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IPS Marketplace - the Vince Flynn secret spy changeout


TracyIsland

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It would seem that the current changeover in the IPS Marketplace is following a complex and super secret storyline similar to a Vince Flynn novel.

Why this secrecy?

Why the confusing and misleading new categories?

I assumed the file I wanted had made the transition to the new category section but in looking at the main categories, it was anybody's guess what or where the ip content blocks were suddenly relocated?

Could you possibly step back and think of this from a simple guy's perspective? What is an intuitive name for a category that would be instantly self-explanatory to a non developer?

Right now, most of the "new" categories just seem like covert names for subterfuge operations and off shore accounts.

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Yes, I'm finding it confusing at the moment. Because I liked to look through hook or applications only. Now they are all mixed. I also liked how there was division between stuff for IP.Board, Content etc... If you could add a filter to filter by what it is for it would make it easier.

I might get used to it eventually, not sure.

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  • Management

We appreciate the constructive feedback and would like to know more about your thoughts. What do you find complex about it? The marketplace is so vast, it's difficult to categorize to everyone's satisfaction. To a novice, the concept of "hooks" and "applications" is a bit unintuitive. What is a hook?? Do I hang my jacket on it?

Categorizing based on what you're looking for (eg. social engagement, utilities, etc.) makes the most sense. It's not going to be perfect for everyone, but we think, when finished, it will make the most sense.

Not everyone has migrated over yet, so it's possible what you're looking for is in the old section. As for where it might be, it would depend on the purpose of the IP.Content block. Lumping everything together is what made things difficult to find/navigate.

Thanks for your patience.

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When I look at the list of 'new' categories, I, as the simple, non-developer guy, don't immediately understand what "utilities means, or what "integration" encompasses, and for many web developers, there might be a lot of debate as to what "user and social engagement" represents.

I have no idea what IPS Extras means. Not as a new guy and not even as a seasoned guy, it seems odd to call something IPS Extras when just about every file in the Marketplace is, at the very basic level, an IPS Extra.

All of this explanation is a figurative demonstration of what my clicking activity might entail as I struggle to understand the meaning of each category, and frown to understand why something is filed under one of these categories. Every visit to category should be an 'of course' and a 'naturally' moment. Right now, that isn't happening.

The Simple Guy would say something like: "gosh, I need a xzy for the forum. So if it said 'Forum Additions,' that would instantly make me click and look there.

If it said IP Content blocks, that would make me look there for accessories for this app I just bought called IP Content.

If I just purchased IP Blog, and I wanted to do something that would enhance the blog application, I would look in a location that said blog.

Here are categories that instantly make sense to me:

Forum Addons

Social Network Addons

Skin and Template Addons (to you, templates may have a very developer-like meaning but to me, a template is just how the website looks) Although the term 'Look' works in pinch, since most people get it after a thought or two, the term 'Feel' is much more nebulous and requires definition. That means someone has to click on the category just to understand what IPS means by 'Feel.'

IP Content Database Addons

IP Content Block Addons

IP Content Feature Addons

IP Nexus eCommerce Addons

IP Calendar Addons

Member Feature Addons

Gallery Feature Addons

Chat Feature Addons

Translation Feature Addons

Search Feature Addons

All Things Mobile Addons

Could there be more top-level categories? Probably. But would I mind if I had to scan that list? No - because I am simply looking at the main directory or table of contents for the main area I want. Integration and Promotion might have all kinds of meanings to some and not others.

I have two 25-inch monitors. On the left is this post that I am typing. On the right is the IPS Marketplace. Sure my list of categories is longer than your new list and certainly longer than your old list but it makes instant sense, at least to me. As I look back and forth at the list of simple category names on the left screen, and then the list of mods, files, hooks, and applications on the right screen, most of them instantly go into the simple categories I have listed. As a simple guy, I really don't care if a file is a hook or a mod or an application. To me, it is simply an Addon that will do this or do that. I follow the installation instructions and hopefully the feature works. Do I know if the feature is a hook or an application? No ... it is just is an Addon that makes my forum or my blog or my calendar do this or do that.

If I need to see a doctor, what makes the most sense to me if I don't know the name of a doctor and I am in the lobby of a medical building? Not a list of latin names or Borsky, Horowitz, and Golab. This makes the most sense:

Brain Doctor

Eye Doctor

Skin Doctor

Finger Doctor

Bone Doctor

Guy's Junk Doctor

Girl's Junk Doctor

Foot Doctor

Hair Doctor

Artificial Limb Doctor

and so on...

I wonder what other people think?

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Part of the problem was that many of us have mods that support multiple components. With the old structure (and the suggested one above) there is no way for us to note WHICH components are supported, other than including in the description, which doesn't help.

I believe we're supposed to be tagging by component. This would allow you to search by "IP.Content" across all categories.

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Part of the problem was that many of us have mods that support multiple components. With the old structure (and the suggested one above) there is no way for us to note WHICH components are supported, other than including in the description, which doesn't help.

I believe we're supposed to be tagging by component. This would allow you to search by "IP.Content" across all categories.

IP.content = http://community.invisionpower.com/tags/downloads/content/

I don't oppose to the changes, but keeping the categories of the products, i.e Content, Blogs, Gallery etc subbed within these existing new categories may work out better.

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If I need to see a doctor, what makes the most sense to me if I don't know the name of a doctor and I am in the lobby of a medical building? Not a list of latin names or Borsky, Horowitz, and Golab. This makes the most sense:

Brain Doctor

Eye Doctor

Skin Doctor

Finger Doctor

Bone Doctor

Guy's Junk Doctor

Girl's Junk Doctor

Foot Doctor

Hair Doctor

Artificial Limb Doctor

and so on...

If you think about it...this is exactly how the Marketplace is set up now.

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Tags is powerful, but need to be per-defined. for example content can be tags by many tags like "content" or "ip.content" or "ccs" . so if the author1 tag it by "content" and author2 tag it using "ccs" and so .........., a lot of drama will happened later with unlimited tags.

Tags are perfect only if it is per-defined in my opinion.

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Tags is powerful, but need to be per-defined. for example content can be tags by many tags like "content" or "ip.content" or "ccs" . so if the author1 tag it by "content" and author2 tag it using "ccs" and so .........., a lot of drama will happened later with unlimited tags.

Tags are perfect only if it is per-defined in my opinion.

Yeah I tagged my gallery hooks with "ip.gallery" and found out later that other people have been tagging with "gallery"...

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Thanks NeoGrant for that example. That's a perfect example for me as a simple guy experience. If I search by the tag content, I get this huge list and my first reaction is Oy! This isn't what I want ... now having to page and page.

I really feel this sorting by category needs to be done by a 'cataloger' and not by a scientist/coder/developer. The latter think to much in 1's and 0's and forget the frustration and the warm and fuzzy touch of us none developer folk who are looking for something.

Whether it is an eCommerce site or a supermarket or the Home Depot, companies spend lots and lots of time on layout and signage so that people can find things easily and quickly. The real challenge with a place like the IPS Marketplace is that there is no friendly live person to walk you to the aisle when you still can't find something.

Using my simplified main category tools, NeoGrant's hooks would go:

IP Content Feature Addons

  • Ip content slider

Portal Feature Addons (yeah, another category but keep in mind to the simple guy, it doesn't matter if it is IP Content or Portal ... as long as it walks and talks like a portal layout)

  • IP Content Layouts

Navigation Feature Addons

  • My Content Link

Social Network Feature Addons

  • Social Links

and sure, we might have 15 or more top level categories but I would think that would encompass almost 95% of the Marketplace stuff.

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Okay, the editor is not letting me make any changes ... well I can edit but when I hit save, nothing happens.

So I will repaste my revised post here that makes more sense:

Thanks NeoGrant for that example. That's a perfect example for me as a simple guy experience. If I search by the tag content, I get this huge list and my first reaction is Oy! This isn't what I want ... now having to search by page and page.

I really feel this sorting by category needs to be done by a 'cataloger' (that is one or a few people) and not by individual's who are scientist/coder/developer. The latter think to much in 1's and 0's and forget the frustration and the warm and fuzzy touch of us none developer folk who are looking for something.

Whether it is an eCommerce site or a supermarket or the Home Depot, companies spend lots and lots of time on layout and signage so that people can find things easily and quickly. The real challenge with a place like the IPS Marketplace is that there is no friendly live person to walk you to the aisle when you still can't find something.

Using my simplified main category tools, NeoGrant's hooks would go:

IP Content Feature Addons

  • Ip content slider

Portal Feature Addons (yeah, another category but keep in mind to the simple guy, it doesn't matter if it is IP Content or Portal ... as long as it walks and talks like a portal layout)

  • IP Content Layouts

Navigation Feature Addons

  • My Content Link

Social Network Feature Addons

  • Social Links

and sure, we might have 15 or more top level categories but I would think that would encompass almost 95% of the Marketplace stuff. For us simple guys, it is so easy to immediately go to the area we need.

I bet using my set of categories, I could catalog (sort) all of Headstand and Marcher's files in places that people would find them in a flash

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Okay, the editor is not letting me make any changes ... well I can edit but when I hit save, nothing happens.

So I will repaste my revised post here that makes more sense:

Thanks NeoGrant for that example. That's a perfect example for me as a simple guy experience. If I search by the tag content, I get this huge list and my first reaction is Oy! This isn't what I want ... now having to search by page and page.

I really feel this sorting by category needs to be done by a 'cataloger' (that is one or a few people) and not by individual's who are scientist/coder/developer. The latter think to much in 1's and 0's and forget the frustration and the warm and fuzzy touch of us none developer folk who are looking for something.

Whether it is an eCommerce site or a supermarket or the Home Depot, companies spend lots and lots of time on layout and signage so that people can find things easily and quickly. The real challenge with a place like the IPS Marketplace is that there is no friendly live person to walk you to the aisle when you still can't find something.

Using my simplified main category tools, NeoGrant's hooks would go:

IP Content Feature Addons

  • Ip content slider

Portal Feature Addons (yeah, another category but keep in mind to the simple guy, it doesn't matter if it is IP Content or Portal ... as long as it walks and talks like a portal layout)

  • IP Content Layouts

Navigation Feature Addons

  • My Content Link

Social Network Feature Addons

  • Social Links

and sure, we might have 15 or more top level categories but I would think that would encompass almost 95% of the Marketplace stuff. For us simple guys, it is so easy to immediately go to the area we need.



I bet using my set of categories, I could catalog (sort) all of Headstand and Marcher's files in places that people would find them in a flash


This still does not solve the problem of mods that are made to work with multiple components.
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Okay, let's put my money on the table then and see if I can catalog headstand's 28 files:

Forum Addons

  • FAQ System
  • Recent Posts (Sidebar Block)
  • Default Post Content
  • Cut Quotes 3.12
  • Disable Topic Sigs 3.1
  • Reply Once 3.0
  • Topic Title in Replies 1.0
  • Topic Title in Replies 2.0
  • HTML Sitemap
  • Topic Template System
  • Default Post Cotent 2.0.
  • Table BBC Code
  • Reply Once
  • Disable Topic Sigs
  • Cut Quotes
  • Post of the Week 3.2.
  • Staff Picks 3.2.

Social Network Addons

  • Super News Feed

Skin and Template Addons

IP Content Database Addons

IP Content Block Addons

Portal Feature Addons

  • Recent Posts (Portal Plugin) 3.0

IP Content Feature Addons

IP Nexus eCommerce Addons

  • File Comments Notifications
  • Shopping Cart Icon

IP Calendar Addons

  • Calendar Topics
  • Calendar Template System

Member Feature Addons

  • Newsletters
  • Change Member Titles

Gallery Feature Addons

Chat Feature Addons

Translation Feature Addons

Search Feature Addons

  • Links to Titles

All Things Mobile Addons

Navigation Feature Addons

Conclusion: of all the files presented by Headstand, the only one that really gave me pause in cataloging in a simple category list was 'Links to Titles.' Is that a web programming thing or what? I acknowledge that no system will ever be perfect and the IPS folks do face some dilemmas on certain Marketplace files but for the most part, it seems to sort easily. But that's just me.

Lindy: you can't say I didn't provide any alternate path when I found issue with your new categorization approach.

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Okay, let's put my money on the table then and see if I can catalog headstand's 28 files:

Forum Addons

  • FAQ System
  • Recent Posts (Sidebar Block)
  • Default Post Content
  • Cut Quotes 3.12
  • Disable Topic Sigs 3.1
  • Reply Once 3.0
  • Topic Title in Replies 1.0
  • Topic Title in Replies 2.0
  • HTML Sitemap
  • Topic Template System
  • Default Post Cotent 2.0.
  • Table BBC Code
  • Reply Once
  • Disable Topic Sigs
  • Cut Quotes
  • Post of the Week 3.2.
  • Staff Picks 3.2.

Social Network Addons

  • Super News Feed

Skin and Template Addons

IP Content Database Addons

IP Content Block Addons

Portal Feature Addons

  • Recent Posts (Portal Plugin) 3.0

IP Content Feature Addons

IP Nexus eCommerce Addons

  • File Comments Notifications
  • Shopping Cart Icon

IP Calendar Addons

  • Calendar Topics
  • Calendar Template System

Member Feature Addons

  • Newsletters
  • Change Member Titles

Gallery Feature Addons

Chat Feature Addons

Translation Feature Addons

Search Feature Addons

  • Links to Titles

All Things Mobile Addons

Navigation Feature Addons

Conclusion: of all the files presented by Headstand, the only one that really gave me pause in cataloging in a simple category list was 'Links to Titles.' Is that a web programming thing or what? I acknowledge that no system will ever be perfect and the IPS folks do face some dilemmas on certain Marketplace files but for the most part, it seems to sort easily. But that's just me.

Well, if we're really playing this game....

1. FAQ, is not in any way, shape, or form, a forum addon. This application, like many others, is a completely separate area of the board and is not an "addon" to any single component. You can say the same for other popular mods like Classifieds or Garage System.

2. Ditto for Newsletters.

3. Link Titles has nothing to do with Search and everything to do with SEO. Calling a category "Search", at least to me, refers to IPB's search functionality. If you meant to say SEO, that's a different story.

3a. Link Titles also does not support all the components. I would think it's important to see WHICH components are supported.

My issue with your suggested category structure is that it's neither here nor there. Either use component-based structure, or use functionality, but you've got a combination of both. Who says that "Social Networking" is more deserving than "Promotion"? Or that "Navigation" (I don't even know what this is) should get a category over "SEO"?

Using my mods also isn't the best example, because I really don't have that many, and most of them are indeed forum addons. But what about something like "Recent Gallery Images Sidebar Block"? Where do you put that - under Forums or under Gallery?
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I really feel this sorting by category needs to be done by a 'cataloger' and not by a scientist/coder/developer. The latter think to much in 1's and 0's and forget the frustration and the warm and fuzzy touch of us none developer folk who are looking for something.

For the record....the previous categorization I did (mostly...with input from addon developers and marketplace mods), while the new organization is largely being headed by our sales team. i.e. exactly what you are suggesting. And they're attempting to categorize by functionality so that non-scientist/coder/developer types who don't know a "hook" from a "module" from an "application" can find stuff. :)

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Um... I went looking for IPB Shoutbox in User and Social Engagement since that made sense to me....

It wasn't there.

IPB Shoutbox is in Utilities...

Utilities to me is like... maintenance hooks/apps.

Many things in User and Social Engagement belong in Look & Feel in my view. I mean... how does a group name indicator increase user engagement?

Manage Board Statistics is Promotion? Waaaa? How does editing stats promote your forum?

At the moment I'm having to use the search feature to find stuff because the categories are not making sense to me. Unfortunately, search is atrocious yielding 9 pages of results for 'Shoutbox'. Can we get the search sorted by the amount of downloads or something by default? Because relevancy is not working a treat.

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Firstly, you're wrong here:

I mean... how does a group name indicator increase user engagement?

The category has the title User and Social Engagement. Not User Engagement and Social. So, everything related to USERS should be there... and yes, I think that a hook to to identfy in a fast way the USER groups hasn't a better place. OR it should go to INTEGRATION. If so, everything is integrating to IP.Board... we don't need all those categories.

Secondly, there's a discussion on Contributors Chat about this. The vast majority of contributors is finding it difficult to relocate their files. Many of us didn't like it but IPS won't hear us and MP will not return to how it was.

IMO, in the end, I think it is the user who loses. Try to find any resource to any official AddOn (IP.Downloads, IP.Gallery, IP.Blog, etc.). Good luck.

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The only sane thing for me would be a structure by add-ons to IPS apps:

IP.Blog

IP.Downloads

IP.Nexus

IP.Content

--- Blocks

and so on (with multiple assignments to category if add-on support more than one app)

3rd party add-ons:

- Garage

- Classifieds

- Social Groups

- and so on

Skins and add-ons to the skins

Language packs

I do not know how I should subscribe now. To what category? E. g. I do not need anything for IP.Nexus, I am not interested in this app as this is encoded. I do not need anything for IP.Downloads, do not use this app. I will not prolong IP.Content, so no need for IP.Content blocks either. But I am interested in anything that belongs to IP.Gallery and any 3rd party apps extending functionality like Global Sidebars, Points system, Tutorials and so on.

Please suggest and instruct me - what category I should subscribe now to get notified about new stuff for IP.Gallery and new 3rd party standalone apps only? Any idea? I am a client, but I can buy new stuff only if I will be notified about new stuff, right? So HOW would you like to notify me with this strange structure about new stuff I am interested in and am potential client for? Can I subscribe to the tags? Are the tags pre-defined or depend on creativity of the developer and I have to guess how he defines it? ;)

By the way, can you please tell me what Multilang System or [you]-tag have to do with Performance? http://community.invisionpower.com/files/category/143-performance/

And or what a notifications to new file has to do with maintaince '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> ?

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These categories can never exist.

These are not categories, but items as example inside category for 3rd party apps. Please advice me how do I subscribe to tags? Does IPS still need clients for 3rd party apps? I definitely will not subscribe to each category to get only add-ons for IP.Gallery and 3rd party apps. I have no time to look through everything that is added to Marketplace.

Means, the new structure is nothing for developers and nothing for clients. But it is something that IPS likes :thumbsup:

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Means, the new structure is nothing for developers and nothing for clients. But it is something that IPS likes :thumbsup:

It is for clients. It is not for us. What would we get out of any specific categorization? :blink:

Most clients simply don't understand what "Hooks" vs "Modules" vs "Applications" means. Many addons are not specific to a single app (i.e. a group name indicator is not for board or gallery or downloads, it's for all products).

Look at ANY existing marketplace out there. Amazon, ebay, Apple, Android, etc. They categorize by function. Not by what application or other software the new software is changing. This is logical. We are open to suggestions as has been mentioned on other categories.
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