Help me understand this licence renewal stuff

[Collin S.]

First ? You can keep your paypal account on file and it will pull from their rather than having to worry about keeping a credit in your account here. Though, if they updated the system to pull from credit, you would just need to make sure you had available credit to cover your renewal prior to the renewal date...

Second ? You simply go into your account and 'cancel' the license. I'm not sure if it cancels, goes inactive, at that moment or if it just doesn't renew when it's time, though...

We don't do PayPal Subscriptions and have not for some time. We had a large number of customers who would forget that PayPal still had an active subscription (it has or had to at the time be cancelled from paypal.com) and it caused billing headaches.

Its quite complex this process.

If you have any questions about how to reactivate, cancel, deactivate, or do almost anything else, take a look at our guides. There are screenshots and everything to make it easy. :)

http://community.invisionpower.com/resources/guides.html/_/ips-client-services-and-faq/deactivating-and-reactivating-licenses-r30

http://www.invisionpower.com/support/guides/_/ips-client-services-and-faq/

[Ricw]

Help me understand something this license renewal stuff. I am quite certain I understand how the license works. I am currently on a hosted plan and actually love it this way. I get renewals or updates when ever they come out and as a rookie it actually helps push me to keep up. But soon I probably am going to have to do something else. I know my marketing plan will draw a lot of guest who count against my online users, which will push me into a higher plan.

I am considering this, buy 3.4.3 and then not upgrade again until suite 4.0 comes out. I at which time, I would like to always just keep the license updated. My question is, what about transferring all of my forums and tops from .3.4.3 to suite 4.0. I don't know, what if there is 3 or 4 updates in between. Will all of my forums, topics and posts transfer OK. Who knows, at the rate I am going, suite 4.0 might be out before I need to switch.

As a Rookie this topic made me feel good. Understanding the license renewal was an easy one for me. But lets say..., ah, no never mind. :lol:

[Wolfie]

I charge more than $25 / hr for custom work.

If that gives some perspective.

Time = money. You can't get everything for nothing.

My point was that $25 for a month is dirty cheap when it comes to labor. (This wasn't even touching on the fact that $25/6 months is a steal.)

Help me understand something this license renewal stuff. I am quite certain I understand how the license works. I am currently on a hosted plan and actually love it this way. I get renewals or updates when ever they come out and as a rookie it actually helps push me to keep up. But soon I probably am going to have to do something else. I know my marketing plan will draw a lot of guest who count against my online users, which will push me into a higher plan.

I am considering this, buy 3.4.3 and then not upgrade again until suite 4.0 comes out. I at which time, I would like to always just keep the license updated. My question is, what about transferring all of my forums and tops from .3.4.3 to suite 4.0. I don't know, what if there is 3 or 4 updates in between. Will all of my forums, topics and posts transfer OK. Who knows, at the rate I am going, suite 4.0 might be out before I need to switch.

As a Rookie this topic made me feel good. Understanding the license renewal was an easy one for me. But lets say..., ah, no never mind. :lol:

Stick with hosting as long as you can, up to and including the Standard 25 plan. If you feel compelled to switch away, compare hosting plans of various companies (and learn which companies to avoid *coughGODADDYcough*) but don't look at shared hosting. Instead look at reseller accounts or semi-managed servers. If you expect to have more than 25 online users consistently, you'll want reliable response times and page load times. Expecting that from shared hosting is a joke in itself because you're going to get noticeable delays due to the nature of it. With reseller hosting, it's expected that you'll be adding accounts that will weigh down the server, but if you use that all for yourself, then your site should have better quality of service. If you can afford it, go for semi-dedicated or full dedicated, that will give you the best quality of service, but also requires you to be more hands on.

When comparing the prices, you'll probably find it's cheaper and less hassle to stay with IPS hosting, at least for the first few plans. Even Plus 40 would be to your benefit in comparison, when you consider the hosting quality you get, and it comes with Nexus, so you could sell things to bring in some income to offset some of the cost. Bring in enough and it becomes a moot point. :)

[Ricw]

My point was that $25 for a month is dirty cheap when it comes to labor. (This wasn't even touching on the fact that $25/6 months is a steal.)

Stick with hosting as long as you can, up to and including the Standard 25 plan. If you feel compelled to switch away, compare hosting plans of various companies (and learn which companies to avoid *coughGODADDYcough*) but don't look at shared hosting. Instead look at reseller accounts or semi-managed servers. If you expect to have more than 25 online users consistently, you'll want reliable response times and page load times. Expecting that from shared hosting is a joke in itself because you're going to get noticeable delays due to the nature of it. With reseller hosting, it's expected that you'll be adding accounts that will weigh down the server, but if you use that all for yourself, then your site should have better quality of service. If you can afford it, go for semi-dedicated or full dedicated, that will give you the best quality of service, but also requires you to be more hands on.

When comparing the prices, you'll probably find it's cheaper and less hassle to stay with IPS hosting, at least for the first few plans. Even Plus 40 would be to your benefit in comparison, when you consider the hosting quality you get, and it comes with Nexus, so you could sell things to bring in some income to offset some of the cost. Bring in enough and it becomes a moot point. :smile:

Sounds like pretty good advice, without help from IPS, several times I would have been screwed, but each time they were able to fix my problem. For a rookie that counts a lot! When I get this thing going, I can not have problems that I don't know how to deal with it, and IPS pulls me out like champions ever time. I remember reading a post from Woodsman, about a year ago, who said if he had to do it all over, he would just get a IPS hosted plan. We might be just be talking myself into my decision, today. I certainly do not need another issue to figure out.

[steve00]

Instead look at reseller accounts or semi-managed servers.

Was under the impression that reseller account would be worse than shared due to reseller hosting would have a lot of resellers on same server so they may likely have more visitors to handle on the server (or resellers try to 'oversell') than a shared hosting (if that makes sense)

Perhaps I am wrong ??

[bearback]

_{forget your resellers or shared hosting, 3.4 just does not work that well on shared hosting.}

_{I recently upgraded one of my forums from 3.1.4 to 3.4.3,}

_{3.1.4 worked ok on shared hosting but as soon as I upgraded to the latest ipb version, the forum was very slow to load.}

_{I move the forum to a dedicated server and now it loads very fast with no issues}

_{the minuim I would go for would be a vps or dedicated}

[steve00]

_{forget your resellers or shared hosting, 3.4 just does not work that well on shared hosting.}

_{I recently upgraded one of my forums from 3.1.4 to 3.4.3,}

_{3.1.4 worked ok on shared hosting but as soon as I upgraded to the latest ipb version, the forum was very slow to load.}

_{I move the forum to a dedicated server and now it loads very fast with no issues}

_{the minuim I would go for would be a vps or dedicated}

I know a few people on shared hosting with 3.4.x and they have not reported any issues

perhaps it depends on your host ?

Think IPS would likely get a lot of complaints if it would only work on vps or dedicated ?

[Wolfie]

Was under the impression that reseller account would be worse than shared due to reseller hosting would have a lot of resellers on same server so they may likely have more visitors to handle on the server (or resellers try to 'oversell') than a shared hosting (if that makes sense)

Perhaps I am wrong ??

Sort of.

When you pay for shared hosting, chances are your hosting account is on the same server as several hundred others who are promised 'unlimited' space and bandwidth. With reseller, you get a fixed amount of space and bandwidth to share out to others. No one else can touch that space or use that bandwidth other than you (or who you allocated it to). They are expecting you to share out those resources to others and when doing so, others will use the resources and add to the load of the server.

But what if you keep all those resources to yourself so that you're the only one (via your account) adding any kind of a load to the server? There's only so much the other resellers can sell off before they run out of space/bandwidth to sell so once they're all used up, your single site on the account is only a portion of the load. Instead of selling out to (say) 40+ people, you're one person. You get a little more space and bandwidth than VPS/etc for the same price, less of the headaches of needing to know what to do (server wise) and only taking a mild hit when it comes to speed.

Of course, you are taking a gamble that the other resellers aren't selling off so much that the server then has thousands of semi-popular micro sized sites on it, which would make your efforts pointless. But presuming that doesn't happen, you get better performance than regular shared hosting. (If the server load seems to be a bit in use frequently, then I'd ask to be moved to another server.) I'm on a reseller account and I've noticed the speed is better than shared. Not as great as VPS/etc, but I don't need that so I'm fine.

[Kellie]

Okay so let's say that I decide to make a new purchase of one of the IPB addon-apps I do not currently have for my community. My license is up for renewal in May. So, if I make the purchase today, the $10 renewal fee will get tacked on to what I will already owe in May. So instead of paying $45 every 6 months, I would pay $55 starting in May, correct? So really, I wouldn't get the chance to have my *6 months* out of the product before I have to pay the renewal fee because the product would get lumped in to my community cost.

Of course, I can deactivate the products and reactivate them at any time. But if I deactivate my blog tomorrow, I would have to pay $10 to reactivate it. So then, if my community license comes up for renewal in 2 weeks, I would have to pay the entire fee (which would include the $10 for the blog I just paid $10 to reactivate).

Am I understanding this correctly? I just want to make sure because I want to purchase another app for my community but need to be aware that if I do that today, I add another $10 to my community-renewal fee in May. :smile:

[Kellie]

I love the way the new system works. I just purchased for example another copy of blogs for another site, I was charged 40 dollars or so (Pro-rated) until my main license renewal. I like everything based around my core renewal date personally. If I don't want to renew the license and wait I can do that too and still pay the same price as it would of been 6 months earlier. IMO it doesn't get much simpler, I think some people are over explaining this.

Oh really?! That's awesome! :)

[.Ian]

Okay so let's say that I decide to make a new purchase of one of the IPB addon-apps I do not currently have for my community. My license is up for renewal in May. So, if I make the purchase today, the $10 renewal fee will get tacked on to what I will already owe in May. So instead of paying $45 every 6 months, I would pay $55 starting in May, correct? So really, I wouldn't get the chance to have my *6 months* out of the product before I have to pay the renewal fee because the product would get lumped in to my community cost.

Of course, I can deactivate the products and reactivate them at any time. But if I deactivate my blog tomorrow, I would have to pay $10 to reactivate it. So then, if my community license comes up for renewal in 2 weeks, I would have to pay the entire fee (which would include the $10 for the blog I just paid $10 to reactivate).

Am I understanding this correctly? I just want to make sure because I want to purchase another app for my community but need to be aware that if I do that today, I add another $10 to my community-renewal fee in May. :smile:

This my understanding,

Buying it now, you would not get the full 6 months - you would only get the time remaining until your next renewal date, however the price is pro-rated

Should you deactivate any product, you would loose access to that product immediately even if you have only used say a month of any 6 month period.

If you reactivate then you would have to pay for that remainder of the 6 month period again. You would of course have to pay the $10 again in May.

Should you purchase Blog now, the price will be pro-rated, and your renewal in May will be $10 higher for the next 6 month period.

[Wolfie]

This is my understanding of it...

:mellow: :hmm: :twitch: :huh:

[Collin S.]

Buying it now, you would not get the full 6 months - you would only get the time remaining until your next renewal date, however the price is pro-rated

Correct. If you buy it now, the price is pro-rated based on when your next renewal date is.

Should you deactivate any product, you would loose access to that product immediately even if you have only used say a month of any 6 month period.

Also correct. Though there is a big red warning and a checkbox to let you know what you are doing.

If you reactivate then you would have to pay for that remainder of the 6 month period again. You would of course have to pay the $10 again in May.

If you reactivate it, you would pay the reactivation fee to "catch up" with the old reactivation, and then yes, have to renew it at standard suite renewal date.

Should you purchase Blog now, the price will be pro-rated, and your renewal in May will be $10 higher for the next 6 month period.

Yes that's correct but worded a bit poorly..... If you buy blog now, you'll get a prorated price based on how long until your next suite renewal. Come your next suite renewal, Blog will be part of that renewal price. It's not BLOG that will be $10 more, it's the suite - it will renew blog with it for 6 months, which is $10.

[Wolfie]

Correct. If you buy it now, the price is pro-rated based on when your next renewal date is.

Pro-rated based on the number of days left (I take it)?

If so, then someone could easily purchase IP.Board ($175 currently, which includes the core), then wait until a few days before renewal, purchase all the other apps, and pay just a few dollars, suddenly, they got the apps for free (almost), just needing to pay the renewal.

[Collin S.]

Pro-rated based on the number of days left (I take it)?

If so, then someone could easily purchase IP.Board ($175 currently, which includes the core), then wait until a few days before renewal, purchase all the other apps, and pay just a few dollars, suddenly, they got the apps for free (almost), just needing to pay the renewal.

Yes and no. This is why we charge full price if you "reactivate" later. It's possible to BUY an app and get a slight discount, but your renewals are always at full price. Also, you won't get anything for almost free - we only prorate the cost of support, not the initial purchase price. Meaning, for example, IP.Content would only be prorated a maximum of a $15 discount - the cost of support for that product. The discount is never greater than the cost of the upcoming renewal.

[Wolfie]

Yes and no. This is why we charge full price if you "reactivate" later. It's possible to BUY an app and get a slight discount, but your renewals are always at full price. Also, you won't get anything for almost free - we only prorate the cost of support, not the initial purchase price. Meaning, for example, IP.Content would only be prorated a maximum of a $15 discount - the cost of support for that product. The discount is never greater than the cost of the upcoming renewal.

Ah okay. That makes more sense, otherwise someone could buy all the other apps and spend less than $5, then renew a day or two later and essentially only pay the renewal costs.

[Grimace`]

Ah okay. That makes more sense, otherwise someone could buy all the other apps and spend less than $5, then renew a day or two later and essentially only pay the renewal costs.

Yeah there goes my plan .. Jokes lol :lol:

[GreenLinks]

I deposited the required renewal amount to my account , hopefully things will go smooth without issues.

[steve00]

Am afraid for me this new license system sucks as cannot see why didn't stick with the old one

If I want to renew an app 3 months after expires I still have to pay the full amount but only get 3 months before due for renewal again so I lose 3 months of use/support (thats how I understand it)

Anyway, appears I am the only one so hey carry on.

[.Ian]

Am afraid for me this new license system sucks as cannot see why didn't stick with the old one

If I want to renew an app 3 months after expires I still have to pay the full amount but only get 3 months before due for renewal again so I lose 3 months of use/support (thats how I understand it)

Anyway, appears I am the only one so hey carry on.

That is correct if you have chosen not to renew one particular app. but have other active apps.

If you have no active apps, then the 6 months starts from the date you renew your first app.

[Cyrem]

This has been slowing irritating me each time I go to the client center. I don't understand why it is grouped at all.

Is not the purpose of 4.0 to allow the products to run separate of each other? If that is the case, should not each product be separated?

Before hand it was simple, renew the product and you get 6 months of support.... clean, simple, no but's.

The new method is not. I do not like paying the whole amount in bulk to get the full 6 months of support. I want to be able to renew the product when I want and get the 6 months of support like we used to, not 'whatever is left' until the next cycle. With the new system you can only state 6 months of support if you renew it in bulk, otherwise you do not get that amount of support.

This new system is bad for both IPS and customers. For the reason you stated, if people renew a day before customers can cheat you.... but at the same time, I believe it is morally wrong to charge someone the price of full 6 months of support even if there is only a few days left in that cycle... then expect them to pay again in a few days. If the customer did not get those prior days of support, they should not be charged for them. Charging them for something they never had.

Now if I have understood this incorrectly please say so, but if I am correct, I am astounded by this poorly created system. A customer that pays $25 for 6 months of support should get what they pay for, no less. Really, you may have protected yourself from the cheats, but essentially, you are cheating us instead. Unless you are now saying you no longer provide 6 months of support, in which case I am even more astounded. The only way to get your money's worth is by renewing in bulk... which now feels forced.

This system needs to be re-developed is this is the case.

I really hope I understood this wrong.

[Aiwa]

Here is my understanding of how it works... (w/ numbers)

Lets do this based on Blog, a $50 app w/ $10 renewal.

Your renewal for Suite is 1/1. On 12/31 you decide to buy Blog w/ Christmas money... You will pay $40 + the prorated $10 to give you 1 day of support... So $0.02.

So what you just did was purchase Blog for $40.02 on 12/31 w/ a 6 mo renewal date of 1/1. So come 1/1 (the next day), your Suite renewal will go up by $10 w/ the addition of Blog.

Some will argue that you're skirting the system and getting an app for 'cheap'. The reality is that IPS is still getting an App sale and only losing out on the support contract if that person purchases and immediately cancels. So, they get access to the version available THAT day and no more. So when they want a new version, they would have to pay the $10 renewal.

If someone is going to be doing something like this, they are likely the client that isn't going to renew anyway until they want new versions. So IPS again really isn't losing anything. They get an app sale and don't add another client to the support list. Daily support burden doesn't change, but they made money.

[Wolfie]

I still maintain that if someone waits to renew a product when they will only have 3 months of support on it, then they should just wait it out if possible. Problem solved.

[Collin S.]

Is not the purpose of 4.0 to allow the products to run separate of each other? If that is the case, should not each product be separated?

4.0 will also only have a single version number and single download. Social Suite version 4.0.0 will be the version number, and there won't be separate versions or downloads for each product. It's just a "suite".


As others have mentioned, if you only want to renew "when you want" and you have nothing else active, you'll still get 6 months. If you renew half of your licenses now and half later, you won't get 6 months here and 6 months there. Customers very frequently requested grouped renewals because they wanted everything to have one renewal invoice and one renewal date instead of a bunch of different ones.

[GreenLinks]

My question is answered , My renewal date was coming and i updated my license details according to my new choice , deposited the required amount to my account. When renewal date comes , my licenses are auto renewed.

This is nice implementation , it sounds a bit complex as we never used it before.

But still i don't feel comfortable about the other side of the story. I currently don't have Downloads script. Lets assume 3 months from today , i choose to buy Downloads Add on. I will have to buy that script for 3 months only though pay the full price. Then after 3 months , i will have to renew this with other licenses. So my 3 month is automatically gone.