for years I keep getting the same question: “Why can’t I use RumX on my PC or in a browser?” Some of you have written it here in the forum (@AlSting, @bur2000, @Solidfunk, @django, @Henry), others via email. Thanks for that, and sorry that I announced a web version in 2022 that never happened.
I’ve now seriously analyzed the question. Honest conclusion: Bringing the complete app 1:1 to the browser just isn’t possible. That would be many months of full-time work during which nothing happens to the app itself. What is doable: a “My RumX” directly on rumx.com, with login, that shows you the things you really need on desktop. The website already has almost everything today (rum pages, reviews, market value ranges, offers, auctions). What’s missing is the personal layer: who am I, what do I own.
Before I build something, I want to know from you exactly what you need the big screen for. Not “everything like in the app”, but: What’s the one job you want to do on your PC?
What I’ve heard so far
View and search my own collection while researching auctions on PC
See the market value of my own bottles (especially as an RX+ subscriber)
Dealer and price comparison with payment methods
Write longer texts (tasting notes, corrections, forum links) with a proper keyboard
Jump from the forum directly to purchase, without the app
Survey 1: What absolutely has to be included?
Choose up to three points that are mandatory for you. Without them, the desktop version would be worthless for you.
View and search my collection (read-only)
Edit my collection (add bottles, open, empty)
Market value of my bottles and collection
Dealer and price comparison with payment methods
Manage wish lists and price alerts
Write tasting notes and reviews
Shop with my account (orders, discounts, bonus points)
Manage samples and bottle splits
Community feed, likes, followers
0voters
Survey 2: How would you use it?
Regularly, desktop would be my main access to RumX
Occasionally, for specific tasks (e.g. auction research, collection maintenance)
Rarely, the app is enough for me
I don’t have a smartphone / don’t use the app
0voters
Now it’s your turn
The surveys are the quick part. More valuable is your story. Please write in the replies:
What concrete situation brings you to the PC instead of your phone? (e.g. “I have Catawiki open on one screen and want to see what I already have on the other.”)
What’s mandatory, what’s nice to have? Feel free to just list it briefly.
What bothers you most today when you try to use RumX on PC (rumx.com, forum, login)?
What device and browser? Windows, Mac, tablet, or maybe something unusual like a TV or gaming console.
Feel free to contradict each other. If someone writes “editing collection is mandatory” and another says “read-only is totally fine for me”, that’s exactly the information I need. I’ll read every post and reply here in this thread.
What I don’t promise: a deadline or the whole app in the browser. What I do promise: that I’ll start with what comes out as most important here, and that the first testers will come from this thread.
What specific situation
Everything that becomes easier with a larger screen and a keyboard: searching, comparing, having multiple browser windows open, copying and pasting into the search field, more specific searches (e.g. batch number), longer texts, etc.
What is mandatory, what is nice to have? Mandatory (for me):
Complete display of all (!) reviews, ratings, search/filter parameters, friends system (reviews from friends!).
Basically everything where currently it says »please use the app for this«.
I keep finding myself searching for something, for example a specific review, only to realize that particular one is only available in the app. (= most annoying point) Nice to have:
The remaining functionality of the app, closing gaps that would still exist with this long-requested web counterpart.
What bothers you most today when you try RumX on your PC?
s.a.
Which device and which browser?
Windows, MacOS, iOS
Exactly that.
Write rum reviews on the desktop with a keyboard.
What concrete situation brings you to the PC instead of your phone? (e.g. “I have Catawiki open on one screen and want to see on the other what I already have.”)
Anything that leads me close to a purchase — and that often already includes browsing the database for rum ratings and properties.
I do online banking exclusively on the desktop, and online shopping almost exclusively.
It may be old-fashioned and conservative, but the risk of loss and hacking with phones is too high for me.
What is essential, what is nice to have? Preferably as a short list.
Essential: Enter and revise my own ratings.
Purchase system, if I ever buy through RumX.
Nice to have: Be able to enter rum inventory.
What annoys you most today when you try RumX on the desktop?
Forum: Nothing, works very well.
Rum search and existing ratings: Only very little: I have the impression I’m not seeing all ratings.
Rating entry and other personalized aspects of RumX: Everything, because it just doesn’t work.
What device and browser? Windows, Firefox
Follow-up: The most informative ratings for me are the “expert ratings” that link to rum blogs.
At the same time, though, I have the impression that rum blogs are losing significance massively and thus also current entries. Probably not least because of the increased rum transparency through RumX.
This form of detailed verbal rum review is becoming rarer.
Previous user ratings are kept brief — partly intentionally, partly because of the medium of the phone.
A desktop login could make it easier to write detailed reviews. Perhaps RumX could then give particularly active (desktop) users the option to write detailed “blog-like” reviews and comparison reviews with images, etc., and store them directly at RumX — and highlight them when discussing the rum in question.
In other words: expand RumX’s functionality with a desktop version beyond what’s possible on phones.
A larger screen and keyboard would definitely be helpful when it comes to writing or revising your own tasting notes. Being able to open your own tasting notes for a comparable bottling at the same time would also be great, and you could then add the comparison to those notes as well.
Generally speaking, the larger the amount of data/texts, the more organized it becomes on a big screen. That’s why I clicked on the wishlist/price alert above. That can quickly become too full if you don’t adjust it yourself.
And it’s also nice to put the smartphone down for a bit — though you pick it right back up again because of the latest bottle sharing
For me, it would probably come down to more parallel use, but I’ll probably need to invest in a new computer soon
In any case, thanks for bringing some movement to the not-so-simple desktop topic.
For me it’s also relatively simple, since I just don’t like writing with the mobile keyboard and it simply annoys me. I always have the RumX Forum open in a tab on my PC anyway, and I would probably spend more time managing my ratings, lists, etc., since I simply prefer working with a mouse and keyboard.
Edit: Using Linux Mint - Ubuntu with Firefox on PC
What specific situation brings you to the PC instead of your phone?
I follow the forum almost exclusively on PC
What is essential, what is nice to have?
Writing/reading reviews, managing the collection
Which device and which browser? PC (Windows/Linux with Chrome/Firefox)
I generally don’t like writing with the smartphone keyboard. However, when writing reviews, there’s no way around it so far.
I usually also have a tab with the RumX forum open in the browser and use the app to rate and read reviews.
I don’t want to bother with an app that’s only available in a app store I don’t have access to, and I prefer a big screen with a full size keyboard anyway over a a tiny screen with a “mouse piano”
mandatory: write tasting notes to create an own profile and get valuable recommendations
bothers me: so far no way to even create an account - only now through this survey… I have to look around now what’s possible with this…
I prefer to shop on the big screen. It’s easier for me to compare and do research that way. And I like discovering new things, it’s just a shame that these don’t conveniently end up on my wish list.
Occasionally I also browse on my computer
What bothers me is that I can’t log in there and see my wish list.
