Support for Perpetual License Holders

[.om]

when I signed up initially as a customer...the license stated that I would be granted a years full of support along with the customer forum access..this was before IPS beyond was created...after the creation of IPSB...and change of license terms and conditions...it was made that perpetual license holders will have to pay to access customer forums...I know many forum admins will require official support...but as for me I never needed it...and whenever I needed it I paid for it...I don't mind paying if I require official support...honestly this was the reason why I took a perpetual license...to be part of the "Customer" community ...and have the updates...but as I have mentioned the change in liscence terms and conditions have rendered the older customers like me...forcing us to pay for official support. I have raised this issue with IPS management before too...asking for IPSB (now IPS R) access...and allow us to be a part of the "offcial" community...we really dont need any support..when we need it we will pay for it...maybe create a new license of sorts...just for the perpetual holders for IPSR access? Is this really difficult? Anyways...I am not pointing any fingers...if IPS is not willing to put an option for us perpetual license holders...I am happy to pay for the combined "official ticketing+ IPS R" access. Just wanted to convey my opinion.

EDIT: Oops...just noticed this is an old thread...sowwie

[Digi]

Well, technically, the LICENSE related to the software never stated that you would have access to customer forums. Further, the access to the customer forums never stated that it would be forever (nor does it now either, IPS could just give up on IPSR if they wanted to). So while that may have been a deciding factor for you, I don't think that you necessarily got the shaft or anything.

As I mentioned before, the reason IPS wanted to do it this way is so that they can afford to put forth the resources to continue the development of IPS. Their argument is that they are going to continuously expand the resources available (community projects, planning, etc). If they had to restrict prep holders in a sufficient way, they'd have to restrict access to all new resources from a given date after your last payment. This would be a managerial nightmare. I'm sure you'd agree. The only choice is to simple remove all access, period. And the most efficient way to do so is to remove it if you don't keep a support agreement (because it is the one sole thing that is binding to all licenses). Is it the best system? No, but you do have an outdated license and they are still honoring it by giving you updates for the rest of your life and letting you access new stuff within their community if you want to continue to make contributions to the company. I'd say it's not a horrible solution either :)

[kangaris]

thanks for the info guys

[beeman]

The thing that i find REALLY odd about the currect prices is that IPS actually value their support higher then there product. $30 a year for support $50 for the product+support (meaning they value the product at only $20) surly it should at least bee the other way round.

[bfarber]

You can only purchase support for $30 a year under the Perpetual license, which we no longer offer. We are simply honoring the terms this original license was purchased under. :)

Support + upgrades is $25 for 6 months under any current license.

[UBERHOST.NET]

As of now, those of us with perpetual licenses are basically barred from any resources/support for IPB.

I don't agree. We bought these licenses under the terms provided, which was perpetual updates. It seems that you made an assumption about getting customer-to-customer support via the forums, since that was allowed at the time. Of course there are still unofficial forums with customer-to-customer support, so that's an avenue for you to explore if the cost of the official support channels are beyond your means. If it is not an issue of funds but one of principle, then I suggest you review what IPS promised as compared with what you assumed our licenses would cover.

[TestingSomething]

Because it is a perk, one that grows over time as more things are added by both the community and the company. If you stop paying the company you "were" a customer. You'd be a customer again if you come back and pay them again. However, if you decide to just suck off the value of your investment (i.e. perpetual license updates), you aren't STILL a customer from an IPS perspective.

If you have a perpetual you "are" a customer still no matter how it's sliced. ;)

[martineer]

You can only purchase support for $30 a year under the Perpetual license, which we no longer offer. We are simply honoring the terms this original license was purchased under. :)

This is my understanding also. When I purchased a forum and gallery on a perpetual licence in April 2006, I knew I would be paying support at $30 each per annum. I went for the perpetual licence primarily because of the free upgrades that were offered at the time.

I'm sure glad that I took the support option though. Only yesterday (03:51 24 Sept 08) my website and forum were hacked (by scream), my first hack in 8 years. My ISP suggested somebody had guessed the password! At 9 characters comprising A-Z, a-z, 0-9 combination, who in the world is going to guess that? They couldn't say or appeared reluctant to suggest anything else. I've since changed the password to a 20 character string. I've been reading up on my particular hack and have seen references to an 'sql injection'. I'm not the wiser even though I've read the page twice.

Invision, God Bless their cotton socks. In less time than it took me to make a cup of tea, they corrected the permissions on the odd file or two which had been CHMOD to 363 from 755. I wouldn't have known where to look and I still don't and I don't have to, but I'd like to.

The support option depends entirely on your own technical expertise. The support I've been given is worth more in a forum back online now.

[Ziv Grosu]

Remember: You do not have to pay a money when they(IPS) tell, you can pay 3 weeks later (if you have a perpetual license - you can get new downloads & news, just can't access to those forums - the customer lounge & to the IPS Resources) you can visit Invisionize community and to download lots of modifications.

Again, I really think it's not bad to pay 30$ per each-year. But the thing that is not good at this time is the "group" of our (the customers) on the forums.
People can see + before the names and to know who is an IPS customer and who is not. The management can make a group for those people
that can't pay 30$ for a year, and then to put them on their +Level. (the visitors / guests must know who are your customers and who are not for the public relations).

[dziner]

You can only purchase support for $30 a year under the Perpetual license, which we no longer offer. We are simply honoring the terms this original license was purchased under. original.gif

My 2 cent,
I wish you still offered it :D

[Jaggi]

i don't agree with the ipsr forums being paid either tbh. My reasons are that support should be optional and since everything inside ipsr and the support forum is peer to peer or user created content your essentially making money off what other people do for you for free? see my point.

Another thing I'm a proficient php developer and know ipb like the back of my hand so i don't actually need support and I've met a few people with the same views. If they want support they can buy the support package but seeing as the tickets are the only extra things that ips has to take care of it should only involve that. Most of my posts on this forum is usually to provide support to other people which is my choice but an advantage to ips as its free and all their customers benefit. I like to post mods in ipsr which i also do for free but just last month i wasn't able to do either of these things cus my licence ran out. This didn't effect me personally as there's places like invisionize i can post and get mods from for free which support a community just as big as ips's one. So the argument the restrictions are to stop piracy etc are unfounded as there are tons of support forums out there for invision customers.

An example would be Michael which is probably one of the biggest mod releasers around, now could you imagine if his support package runs out and he decided he didn't need support so wouldn't want to buy it but then he couldn't provide support on the ips forums or post in ipsr this might make him buy the support package or he might just say sod it i'll post on invisionize or start my own invision support community (call it invsion modding :P ). Now Michael has billions (this isn't an exaggeration) of mods in ipsr but he wouldn't be able to update them, post support for them or anything which is basically ips having no real scheme in which is says yes we value our mod releasers and support providers.


**Michael was just an example and these in no way reflect his views, that i know of.

[beeman]

I agree 100% with you jaggi being a perpetual licence holder myself who has used ipb scince 1.3 and knows the inner workings of it like the make of my hand (my forum contains about 25% purly custom code) i have created countless mods for ipb (though never released publically as i dont have the time to offer support) i have never in all my years (and many many hundreads of $$ spent at ips) needed to use the ticket system to ask for support (ive only submitted 2 tickets and both then were licence enquires).
I would love access to beyond or whatever its called now (instead of having to ask some1 to grab a specific mod for me ;)) but i lothe paying a company for access to other peoples work.

[TestingSomething]

but i lothe paying a company for access to other peoples work.

Which isn't supported by the company either. really the resource site simply almost shut down the other sites which had been offering mods and made it where getting the same exact mods as were ocne offered in other places will now cost a support fee.l

So far I have gone a while not renewing support.

[IBTheme]

$60 bucks every 3 or 4 days for a full tank of gas to get to work, and someone is actually complaining about $30 a year for the highest standard of support I have seen from any company I have ever had to deal with on the net. (and I've got a lot of goodies to support, I must say) Seems kinda ridiculous to complain if you ask me. But that's just me. Sorry if I stepped on any toes, but I mean seriously, you'd pay $30 for a skin, or $30 for a good mod, or heck, $30 to your nephew in a birthday card for goodness sake. $30 once a year for full support anytime you need it at the drop of a hat from the best community software corporation on the market is hardly anything to complain about. Besides, there are like 20 or more sites out there where you can get free support from independent IPB experts if you don't want to pay it. At least they're not like VB where they try to make you pay every year just to keep your forums live. Them bone heads over there actually expect you to uninstall your forums if you don't renew your license every year. Even if you don't want to upgrade and you want to just leave it how it is. They are crazy enough to expect you to uninstall your forums. (that's just stupid) Sorry. I'll get off my soap box now. :wub:

I'm just curious though...
What's next? Having to pay $10 a month for hosting ..?? That's $120 a year for WHAT ..??!!!! Just to keep your website up and running? Sheeeeeeeesh! What's this world coming to? lol (sorry, had to throw that in there.)

Bad Baby! Bad Baby!! Bad Baby!!!

(too much coffee today I guess) :P

[TestingSomething]

Nobody's complaining about the price of support. They're complaining about paying it when not asking for support, but rather to get things from third party authors which had been offered in other places before. :)

Some authors still offer them various places anyway. But a few offer things only here.

[beeman]

$60 bucks every 3 or 4 days for a full tank of gas to get to work, and someone is actually complaining about $30 a year for the highest standard of support I have seen from any company I have ever had to deal with on the net. (and I've got a lot of goodies to support, I must say) Seems kinda ridiculous to complain if you ask me. But that's just me. Sorry if I stepped on any toes, but I mean seriously, you'd pay $30 for a skin, or $30 for a good mod, or heck, $30 to your nephew in a birthday card for goodness sake. $30 once a year for full support anytime you need it at the drop of a hat from the best community software corporation on the market is hardly anything to complain about. Besides, there are like 20 or more sites out there where you can get free support from independent IPB experts if you don't want to pay it. At least they're not like VB where they try to make you pay every year just to keep your forums live. Them bone heads over there actually expect you to uninstall your forums if you don't renew your license every year. Even if you don't want to upgrade and you want to just leave it how it is. They are crazy enough to expect you to uninstall your forums. (that's just stupid) Sorry. I'll get off my soap box now. :wub:

I'm just curious though...

What's next? Having to pay $10 a month for hosting ..?? That's $120 a year for WHAT ..??!!!! Just to keep your website up and running? Sheeeeeeeesh! What's this world coming to? lol (sorry, had to throw that in there.)

Bad Baby! Bad Baby!! Bad Baby!!!

(too much coffee today I guess) :P

i guess you never read the replyes by myself a jaggi. i would bee more the happy to pay $30 for the support if i ever actually needed it. but in all the years ive used ipb i have never once needed support.

to use your example its like paying $60 every 3 or 4 days for "gas" (peterol :P) then walking to work giving your keys to a stranger.

and $10 for hosting lol im closer to $400 ;)

[IBTheme]

i guess you never read the replyes by myself a jaggi. i would bee more the happy to pay $30 for the support if i ever actually needed it. but in all the years ive used ipb i have [b]never once[/b] needed support.

to use your example its like paying $60 every 3 or 4 days for "gas" (peterol :P ) then walking to work giving your keys to a stranger.

and $10 for hosting lol im closer to $400 ;)

HOLY COW!!!! $400 a month ..??!!
Okay, I'll shut up now. I am so sorry. I retract my complaint. lol :wub:

[Guest]

Must be a pretty awesome site if you need a dedicated server for it. :mellow:

[beeman]

[quote name='G

[Guest]

2 servers :)

and ALL the costs are paied for by donations NO ADDS :)

Holy crap, that sounds like a pretty large user base.

[TestingSomething]

I kept thinking he said per day instead of per month and I was like umm no way it's that per day.

[Jaggi]

pff thats nothing i work for a isp and we've billed companies thousands of pounds for montly servers, i think google pays 300,000 a month for its data centers or something like that.

When i was running my sites i had 5 dedicated servers and costs of about

[Lewis P]

I personally feel on this issue (for NEW customers);

You pay $150 for your license charge - giving you 6 months OFFICIAL support and upgrades, and unlimited P2P Support and IPSR access.
Then, every 6 months, you pay $25/$30 or whatever it is for another 6 months of OFFICIAL support and upgrades.

Well, that's how I'd do it...

[Jaggi]

yup, no0nes disputing paying for official support or upgrades.

[.Sephiroth.]

If you have a perpetual you "are" a customer still no matter how it's sliced. ;)

Of which I have a perpetual license, but on these forums, they alienate against our kind by not having the red plus next to our usernames.

I too, would like to see the resources site go away from this "pay to use" forms they have now, because if you take a good look at it, people sell their modifications through that very site. What gives?