We need something new in IPS!

[Aaron M]

On 08/09/2016 at 10:54 PM, Lenny Warren said:

Hi @Lindy, I'm intrigued by your reference to Commerce, any hints at what you're thinking about adding?

Could have been a couple of issues we encountered and subsequently reported to IPS; like Billing Agreements (BAs) not autorestarting if they couldn't sync with PayPal after the first attempt. PayPal billing also posed problems to which IPS responded with the whole "Processing" state that got implemented. These are things we're currently trialling on their 4.1.15 Beta... so far things look up!

[CP]

On September 8, 2016 at 4:06 PM, Lindy said:

It was time to take a breather and focus on some internals and improving the core of the product so we could successfully lay the groundwork for more shiny stuff. As you've seen, the bug tracker has been addressed in a big way, there were many stability enhancements in 4.1.14 with more on the way (plus Commerce improvements and enhancements) in 4.1.15. We're then going to do some flexibility focus releases to add more robustness to the suite without a high impact from a development and stability standpoint (ie: things like "topics per page.") 

We're also of course aiming for 4.2 which will have a few new goodies, but we'll get to that later.  

I am by no means a fan of BS. However, I do understand that working with any kind of software takes time. 

On September 8, 2016 at 9:03 PM, Joel R said:

Maybe.  

Or maybe ... we should be forward-thinking and broaden our perspective, by appreciating how new technologies keep our communities relevant on the modern web.  Maybe we should recognize the fact that content alone does not define our communities, but that technological features that enhance, publish, and distribute our content is just as important.  Maybe we should nurture our membership through not just compelling content and discussion but also automated engagement, bulk mailers, and post ratings. And maybe we should leverage technology as a competitive advantage against other digital destinations.  

Because ultimately, I appreciate my IPS suite as a technological "home" for all of my great content, and that without a home, my content is useless.  

That's why I personally care and think that it's justifiable that we request new features.  I don't renew for security and bug fixes alone - that should be a normal business practice for IPS to repair their software.  But I do renew for compelling new features, technology, and software that will help usher ALL  of our communities to be the best home possible for our content.

I agree with you on this post.

On September 9, 2016 at 0:10 AM, The_Mage said:

New features are nice, but let's make sure we aren't getting distracted by bells and whistles, or shiny objects. Making things better, easier to use, quicker, more stable, great. But I want to make sure they aren't just adding in things just to say they did. 

"More is not better, better is better." - Attributed to about 30 different people

Getting a forum up and going is what webmasters do. But, the more we can offer is better.

On September 9, 2016 at 7:36 AM, m@t said:

@Brad Eden

social media is a very very important point of use - but here it is a small cliff that you get/keep the user to your community / website and not have the most of it on the social media channels 
For example there would be a social media stream addon great for ips which is 100% integrated and takes part of your website - there are some great resolutions at other systems & a lot of companies, media use this at their pages

maybe a little problem is too that the way of communities are moving from the old traditional way - and if you don't bring something new you will lose this part to other ways and this can be very very fast and a website is dead & you can delete it

Personally, I do not see the following with social media. It is a trend and as with all trends, eventually die. As with all things trendy, there is also a trend killer. Something, well, kills the trend no matter what it is.

On September 11, 2016 at 7:07 AM, MattLx said:

I would much rather have a bug free set of core features and a lot more optimisation of CPU resource usage than a few more bells and whistles that no-one will use.  If 4.2 was the same but better I would be very happy.  The focus should be on the core product and ease of integration with other web platforms (wordpress, etc) not building more bloat.

I agree with you for the most part. But, IPS has been out for a little over year and some nice "shiny things" would be nice.

Quote

The additional features on IPS are generally of little value to me (so far) and not particularly easy to use - for example Pages as a page creator/editor is atrocious and impossible to use sensibly to create attractive web content; the Gallery feature is clunky and unintuitive for users.  Commerce really doesnt offer anything useful to me.  I really don't want more of this stuff at the expense of the best possible core functionality that can be managed.

OK, so I've got a few bits and pieces on my wish list, like easy integration of wordpress front end and IPS forum back end for my site would be a god send.  But much more than that I need a core platform that doesn't cause my server to flake out when traffic spikes because all my members want to be online at the same time.

Not sure how that would happen?

I agree! Pages does need some work. As for commerce, can't talk about that. My members do not wish to (for what ever reason) sell their work. 

[m@t]

@CP

social media should be a trend?

Have a look how many people around the wourld use it every day and minute 

if you miss "trends" you will miss the power of a Community and before this trend will die your are long more than dead

and it is no must ... everybody who thinks i don't need it is ok ..... But to not have or try it is a big mistake