Tapatalk, the app many use when on mobile devices, automatically includes a signature on posts made to the message board.
People bitch and moan about it. My view is the sig is a lot less intrusive than the bitching and moaning about it, but this post isn’t about what I think, it’s about what board policy:
[ol][li]Is there an official board policy on the inclusion of a Tapatalk sig on your posts?[/li][]If it’s perfectly fine to have them, can we make a moratorium on people bitching about it?[]Will the administrators remove Tapatalk as a way to access the boards if we posters have a difference of opinion over this issue?[/ol]
I’d sure be happy to have people leave off complaining about the sigs. As you say, the complaints are more intrusive than the sigs themselves!
But should it be an enforced rule? Or just something the mods informally ask to be discontinued if it gets into a sustained back-and-forth? Seems like if Jack does a “sent from my phone,” and Jill says, “That’s a real pain,” and then the mods say, “Oh, knock it off,” we’ve been intruded upon three separate times!
Possibly the one thing on which I may ever agree with D’Anconia in these boards, but yes, after a couple of such posts it did not take me that much of an effort. (This post is on Tapatalk.)
I also erase the “sent from my (X)” sig the device slaps on my e-mails except when I feel passive-aggressive about letting people know that I am not at my desk so they must not expect a 20-slide ppt presentation as reply.
Plus for Og’s sake it’s a one-line tag, we can ignore it. I killed mine because as the user I’m more peeved at the usolicited disclosure of MY circumstances.
Is there an official board policy on the inclusion of a Tapatalk sig on your posts?
Other than the general rule on signatures that you can find in the FAQ, no, not that I’m aware of. There is nothing prohibiting them at the moment, and since they are automatically added by certain devices, we’re not likely to prohibit them any time soon.
If it’s perfectly fine to have them, can we make a moratorium on people bitching about it?
People are mostly free to bitch about whatever bothers them here. We restrict a few things like hate speech, but bitching about automatic sigs is ok, as long as it’s not excessive. If it actually gets to the point of derailing a thread or causing other problems, report it and a moderator will likely step in at that point.
Will the administrators remove Tapatalk as a way to access the boards if we posters have a difference of opinion over this issue?
I can’t speak for the admins here, but I very much doubt that they are going to remove Tapatalk access from this board.
There is no prohibition against automatic sigs from devices, so there is no requirement that anyone do this. If you don’t like automatic sigs, you are just going to have to deal with it. Start a Pit thread about them if you like.
Why should we accept that this one company be permitted to push intrusive advertising through all its users? How about equal opportunity for all brands? Where might this lead?
Sent using my Intel motherboard, my HP keyboard, my NVIDIA graphics card, my Dell monitor, my Netgear router, my Arris modem, my Amazon USB cable, my Seagate hard drive, my Firefox browser, my Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium operating system, while drinking Folgers coffee and wearing Stoic merino wool underpants, sitting in a Steelcase Leap chair, vaping my Provari Radius with a House of Hybrids Kabuki tank.
Tapatalk tends to re-enable the signature every time it updates. It’s the simplest solution much in the same way that pushing that boulder up the hill was the simplest solution for Sisyphus. Not that there’s much of a solution for that other than eternal vigilance or just not using Tapatalk. I oscillate between the two.
As far as a moratorium, I don’t see that happening, nor being necessary.
Currently, any company whose device automatically adds a signature line or branding line to the bottom of posts is permitted.
The only advantage Tapatalk gets here is that any mobile device that has a Tapatalk app available (iphone, android, blackberry, etc) gets a one-time popup that informs users that the app is available. Any company offering a similar service who wants similar treatment can presumably contact the ad department here at the SDMB.
A one-liner is no biggie. If they start getting obnoxious (like Turble’s) then maybe we’ll have to adjust our rules.
Starting a Pit thread to encourage folk to drop the Tapatalk sig advertising seems like the the way to go. Including instructions would be great. It would also be considerate to mention that the sig feature comes back during updates.
Actually, including instructions in this thread wouldn’t be a bad idea either. (I don’t use Tapatalk btw, which is probably obvious.)
Are threads in fact being interrupted by complaints about those Tapioca sigs? (I haven’t noticed that.) Or do the complaints mostly turn up in dedicated ATMB threads like this one?
What are you talking about? Tapatalk provides a free service. It makes chatrooms much easier to navigate on our phones. It also makes all our various CRs available in one place.
I think I may have found a solution to Tapatalk turning the sig back on after updates. In Tapatalk, under settings, tap on signature. Choose customize. I did this and for my customization chose a single space (it may work with no text at all, I don’t know).
Hopefully it will keep the custom sig after updates.