chess online
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bluor 24-Jul-12, 08:00 |
 App is needed |
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bluor 24-Jul-12, 08:00 |
all in favor |
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rockall 24-Jul-12, 13:32 |
Neutral At one time I would have advocated for this, but GK does have mobile version of its web page that takes care of most issues, AND Talking with a software developer, I learned that if you are going to write an app for the Android, there are over 50 different hardware-carrier variations that need to be addressed if you want your app to work perfectly for anything other than simple tasks, and that number is growing steadily. Apple is more rigorous in enforcing standards, so there are only 4 variations for them currently, but even the Apple apps will change as they bring out new models. So it's really not as simple as it might seem to create an app that works well for everyone. One would really need to make the case that revenues would be significantly improved to pay for the cost of creating it and the cost of maintaining it. I don't see the justification. The mobile version of the web page works well on my iPad. |
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bluor 25-Jul-12, 08:29 |
Deleted by Gameknot.com on 01-Sep-12, 12:45.
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nathanman22 01-Sep-12, 12:23 |
100% agree -Nathan |
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We do certainly understand that a native app would be preferred in some situations, however GK has been in development for 12 years now and while it won't take us as long to get the app up and running, it would take close to that long to fully support the multitude of all the different smartphones/tablets/etc. (including different versions of Android, see the post from rockall above). Not to mention that there is a new version of every smartphone coming out every year, and we would have keep up with that well, etc. etc. It's already a significant pain in the neck to make sure GK works perfectly with the 4 main web browsers — if you add 50 more different devices/operating systems/etc. we have to support as well, you'll agree it's just not worth it. Considering the added cost and the extra effort, and considering it will only provide a marginally better experience and would have significantly fewer features than the main website. We would much rather focus on improving the website and making sure you have the top-notch experience here instead. |
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nathanman22 01-Sep-12, 13:03 |
Okay -Nathan |
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bluor 01-Sep-12, 14:50 |
yeah |
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wschmidt 19-Sep-12, 20:07 |
I use the mobile version referred to above |
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I also use the moblie version |
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gameknot mobile doesn't work... |
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why i quit gk and learned to love the apps :-) later goes better with my smart phone and tablet. And I still miss the gameknot community, the better chess boards the opening databases the team games, and above all the annotations. Mobile computing is a reality denial will only hinder the natural growth. |
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Not quite true If we had a realistic way of developing, supporting and maintaining proprietary apps for each of the dozens of mobile platforms, without sacrificing the website itself in the process, we would've already done it. Our dev team is more than capable and confident programming apps -- it's not really all that different or more complicated than any other type of general programming (and we have programmers with experience working on hardware accelerated 3D graphics writing low-level shader code for a major video-game company for example, which is way more complicated than pretty much anything). Because our dev team is already 110% occupied with the website and a long to-do list full of tasks that will keep us busy for the next couple of decades, the only way to go would be to hire a whole new team dedicated just to apps. Which means we'll need to find some way to pay them. Which means either doubling the premium membership rates, or pretty much getting rid of the free memberships (i.e. replacing them with trial memberships limited to 30 days in order to increase the revenue), or keeping everything as is in hopes that the apps will pay off big in the future to justify doubling the dev team. We've considered all the possibilities, and the added risk -- ultimately that apps won't work out and GameKnot will eventually have to shut down because we can't pay our dev team -- just isn't worth the marginally better experience that the proprietary apps provide over a regular website. We have absolutely nothing against apps per se, we are just not willing to bet the whole GameKnot that you know and love on them. Once again, we would much rather focus on improving the website and making sure you have the top-notch experience with the website instead. It's probably only a few years left until they fix all the inherent issues with the smartphones and their tiny screens anyway -- tablets already work great with all modern websites. After all, if Angry Birds can work just fine in a web browser, surely turn-based chess doesn't need a proprietary app. |
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And if you do already have the latest versions of everything, simple logic suggests that because GameKnot works just fine on 99% of the rest of platforms, it's not really GameKnot that needs to be fixed. But we do always appreciate all reports of any issues with our website, no matter how small or obscure. |
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