Upgrading IPS is like root canal

[Chris Bell]

@opentype

no one asked you and no one cares what you think!
when you bear any responsibility for my business maybe i ll ask your opinion, meanwhile you dont!
and this is a private support area in which you are trolling over our complaint just so your post count goes up even if it has no merit to the topic!
if i need advice about my personality ill see a shrink; im here to speak to the business owners not you!

 

[FZ]

@opentype I think you are totally out of line here. It was never my intent to accuse anybody of malfeasance but rather put forward a legitimate questioning of the rationale (or lack thereof) as far as removing this SparkPost API is concerned. 

It's fairly obvious that IPS have not done themselves or many of their customers any favours with this kind of unilateral move. But here you are in this thread, defending what some of us feel is indefensible. You are not bringing anything constructive to the discussion, instead you're dropping innuendo and telling us we're doing things wrong. We're not. 

By the way, it's now day 7 since my upgrade and still my bulk mailing system is not working. Support are telling me that the SMTP issue is not their problem, but rather one that has to do with the mailing service. I find that difficult to swallow since there are two SMTP services I have tried now and both report the same error - connection refused. It's not the host, because the host reports to me that they are not blocking the connection, the remailer is. So SMTP is NOT an option for whatever reason. This leaves us with literally only one choice, SendGrid, which as I have repeatedly pointed out in this conversation is not a feasible solution for me. 

So if IPS can bluntly tell me that the problem is not theirs, why did this become such an issue for them w.r.t. those customers for whom the SparkPost API didn't work? Why weren't those customers given the same "door in your face" treatment i am getting now? Is there a double standard at play here? 

 

[The Old Man]

As one of the many clients who had zero problems with Sparkpost, and someone who tried to persuade IPS not to remove it, I'm really disappointed with some of the posts above. You do us and yourselves absolutely no favours behaving in this way, I'm sure you wouldn't tolerate it in your own communities.

I disagreed with many of the points raised to advocate removal, and the way it was done without seeking feedback from those quite happy with the service, and the way it was handled could have been better, but at the end of the day, I accept it's for IPS to decide what they opt to integrate into their own products and when, if and why they should remove it.

It's such a shame when people risk a topic like this one being closed. That said, I spent almost an hour looking at what I 99% believed to be the community concerned yesterday and from the perspective of a first time visitor, it's actually an interesting site, friendly with a lot of good information. As the owner, I wouldn't if it was me claim it's not customised, it uses a theme by Tamen. I wouldn't claim it's not monitised, it has advertising and member subscription options available. I also wouldn't claim to not be concerned about GDPR, when the site clearly has members from all over the world including the EU, so by providing services to those in the EU you must have regard to GDPR (unless you remove and block all your European members and visitors). 

[opentype]

Quote

no one asked you and no one cares what you think!

I see! That’s how it works! My bad. Please show me where you were asked to join this discussion you haven’t started yourself. Clearly someone must have mentioned and asked you to join if that is how you say it works. 

 

2 minutes ago, Chris Bell said:

and this is a private support area

Wrong again. It is the “feedback and ideas” forum for feedback and ideas from ALL the IPS clients. Which again, gives me all the right to open topics or reply to topics being an IPS client just as you. I don’t need to be asked by you or anyone else—just as no one asked you. 

 

Quote

even if it has no merit to the topic!

And who decides that? You? You haven’t even started the topic and yet you want to decide who can speak and which replies have merit? Come on! 
Thought experiment: What if I supported your request to bring the SparkPost API? I bet you would welcome my support in this case, wouldn’t you? But when I challenge things you say instead I must be a troll who has nothing to contribute? Anyone can see through that. 

 

2 minutes ago, Chris Bell said:

 im here to speak to the business owner not you!

Then write a support ticket and have it escalated or write a private message to them.
https://invisioncommunity.com/staff/
That’s the only way you get “private support” from the “business owners”. For the fifth time or so: You have no right to shut people down in these forums just because you don’t like what they say. And you can escalate your tone as much as you want. It won’t work. ? 

[Chris Bell]

@opentype
you rude pos, get lost!

 

[FZ]

2 hours ago, Matt said:

We care about our customers too much to put them through that experience again. 

But not enough to provide more than one API option? 

To answer your question, the only time you will find me on these forums is when I am looking for something that I need help with and for which support is not available, such as template mods. If I can offer you a suggestion on how to better handle the kind of chaos removing stuff from your ecosystem always causes, it would be to try to understand that people have built entire businesses on your software and when you come along and kick over the chessboard it's going to make us very angry. Don't take a defensive / accusatory tone with us when we point out that you have screwed up either. 

This brings me back to why I don't always update my software: it is like root canal. A very unpleasant experience! Moving from 3.4 to 4.0 was just way too dramatic, so that is why having learned my lesson, I am extremely loath to continue "upgrading" your software. It's just not worth it. The added features don't bring in new people. In many cases they turn them away because the website they have come to love over many years suddenly looks and feels completely different. A lot of the time there are also issues with sessions being broken and old cached pages not looking right, which then translates into a LOT of support work for the admins. 

As I said before, focus on making minor improvements instead of these dramatic changes. Understand that if you listen to the vocal minority (on here) all the time you are eventually going to lose the silent majority. As Americans you should already know what happens when you do that... 

[Tom S.]

5 minutes ago, FZ said:

Understand that if you listen to the vocal minority (on here) all the time you are eventually going to lose the silent majority.

What if you are the “vocal minority”?

[Meddysong]

6 minutes ago, FZ said:

As Americans you should already know what happens when you do that... 

He's not an American. Neither is half the team.

[FZ]

14 minutes ago, The Old Man said:

It's such a shame when people risk a topic like this one being closed. That said, I spent almost an hour looking at what I 99% believed to be the community concerned yesterday and from the perspective of a first time visitor, it's actually an interesting site, friendly with a lot of good information. As the owner, I wouldn't if it was me claim it's not customised, it uses a theme by Tamen. I wouldn't claim it's not monitised, it has advertising and member subscription options available. I also wouldn't claim to not be concerned about GDPR, when the site clearly has members from all over the world including the EU, so by providing services to those in the EU you must have regard to GDPR (unless you remove and block all your European members and visitors). 

Taman's theme was purchased post upgrade. Prior to installing it I was using the standard themes with only colour and very few CSS changes. @opentype's home page template was the only modification I used prior. 

Monetisation? I have ONE subscribing member who has been with me for many years. He chips in $5 a month. Adverts? There is one advert on the entire site, in the sidebar and it is only there because the company concerned sends me free stuff. 

European laws do not apply to me. I am free to run a website according to my own countries laws. 

[opentype]

9 minutes ago, FZ said:

@opentype I think you are totally out of line here. It was never my intent to accuse anybody of malfeasance …

Then don’t say it. 

 

9 minutes ago, FZ said:

but rather put forward a legitimate questioning of the rationale (or lack thereof) as far as removing this SparkPost API is concerned. 

There is no lack thereof. It was explained over and over again by all the management team members in dozens of posts over months and just now again by Matt.

 

9 minutes ago, FZ said:

But here you are in this thread, defending what some of us feel is indefensible.

No I don’t. I point out problems in your arguments. I am neither for nor against the API. But I care about facts and conclusive arguments. Those are part of a fruitful discussion. It’s not just a fight of two camps, where people have to be in one or the other. 

[Chris Bell]

@Matt

do you really believe this change will prevent people from getting tagged or reported as spammers?
people will be people when one want to hurt another business it will still be the same right click to report you as a spammer!
if no percussion were taken in advance the same loop will be triggered regardless ? 

[opentype]

11 minutes ago, Chris Bell said:

@opentype
you rude pos, get lost!

Lol. You childish behavior is so predictable. I called it. 

18 minutes ago, opentype said:

And you can escalate your tone as much as you want. It won’t work. ? 

 

[Matt]

And we’re done. 

FZ, you have an ongoing ticket. We will deal with it in there however it is looking like your host is blocking SMTP. You have received timely responses in all cases.