For those who miss the app...

[boblerm]

Now  the dust is staring to settle and we are getting more used to the new and improved/degraded site, as the case may be, or as WesW refers to it, CC 2.0.  Some of the initial bugs are slowly but surely being worked out.

 As I peruse the various boards on the CC forum, it seems that one of the greatest source of consternation is the inability to use the CC and Tapatalk apps.  I, too, was quite perturbed when learning that this feature would no longer be available.  However, now a few days out, after playing around on the Test forum using the mobile CC site on my phone, my humble opinion is that this means of access to CC boards offers in many ways a far superior experience over that using Tapatalk.  I mentioned this to Wes, and he suggested that I begin a new thread sharing what I have learned so far, and others can chime in with their thoughts.  As this is quite new to all of this, what follows is clearly a work in progress.

 

First and foremost- in order to match the convenience of using an app, it is essential to create a shortcut to the Home Screen/ Desktop of your device.  For those that do not know how to do that, here are the instrucions:

Android (using Google Chrome)-

Open your browser, and go to https://boards.cruisecritic.com/

Tap on the 3 dots on the upper right, and choose "Add to Home Screen".  A shortcut will appear that allows immediate access to the CC Boards.

IOS (using Safari)-

Go to the Boards site in the browser as above, tap on the box with the arrow pointing up and choose "Add to Home Screen".

Now with one tap, the boards can be accessed, just like using the app.

 

Here are some of the advantages to using the mobile site that I think are improvements over using Tapatalk.  Note- I was using Tapatalk via my Android phone, and some of the things I mention here may or may not apply to the ios version, which I was not quite as familiar with.

 

1) You can now format posts, (bold, italics, underline, but not text size, however).  If you wished to do that using the app, you needed to use BBCode, which if you have never used, trust me, you don't want to.

 

2) When you compose a post, it appears in "what you see is what you get" form, much easier to visuaize what the actual post will look like once submitted.  This is especially true when including images, with the app, you could only see little thumbnails.  This way, one is far less likely to post the wrong image, or duplicate images, I have done this more than once.  It will also eliminate that problem of occasionally images appearing upside down (no kidding, this has actually happened to me), or sideways.  Which leads me to...

 

3) You can now edit posts from your device after submitted.  I was not able to do this with my Android app.  Previously, if I noted a glaring error after posting from the app, I had to get out my laptop, go to CC boards, navigate to my post, and edit it, within the dreaded 10 minute limit.  Now I can edit my post immediately from my device.

 

4) There is no longer a 6 image limit per post.  There is a 48.83 MB limit however, but on my last test post, I was able to load 8 images.  If your images are of lower resolution, you can put in more than that.

 

5) Mixing pictures with text was a major problem using the Android Tapatalk app, I don't think this was the case with ios app.  But on the Android app, once you inserted a photo in a post, the thumbnail would appear, and there was no obvious way of adding more text, you could only add more photos.  And the photos would appear one on top of the other, with no space between them.  There was a workaround- you had to tap the thumbnail and choose "insert in message" or some such, upon which the thumbnail would disappear, and be replaced with a string of gobbldygook  which was BBCode to a reference to the image on the Tapatalk site.  Now you could put in more text.  OK, that is probably way more information than you wanted.  But the point is, one had to be constantly aware of the position of the text you are typing in relation to all these strings of gobbldygook, or the captions would not match the picture.  It is embarrassing when you label a photo of your wife in Compass Rose as "Foie Gras Ravioli".

 

Here is the deal using the mobile site- open a message box and tap "click to choose files".  It is a simple matter to select the images you wish to post.  Once the images are up, you will notice a little + sign on the bottom left, tap it, and you can insert text, or a caption or whatever.

  I suggest after entering your text, hit the enter key a few times to create some space, lest the caption appear in the wrong spot.

 

6) It is a simple matter to embed a YouTube video in a post, here's how-

Go to the YouTube site, and on your video, click "share".  A box will come up showing the url, click copy.  Paste this link into a post, and voila, the video is embedded in the post.

Similarly, you can embed a photo from a 3rd party site such as Shutterfly.  In the message box, tap "insert other media"  Here you can paste a link to your photo that will be embedded in your post.

 

 

As for down side, there is only one that I am aware of at this point.  With the app, you were able to get notifications whenever someone posted on a thread that you have posted on, now it's not quite so easy.  In reality, for me, this was a mixed blessing, while it is nice to know  when there is activity in a thread that you are interested in, sometimes the frequent notifications can get a bit annoying.

I am aware of 2 possible solutions for those who wish to be kept up to date on thread activity.  When posting, you can click on the "notify me of replies" box.  Then you get emails of activity, and who needs more emails cluttering up your inbox.  Alternatively, you can create a shortcut on your Home Screen, instead of, or in addition to the one you created to access the boards with this address:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/followed

 

Here you will see all of the threads that you have marked as "following".

 

 

I am in no way suggesting that the Cruise Critic gods maintain the policy of not supporting apps, I strongly feel that the more choices we have, the better, and I do hope that this policy is reversed.  In the meantime, I, for one, and ok with the new way, and I hope some info here is helpful to others.

Please feel free to correct any errors I may have made here, and I hope people will chime in with little gems that they pick up along the way, and I also hope to hear from those that disagree with everything I have said.

 

Bob

 

[Silver Spectre]

Excellent post Boblerm. My current issue is lack of image resizing (or downsizing if you like) in the new improved CC. This is very important when afloat and wishing to post a photo rich trip blog when internet speeds are low. It’s not an issue on land, just sometimes at sea. Tapatalk allowed you to choose a lower resolution to deal with low speed. My IPad photos are generally at least 2mb and I do not wish to faf about having to reduce them before posting.

[boblerm]

5 minutes ago, Silver Spectre said:

Excellent post Boblerm. My current issue is lack of image resizing (or downsizing if you like) in the new improved CC. This is very important when afloat and wishing to post a photo rich trip blog when internet speeds are low. It’s not an issue on land, just sometimes at sea. Tapatalk allowed you to choose a lower resolution to deal with low speed. My IPad photos are generally at least 2mb and I do not wish to faf about having to reduce them before posting.

Good point, I was using Tapatalk for Android, which never gave me a option of selecting file size, or at least, I was never able to see such an option. 

The photos that I post from my dslr come to my phone (magically) via my Nikon app in an already reduced file size, so that has not been a big problem  for me. 

One possible solution, which ONLY applies if you do not plan on printing photos, only for sharing on line is to shoot in a smaller file format. Not an option for optimum print quality. 

I am hoping that as time goes by, there will be enhancements in using the site, let's hope. 

[Silver Spectre]

5 minutes ago, boblerm said:

Good point, I was using Tapatalk for Android, which never gave me a option of selecting file size, or at least, I was never able to see such an option. 

The photos that I post from my dslr come to my phone (magically) via my Nikon app in an already reduced file size, so that has not been a big problem  for me. 

One possible solution, which ONLY applies if you do not plan on printing photos, only for sharing on line is to shoot in a smaller file format. Not an option for optimum print quality. 

I am hoping that as time goes by, there will be enhancements in using the site, let's hope. 

This is on Tapatalk for IOS/Ipads and has been a godsend over the last couple of years.

[Travelcat2]

Thank you so much for the detailed information.  It is definitely appreciated!

[boblerm]

1 hour ago, Silver Spectre said:

This is on Tapatalk for IOS/Ipads and has been a godsend over the last couple of years.

Let me just run this up the flagpole, I don't know whether this will be helpful to you or not, as I do not know your posting routine.  When I do a trip report, my routine is to peruse the photos that I took that day, and copy the ones that I want to post into a separate album..That way, when I am ready to post, it is a simple matter to go to that album to insert  the pics that I want.

 

Your point stimulated me to look into simple photo resizing options.  I found an app that I can use to take all of the photos in an album and resize them, sending them to a different album.  I just tried this and was able to resize 40 photos in 25 seconds from start to finish. (I actually timed it).

 

As I say, I don't know if this will be helpful to you, but your comment just helped me out, as now I have a solution to a problem that I didn't even know existed (as my Android app didn't allow resizing, I never even thought about doing it).😊

[boblerm]

13 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

Thank you so much for the detailed information.  It is definitely appreciated!

You're very welcome, Jackie, I hope it was helpful.

Bob

[Kiwifromkiev]

6 hours ago, boblerm said:

 

Please feel free to correct any errors I may have made here, and I hope people will chime in with little gems that they pick up along the way, and I also hope to hear from those that disagree with everything I have said.

 

Bob

 

Bob!

Thank you so much for your detailed, well thought through post, which, no doubt, you would have taken a time to compose! I found it very useful in z number of ways. Firstly, that I am not mad (yet!) and there is nothing wrong with my head/phone/iPad that I could not use either of the apps! Secondly, I’ve learned how to shortcut the site, and thirdly, that using a website gives its advantages! Thank you once again!

 

I raise a virtual glass to your real help with virtual reality! 🍷👍😊

[boblerm]

3 hours ago, Kiwifromkiev said:

Bob!

Thank you so much for your detailed, well thought through post, which, no doubt, you would have taken a time to compose! I found it very useful in z number of ways. Firstly, that I am not mad (yet!) and there is nothing wrong with my head/phone/iPad that I could not use either of the apps! Secondly, I’ve learned how to shortcut the site, and thirdly, that using a website gives its advantages! Thank you once again!

 

I raise a virtual glass to your real help with virtual reality! 🍷👍😊

Kiwifromkiev, 

I am very glad that you found this info helpful, and appreciate your comments. 

And virtually enjoyed your virtual toast! 🥂

[MalbecWine]

11 hours ago, boblerm said:

Now  the dust is staring to settle and we are getting more used to the new and improved/degraded site, as the case may be, or as WesW refers to it, CC 2.0.  Some of the initial bugs are slowly but surely being worked out.

 As I peruse the various boards on the CC forum, it seems that one of the greatest source of consternation is the inability to use the CC and Tapatalk apps.  I, too, was quite perturbed when learning that this feature would no longer be available.  However, now a few days out, after playing around on the Test forum using the mobile CC site on my phone, my humble opinion is that this means of access to CC boards offers in many ways a far superior experience over that using Tapatalk.  I mentioned this to Wes, and he suggested that I begin a new thread sharing what I have learned so far, and others can chime in with their thoughts.  As this is quite new to all of this, what follows is clearly a work in progress.

 

First and foremost- in order to match the convenience of using an app, it is essential to create a shortcut to the Home Screen/ Desktop of your device.  For those that do not know how to do that, here are the instrucions:

Android (using Google Chrome)-

Open your browser, and go to https://boards.cruisecritic.com/

Tap on the 3 dots on the upper right, and choose "Add to Home Screen".  A shortcut will appear that allows immediate access to the CC Boards.

IOS (using Safari)-

Go to the Boards site in the browser as above, tap on the box with the arrow pointing up and choose "Add to Home Screen".

Now with one tap, the boards can be accessed, just like using the app.

 

Here are some of the advantages to using the mobile site that I think are improvements over using Tapatalk.  Note- I was using Tapatalk via my Android phone, and some of the things I mention here may or may not apply to the ios version, which I was not quite as familiar with.

 

1) You can now format posts, (bold, italics, underline, but not text size, however).  If you wished to do that using the app, you needed to use BBCode, which if you have never used, trust me, you don't want to.

 

2) When you compose a post, it appears in "what you see is what you get" form, much easier to visuaize what the actual post will look like once submitted.  This is especially true when including images, with the app, you could only see little thumbnails.  This way, one is far less likely to post the wrong image, or duplicate images, I have done this more than once.  It will also eliminate that problem of occasionally images appearing upside down (no kidding, this has actually happened to me), or sideways.  Which leads me to...

 

3) You can now edit posts from your device after submitted.  I was not able to do this with my Android app.  Previously, if I noted a glaring error after posting from the app, I had to get out my laptop, go to CC boards, navigate to my post, and edit it, within the dreaded 10 minute limit.  Now I can edit my post immediately from my device.

 

4) There is no longer a 6 image limit per post.  There is a 48.83 MB limit however, but on my last test post, I was able to load 8 images.  If your images are of lower resolution, you can put in more than that.

 

5) Mixing pictures with text was a major problem using the Android Tapatalk app, I don't think this was the case with ios app.  But on the Android app, once you inserted a photo in a post, the thumbnail would appear, and there was no obvious way of adding more text, you could only add more photos.  And the photos would appear one on top of the other, with no space between them.  There was a workaround- you had to tap the thumbnail and choose "insert in message" or some such, upon which the thumbnail would disappear, and be replaced with a string of gobbldygook  which was BBCode to a reference to the image on the Tapatalk site.  Now you could put in more text.  OK, that is probably way more information than you wanted.  But the point is, one had to be constantly aware of the position of the text you are typing in relation to all these strings of gobbldygook, or the captions would not match the picture.  It is embarrassing when you label a photo of your wife in Compass Rose as "Foie Gras Ravioli".

 

Here is the deal using the mobile site- open a message box and tap "click to choose files".  It is a simple matter to select the images you wish to post.  Once the images are up, you will notice a little + sign on the bottom left, tap it, and you can insert text, or a caption or whatever.

  I suggest after entering your text, hit the enter key a few times to create some space, lest the caption appear in the wrong spot.

 

6) It is a simple matter to embed a YouTube video in a post, here's how-

Go to the YouTube site, and on your video, click "share".  A box will come up showing the url, click copy.  Paste this link into a post, and voila, the video is embedded in the post.

Similarly, you can embed a photo from a 3rd party site such as Shutterfly.  In the message box, tap "insert other media"  Here you can paste a link to your photo that will be embedded in your post.

 

 

As for down side, there is only one that I am aware of at this point.  With the app, you were able to get notifications whenever someone posted on a thread that you have posted on, now it's not quite so easy.  In reality, for me, this was a mixed blessing, while it is nice to know  when there is activity in a thread that you are interested in, sometimes the frequent notifications can get a bit annoying.

I am aware of 2 possible solutions for those who wish to be kept up to date on thread activity.  When posting, you can click on the "notify me of replies" box.  Then you get emails of activity, and who needs more emails cluttering up your inbox.  Alternatively, you can create a shortcut on your Home Screen, instead of, or in addition to the one you created to access the boards with this address:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/followed

 

Here you will see all of the threads that you have marked as "following".

 

 

I am in no way suggesting that the Cruise Critic gods maintain the policy of not supporting apps, I strongly feel that the more choices we have, the better, and I do hope that this policy is reversed.  In the meantime, I, for one, and ok with the new way, and I hope some info here is helpful to others.

Please feel free to correct any errors I may have made here, and I hope people will chime in with little gems that they pick up along the way, and I also hope to hear from those that disagree with everything I have said.

 

Bob

 

Bob, your pictures on the Crystal board were stunning.  I would call you an artist of photography.

 

[boblerm]

42 minutes ago, MalbecWine said:

Bob, your pictures on the Crystal board were stunning.  I would call you an artist of photography.

MalbecWine, 

Thank you for following along with my trip report, and thank you once again for all of your kind words. 

Bob

[broberts]

Live notifications are available if one enables them. The mobile will ding and a red circle with a count will appear on the top left corner of the page toolbar menu. Bringing up the menu will show a bell also decorated with the red circle. Touching the bell will pop a notification list so one can navigate to the unread posts.

 

[Brandis]

I prefer Tapatalk since I follow different boards apart from Cruise Critic and like to read them all in one place. 

 

Right now I have to open different websites to do the same.

[boblerm]

On 10/19/2018 at 10:00 PM, broberts said:

Live notifications are available if one enables them. The mobile will ding and a red circle with a count will appear on the top left corner of the page toolbar menu. Bringing up the menu will show a bell also decorated with the red circle. Touching the bell will pop a notification list so one can navigate to the unread posts.

 

I am not getting live notifications on my phone.  Wondering- are you using Android, or iphone?  Could be an Android thing, or it could be that I still don't have my settings quite right, still trying to "tweak" them.

[Got2Cruise]

Did you click this? I don’t allow any push notifications on my phone but if you allow them, you get notified immediately with a ping. 

[broberts]

5 hours ago, boblerm said:

I am not getting live notifications on my phone.  Wondering- are you using Android, or iphone?  Could be an Android thing, or it could be that I still don't have my settings quite right, still trying to "tweak" them.

 

I'm using Android. The browser app has to have notifications enabled and the web site has to be on the browser notification allow list.

 

[May B]

Hi Bob,

 

Wow, this is fascinating! First, I'm glad YOU are happy, as you have provided me with such enjoyment on your last cruise. And secondly, it sounds like I might be able to post photos easily from my iPhone to Cruise Critic, if I should so desire.

 

Thank you!

 

--May B

[boblerm]

10 hours ago, May B said:

Hi Bob,

 

Wow, this is fascinating! First, I'm glad YOU are happy, as you have provided me with such enjoyment on your last cruise. And secondly, it sounds like I might be able to post photos easily from my iPhone to Cruise Critic, if I should so desire.

 

Thank you!

 

--May B

MayB, it is very easy to post photos from pretty much any device, and now it is easy to do so from a desktop or laptop, whereas in the past it was not a great possibility.  At least, my small brain was never able to figure out how to post images from my desktop, if that was possible at all.  That is one of the reasons that the apps were so popular, (besides the convenience of using portable devices),  it was very easy to post photos.  Now, the process of posting photos is the same regardless of what device you are using.

Again, I do recognize that there are legitimate concerns about the loss of some of the convenience factors that the apps offered, and I do hope that CC reinstates support for these apps, but for me, I will most likely stick with the mobile web site regardless.

Bob

[boblerm]

18 hours ago, broberts said:

 

I'm using Android. The browser app has to have notifications enabled and the web site has to be on the browser notification allow list.

 

I checked my setting, and it turned out that I did not have notifications enabled from Chrome.  So I enabled them, and made sure that CC Boards was checked off as a site to receive notifications from and....still not receiving notifications.

But really, it's fine, since I get a pop-up notification box every time I open my browser to CC boards.  I actually like this better, since I'm not disturbed by random notifications, but can get them any time I want them with one click. 

[boblerm]

Update:

There has been an enhancement on the mobile site toolbar that now allows you to control font size, font color, and the ability to choose fonts. 

 

I mention this, not because it is such an earth shaking development, while it is alway nice to have more flexibility, this will hardly make or break one's posting experience. But I think it bears mentioning for 3 reasons - 

 

1) The new CC forum platform is still a work in progress, I would expect that over the next days and weeks we will see further enhancements. 

 

2) I think it is interesting that this particular change was made specifically in response to a request from a member. Someone had suggested on the  Help forum that this should be a relatively easy change to make. CC Help Support Specialist Jenn responded that she would look into it, and a half hour later, the deed was done. 

 

3)For those that are still having issues with the new platform, (or even those that are not, but just find this stuff interesting), the Help forum is an excellent resource for...... help. 

You can just peruse the titles of the posts, or if you have a particular question, there is a great likelihood that it will be answered. 

 

Bob

[John&LaLa]

FWIW, I'm finding that the mobile web is automatically resizing pics and you can load virtually unlimited with that 48 MB limit.  I've seen as many as 59.

 

 

[boblerm]

15 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

FWIW, I'm finding that the mobile web is automatically resizing pics and you can load virtually unlimited with that 48 MB limit.  I've seen as many as 59.

 

 

Interesting, may I ask what device you are using?  I am not having my pics automatically downsized using my Android phone, although it's still nice not to be limited to 6 images as we were with the app.

[John&LaLa]

1 hour ago, boblerm said:

Interesting, may I ask what device you are using?  I am not having my pics automatically downsized using my Android phone, although it's still nice not to be limited to 6 images as we were with the app.

 

Galaxy S9+

Most of my pics are resized to 200kb

Look at your attachments tab

Video doesn't shrink. 😱

This pic was 3.6 mb

 

 

 

Now its 132 kb

Edited October 26, 2018 by John&LaLa

[boblerm]

18 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Galaxy S9+

Most of my pics are resized to 200kb

Look at your attachments tab

Video doesn't shrink. 😱

This pic was 3.6 mb

 

 

 

Now its 132 kb

So here is what I am finding-When I click on "Choose Files", I am limited to the 48.83 MB  limit. After I click on "Submit Reply", the images  post, and then I see that the images have been downsized.  If I edit the post, I can add more images, but still limited.  I can keep adding images and editing the post, adding a virtually unlimited number, but that is not particularly convenient.

 

Are you saying that you are able to add more than the 48.83MB right from the start?  If so, you are doing something different than I am.  ????

[John&LaLa]

OK, but remember, you asked for it.  This method was a bulk upload from a USB stick.  I would have to edit it to add descriptions between the photos. see below.  I may not have loaded 48 MB all at once. Limited large pics on the machine I am using

 

Going to be a great day

 

 

Like this. 

Terminal 1, Pt Canaveral.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It pays to know people. 😎

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2018 by John&LaLa