though this thread has party done so anyway)...

I'll get an answer, if not an implementation, on mobile this week if I can.

As to general forum usage, yes the number of posts has fallen since the heyday of a few years back; but actually it's holding pretty steady over the last year or two. Advertisers still like DVDTalk, and we get a lot of people coming here from Google searches because the site is well written, full of great info, and highly trusted (so it shows up high in the google results). This is all good.

What's not great is the slow decline in new members and posting since, say, 2010. To that end, I have created this thread to discuss ways we can improve membership and member happiness.

Paul

Re: Mobile version
 

All of that is because of what the former owners set up and put into motion and then because us, as members, kept it active by posting here on the forums. None of that is because of anything IB has done. The forum usage has declined in a big way, and it's getting worse with each passing day as more and more issues are refused to be taken care of. Advertisers still like the site, and traffic to the main site still takes place because of the reviews and the history that is behind the site as a whole. Trust me, if something isn't done quick, the decline of usage of the forum will soon transfer to the actual overall traffic of DVDTalk as a whole. Again, I do not want to see that happen.

Almost no one is going to see the thread you have posted here in the Feedback section. If you want more normal members here to see it, it would be to your advantage to move it to the Other forum, and possibly even make it a sticky thread.

I have nothing against you personally Paul, I really don't. I thank you for at least responding to our recent messages and keeping the topic alive and even for starting the other thread. It does not, however, take a genius to realize that there are major issues at play here, and if they are not dealt with in a timely fashion it will all fall apart once and for all.

Re: Mobile version
 

I hope you'll post the issues you're referring to in that thread. At this time I will not plan to post the thread in the general forum, as there seems to be plenty of action right here, for now; hopefully that means plenty of paths toward a resolution of these grievances too?

When there are technical issues, whenever possible, they are resolved in a timely fashion. If I have missed reporting anything, please let me know -- it's part of what I'm here for.

I'd really like to move more toward specific, constructive suggestions and resolutions, if we can.

Paul

Re: Mobile version
 

FORUM RUNNER mobile solution

I have just been notified that DVD Talk will be added to the list of sites that are supported by the Forum Runner mobile app.

The app is $1.99 on both iOS and Android, supports many other forum sites, and is very similar to the Tapatalk app.

I'll update this thread as soon as I know when this will be enabled.

:)