Why is Board Express Pro still broken?

Board Express Pro has never been one of my Top 10 Favorite apps. But it has been one of my Top 10 Essential apps since it was released. I estimate that I spend between 1 and 2 hours (or more) per day  browsing forums and venting., making this my most used application. The app has always been plagued by lag, freezes, and other nits, but it was still functional. That was until the v2.13 update about a month ago.

After that update, everything went to hell. All of your favorites disappeared, and after you reinstalled them the app would not retain any information. So each time you opened the app, you had to start over. This issue was fixed by uninstalling/reinstalling. But that was only the beginning. Attempting to quote any post brings up the error to the right, kicking you out of the app. The same happens if you tap the “+” symbol at the bottom of the screen to add a new post. The only way to post actually, is to start typing in the text box at the bottom of the screen without touching anything else. And of course, each time you get kicked out of the app, all the threads are marked as read when you log back in. Just wonderful.

About two weeks ago v2.14 was released with the below comment.

No idea what this means, or what may have been corrected, but guess what, “everything is still broken”.  For the past couple weeks, when I  post in a thread where I would have really liked to quote someone, I precede my comment with, “Board Express sucks!”. Actually, that’s the title I wanted to use for this article but was concerned about our PG (well, maybe PG-13) rating.

Just in case you are wondering if this is an isolated problem, here are a bunch of recent comments from other Board Express Pro enthusiasts. Amazing that the app is still holding on to a 3 star rating despite it being broken. But as the only Tapatalk duck in the pond (right now) many people are grateful for the little they are being offered. Of course, you will always find some of the 5 star-0 comment ratings mixed in there. Hey Microsoft, here is an idea. 0 characters and you can only rate up to 1 star. 10 characters or more and you can rate up to 2 stars. All they way up to 40+ characters, where you can rate up to 5 stars. Surely, if an app deserves 5 stars you can think of something to say other than “Good” or nothing. Actually the 1 star ratings typically have more information that the 5. Personally, I treat all my ratings equally, good and bad, often with as many characters as Microsoft will allow.

So, back on topic. What is up with this app? And why don’t we have an other Tapatalk choices. I am not a developer, but I do understand how hard it can be sometimes to debug a problem, or maybe there is a personal issue that we are not aware of. Hell, any judge in the land would probably let you fix something you broke if he/she understood the circumstances, especially if it would only take a few minutes.

Here is a thought. How about reverting back to the last working version, v2.12. Assuming the developer has a backup (then again) that sounds like a pretty simple solution, It will stop the ratings slide, and give us back the laggy by functional Board Express Pro that all of us have grown to love/hate/love/hate. Maybe Microsoft needs to throw some dollars at a developer for a proper Tapatalk client, so I can get back to the business of properly defending this Windows Phone platform.

UPDATE:  Looks like I should have waited another day. The morning I was greeted by a Board Express Pro v2.15 Update. So far, creating new posts and quoting posts appears to be working. It’s about time. Thanks for that.