Absolute Mess Up!

[Amy Gardner]

Is 420 a Problem also? Should I continue trying or is this also affected like the app was?

Yep - I’m fairly certain 420 is not an option.
There’s been mention of finding new app developers in the future to build a new app, but meantime the website is built to be totally ‘mobile friendly’. It’s improving all the time as they tweak and tune. You getting around ok?

 

[420]

Is 420 a Problem also? Should I continue trying or is this also affected like the app was?

We are no longer using 420.

 

[JustinHemp420]

I must admit it's a struggle through the browser at this point in time lol. Kind of sad that Mobile users are left with this to contend with, I foresee a gap in the market hehehe.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Are you looking to make sure everyone is able to get on 420magazine irrespective of their device or are you only catering for PC users?

I seriously doubt that this whole major change was done for the benefit of PC users, LMFAO. Look in the section where people post about issues, bugs, and problems. I'd guess that, after you remove the basic how-do-I posts from newbies and requests for things like user name changes, that the majority of the issues during the period from when the mobile apps first got released to the point in time when the site shut down for the switchover... were posted by mobile device users.

You are the target market that drove this change, lol. But it'll probably take some time to get this hybrid(?) turned into a form that appeals to all of the cell phone and tablet users. Still early days yet, you could say.

Yeah - even on my pc the new website looks kind of ‘appy’

 

[Chris Scorpio]

I'd say, 420 rushed the new forum app because of the phone app people, not despite them
No Mobil uploads for like 10 days, and no support from developers for much longer than that

Thus a few challenges and issues. The web view is pretty easy and nice, will speed up over time, heck we have some emojis again, old app didn't have em at all

In time it will be just like ya never changed at all

 

[JustinHemp420]

I already miss the simplicity of uploading photos, aaagggg it's been a long ass day and I suppose I just need a joint to wrap my head around the changes.
If I may ask, what's the idea behind having to upload photos first before being able to post them? Just asking as before using the app and 420 one could merely post straight to the page.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

It's not an app, it's the full website my friend

They are tweaking things as we sit hear

Hang in there ....

 

[JustinHemp420]

It's not an app, it's the full website my friend

They are tweaking things as we sit hear

Hang in there ....

So what you are saying is in future I'll be able to post directly to the thread I'm in? As some other cannabis related sites allow (web based sites)? Or is the upload first a thing to stay.
Just trying to wrap my head around the direction being taken.
Thanks for keeping us all informed bud.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

I'm not sure it can change

Pretty sure it gas to do with the stripping of the meta tags and such
TAPTALK was a bad bad thing, the gallery mods spent hrs fixing all of those uploaded pics

 

[TorturedSoul]

Or is the upload first a thing to stay.

That is the way it has always been, except for people who used a mobile device app. In regards to this thing, it would be fair to say (IMHO) that they did things in a way that they didn't want to, solely to make it possible for mobile app users to upload images at all.

But this is... somewhat of a guess, as I am not on the forum's staff.

I'm not sure it can change

Again, this is a guess (and much more of one than above), but I doubt that Rob wants to change the general method for using images here. It has been this way for at least nine years. Having an actual "image gallery" setup allows people to place photos in any thread - as opposed to only the ONE thread that the original uploader posts it into. It also allows the forum's "watermark" to be added to each and every cannabis-related image. We even have at least one contest that involves members hunting for images in the gallery section that they feel are especially nice for one reason or other.

It is, of course, entirely possible that they are trying to figure out a way to make the whole process easier for those who access the forum via a cell phone or tablet. But I do not expect the general setup to change markedly.

Personally, I would love to see another mobile app get produced, because that would allow them to stop trying to make the actual website "mobile-friendly" (at the cost of making things more difficult for those of us who use a laptop or desktop computer). But this is a business, too, AfaIK, and it may not make financial sense to develop two more or less separate products. Not unless this new forum causes such a drop in members/visits that ad-revenue (etc.?) begins to noticeably suffer. It has been my experience that the average person these days will put up with quite a bit of hassle/inconvenience if they want something bad enough, lol, so I do not expect the activity level to drop a great deal (if any). And, while the forum as it was before was a wonderful, beautiful thing that functioned very well from the users' end, the content here has not changed.

I did some "looking around" this week, and while there are many more cannabis-related forums than there were even five years ago... There still are not a great many where there is a positive attitude that is comparable to this one. We have a great deal of information for the grower - more than most other cannabis-related forums. And, while we appear to be a bit lacking in some "technology/science" stuff, the forums that seem to have the most such information seem to be the ones where there are no real rules about how members should treat each other (unless you count "free-for-all flame wars okay" . And our medicinal cannabis information is still unmatched, IMHO. Therefore... No, I do not expect the average user to drop out even if he/she does not like the new forum software/configuration.

Plus, since even most of the people who only access the forum via their desktop/laptop probably have some kind of "smart" cell phone, IDK, maybe there is some subtle(?) encouragement to get people to decide to use their mobile device to access it instead going on here. After all, mobile devices are the way of the future (at least that's what the people who manufacture, sell, and otherwise earn a paycheck because of the existence of the @%*# things keep telling us ).

TAPTALK was a bad bad thing

You betcha, lol. I never was one to react well to a third party being able to inject things into the content here which forced our browsers to access its servers simply by viewing a thread that those things were posted in. And I'd guess that everyone doesn't know how to block such things on their computers at the system level (although it's pretty simple to do).

They weren't even able to add the 420MAGAZINE.COM watermark to images posted via a mobile app (and, if I remember correctly, they ended up having to allow people who used 420's app to host their images on 420's servers instead of the forum's - which is a great big negative against the convenience of being able to "post one directly into a thread" (or at least that's how it appeared to be; technically speaking, they weren't being posted into the thread at all, we just ended up having off-site image links to a 420 server ).

 

[JustinHemp420]

Thanks for the info, the site will always have a special place as it's where I received a load of info for me to take onboard when growing myself for the first time. As you've started I probably will stay around albeit a bit of a pain (imo) to post something spontaneously or a quick screenshot of something. Yes journals should be okay as you upload the picks you want and then attach.
Have a good one guys and thanks for enabling me to state my opinion, cheers

 

[GrizzWald]

All you had to do on a phone was hit desktop at bottom of page and then there was no difference whether on mobile or pc.. only way I've ever used this site.. so I'm not sure how these changes are for mobile users? less is more sometimes.. I Hope the layout changes back to a more open format as before, feels a bit claustrophobic

 

[420]

Yeah 420 was a mess, they banned us from their support forums for bumping reported bugs for action that you all had been reporting. The entire company is in China, only one or two of them speak English and they shut down photo uploads from our app without notice. When we complained, they said we could leave when we wanted, so we did.

We had been wanting to leave them for over a year, due to their bugs and extremely terrible, if any, tech support and customer service. Not only that, but they were stealing our content, member data, etc. which we view as a major conflict of interest and security breach. Plus they were promoting competitors to our members and also chat rooms, which took our members away from interacting here.

Once we get out fully mobile ready website tweaked to perfection, our next task is to develop a new app for just us, with only us being in full control of our own data.

I've got 420,000 things to read and tend to here here. As much as I am so very truly grateful for TS helping and guiding members during this time, hoping he can start limiting the over extended chit chat and jokes during these reports that is part of what is taking us longer than expected.

 

[TorturedSoul]

No problem, I found the followed thread link, will remove this one.