The new OB App

[Robert OB 33/48]

Hello folks,

As I use most of the time my laptop with big screen for almost everything, and hardly my phone for the internet, I was wondering of how you folks are using and experiencing the new APP.

As far as I tested it for myself I think for now it looks really good.
For me there are some features I would like to see. So @Michael this is my list.
1. Members, filter on members by Region.
2. Invite members by Region instead of distance.
3. Rally point, make invitations by Region and not distance.

These are also for the normal forum a thing to consider.

Further, I will try to get some tracks in there. And I hope if we do this all together, Europe will be covered with nice tracks.

Well, I hope we can discuss this here freely and learn from eachothers experiences.

Greetz from Robert

 

[El-Dracho]

Hi fellow overlanders,

I just installed the OB app yesterday night. SO not much experience yet. What I could say is:
- the look and feel is good
- everything I tried worked well

So this is a good start in my opinion!!!

Robert, what do you mean "by region instead of disctance"? I think for many people the distance is still a topic when going to an event. For example if I would live near the Ural but within the european region I would rather go to a meeting in nearby Russia instead of travelling westwards throuugh a major part of Europe to another place with in that region...

Anyway, I do not like these region stuff. We as overlanders are a community worldwide, I do not care from which region somebody comes or where somebody lives, we are all just human beings interested in overlanding. Of course, for administration purposes it might make sense to have certain regions.

Looking forward to other suggestions!

Cheers, Bjoern

 

[Robert OB 33/48]

Hello Bjoern,

Of course, but, it should be a choice to make.
If I make a meet up on the coast of Europe I get loads of West Europe Members in the invite, but hardly Mid Europe Members.
So, if you can choose how you can make invites, it can be better.
LIKE!!!! Everybody is welcome, but if you make a Mid Europe meet and nobody from West Europe comes and hardly someone from Mid Europe is invited I think that is a bit strange.

 

[El-Dracho]

Got it. So you mean the search or whatever by region as additional functionality and not instead of distance. Sounds reasonable to me.

I think if we can gather some more user experiences here in the next days, this could be a good and growing idea log for further improvement of the app!

Enjoy,
Bjoern

 

[GeoCampers #4771]

Funny, we were just talking about the Europe region thing. I think we most all agree that Europe is to small to divide in regions, we need one United Europe (let's start with the forum at least) ;-) you should indeed just be able to invite all Europe members for an event.

 

[GeoCampers #4771]

Why is it not possible to search for events per region in the app, so annoying I am not interested in rally points from USA only Europe. But seems to be unable to filter those out.

 

[GeoCampers #4771]

Also, why are the sub forums all in 1 big list. If I only want to read the Europe forum post, I first need to scroll an endless list of region and sub regions to get to them. That makes the app almost useless IMHO. At least not very user friendly. So please please please @Michael fix this.

 

[Michael]

Hi Guys!

Thank you so much for trying the app! Really appreciate the feedback. I'm going to go ahead and respond to questions 1 x 1.

Thanks!

 

[Michael]

Hello folks,

As I use most of the time my laptop with big screen for almost everything, and hardly my phone for the internet, I was wondering of how you folks are using and experiencing the new APP.

As far as I tested it for myself I think for now it looks really good.
For me there are some features I would like to see. So @Michael this is my list.
1. Members, filter on members by Region.
2. Invite members by Region instead of distance.
3. Rally point, make invitations by Region and not distance.

These are also for the normal forum a thing to consider.

Further, I will try to get some tracks in there. And I hope if we do this all together, Europe will be covered with nice tracks.

Well, I hope we can discuss this here freely and learn from eachothers experiences.

Greetz from Robert

All good suggestions Robert.

Issue with region invite is sheer number of invites. Invite limit is currently 50 (will change and iterate as platform is tested). So in the case of some regions you you would only get 50 out of potentially 1,000s of people. We need to figure a way around that. We do have a way to weight the invites to active members, and will implement that on the mobile side. as well.

Regarding tracks - if you guys know of public location data that we could import - do let me know!

M

 

[Michael]

Why is it not possible to search for events per region in the app, so annoying I am not interested in rally points from USA only Europe. But seems to be unable to filter those out.

This is being implemented right now. Will be in-app soon!

M

 

[Michael]

Also, why are the sub forums all in 1 big list. If I only want to read the Europe forum post, I first need to scroll an endless list of region and sub regions to get to them. That makes the app almost useless IMHO. At least not very user friendly. So please please please @Michael fix this.

This will be addressed and presented similar to the web. We will have 3 levels, not 2. That will help a lot!

M

 

[El-Dracho]

Hi Michael!

Thanks for your detailled answers!

I think this app will be improving from time to time. The start looks to me very promising already.

It is always nice to see what can be achieved if people are working together!

Cheers, Bjoern

 

[Robert OB 33/48]

All good suggestions Robert.

Issue with region invite is sheer number of invites. Invite limit is currently 50 (will change and iterate as platform is tested). So in the case of some regions you you would only get 50 out of potentially 1,000s of people. We need to figure a way around that. We do have a way to weight the invites to active members, and will implement that on the mobile side. as well.

Regarding tracks - if you guys know of public location data that we could import - do let me know!

M

Hello @Michael


Maybe as an extra option. As for the USA it aint much of an option, but for Europe it would be a little bit easier.
Not excluding people, not at all, but it would make sense as people wouldnt do the channel crossing very easily and it brings way more expenses to a trip.
It is maybe just a way to choose your invities.

Greetings from Robert

 

[GeoCampers #4771]

Why is it not possible to search for events per region in the app, so annoying I am not interested in rally points from USA only Europe. But seems to be unable to filter those out.

This is being implemented right now. Will be in-app soon!

M

Thank you, that's called good customer service.

 

[Constantin]

Hello folks,

As I use most of the time my laptop with big screen for almost everything, and hardly my phone for the internet, I was wondering of how you folks are using and experiencing the new APP.

As far as I tested it for myself I think for now it looks really good.
For me there are some features I would like to see. So @Michael this is my list.
1. Members, filter on members by Region.
2. Invite members by Region instead of distance.
3. Rally point, make invitations by Region and not distance.

These are also for the normal forum a thing to consider.

Further, I will try to get some tracks in there. And I hope if we do this all together, Europe will be covered with nice tracks.

Well, I hope we can discuss this here freely and learn from eachothers experiences.

Greetz from Robert

Updated a few days ago and it’s working (iOS). Still have to learn finding the right things. It confuses me with scrolling quite a distance until finding the Europe chapters. And still have to get adapted to the view of the chronology of the posts. Right now I must confess I was quite used to the older version. I will surely get used to the new one too but I’ll have to work on it ‍♂

 

[GeoCampers #4771]

@Michael is it foreseen to make ye app tablet friendly? For now the app is Smartphone only it seems. I run it on my 10"tablet and basically it displays the same info, but just larger. It is not adapting to the large screen. Hope this can be fixed.

 

[Robert OB 33/48]

Actually it does work on the Tablet, I have it on that. But.. .no landscape yet.

 

[GeoCampers #4771]

Actually it does work on the Tablet, I have it on that. But.. .no landscape yet.

It works, but is it not optimalised for tablet use. It just displays a phone screen but bigger.
Normally when an app is made for tablet use, there is more info on the screen than on the phone app, wish makes it more usable.

 

[Robert OB 33/48]

it will come in time, that is already promised by @Michael

 

[GeoCampers #4771]

OK, new issue.

@Michael : it seems that you can not be logged in on the app on 2 devices at the same time.