Don't show me an update if I can't download it....

[Morrigan]

I am broke right now and I can't renew my main IPS license. My big life issue has a big thing to do this for me but regardless.

My license expired a week or so ago and I just got notified of the security patch but since my license is expired I cannot update it.

So please just make sure that it doesn't even show patches if we can't download them. Kind of pointless even if it is a security patch.

[Alexandr.P]

[Everade]

21 hours ago, Morrigan said:

Kind of pointless even if it is a security patch.

It's not pointless, information is good, but it's most likely their also part of their business.
They're trying to inform/annoy you until you get that money floating back in.

I would prefer that the message pops up just once until dismissed, so i know if there's anything important going on.
That would make more sense.

[Morrigan]

They normally don't show update notifications if your license is expired. In this case it was a patch and shouldn't have shown up for the same reason.

[bfarber]

We sent an AdminCP bulletin for this because it is a security issue, however it is targeted/isolated and does not impact all clients. Because the notice was sent a little differently, that's why you're seeing it when you may not normally have due to your license lapsing.

[Morrigan]

On 12/23/2020 at 12:36 PM, bfarber said:

We sent an AdminCP bulletin for this because it is a security issue, however it is targeted/isolated and does not impact all clients. Because the notice was sent a little differently, that's why you're seeing it when you may not normally have due to your license lapsing.

This would be lovely and satisfying but the issue is it is behaving like a standard update notification. In this case returning regularly across many platforms to poke me about this update I can’t install.

My suggestion is, no matter how important IPS is making it, even if it’s a security patch, if I can’t install it with my lapsed license, the notification shouldn’t come up. The priority in this case should be whether I can download it or not.

At the moment a 105 dollar renewal is impossible for me regardless of how important it is.

Edited December 25, 2020 by Morrigan

[Joel R]

On 12/25/2020 at 12:25 AM, Morrigan said:

My suggestion is, no matter how important IPS is making it, even if it’s a security patch, if I can’t install it with my lapsed license, the notification shouldn’t come up. The priority in this case should be whether I can download it or not.

You know that IPS is never going to hide these renewal notifications security notifications.  

[Morrigan]

I don’t need them to hide it. I need it to behave @Joel R

 

My daughter attempted to take her life in December and unfortunately that plus my boyfriend getting COVID in January where I now have it? I’m not going to lie, the fact that I CANNOT update because I don’t have the money to do it but am so incessantly reminded of it with an expired license is hot garbage. 

If my license was active that’s on me and I am making an active decision to ignore it. When my license is inactive that is not the case. I don’t see why a “if license inactive no reminders” statement can’t be added to them.

@Charles @Lindy is it really necessary to be this insistent to remind me of what a hard time I’m having? It was hard enough dealing (and still dealing) with my life issues. This feels just like an extra kick in the teeth in my opinion. These last two months have quite literally been the worst of my life, I don’t know why IPS had to rub it in my face every 24-48 hours when it decided to remind me again that my site wasn’t up to date on my expired license that I legit just couldn’t pay for.

[Lindy]

Sorry you're having difficulties, @MorriganIt's certainly not been a wonderful 10 months, by any stretch. 😞

I'm also sorry the notifications are causing you stress. They're intended to emphasize the importance of updates - if you're like me, you've likely clicked the "remind me later" button on OS updates a few dozen times before actually going through with it. Unfortunately, there is no distinction between licensed/unlicensed at this time - if we recommend an update, it's recommended regardless of license status. Nonetheless, I truly understand and empathize with the sentiment -- these are difficult times for many and we don't necessarily want reminders. I'm sorry this has been an example of that for you. 

I hope things improve for you soon. 

[Alexandr.P]

They say already this year that everything will be good))

[Davyc]

I don't want to get involved with this issue, but I do want to send a virtual hug to @Morrigan and hope that things in your life begin to improve in the very near future. Life can be a mess at times, many of us are equipped to deal with these things but just as many feels that the pressure can be too much at times and they need to offload some of the stress.

I can empathise with you and I also feel for you - but I also get the sense that you're a strong lady and will weather this storm that's entered your life.  Big hugs to you and good thoughts coming your way.

[Morrigan]

I wasn't mentioning my hardship for sympathy but I do appreciate the well wishes. I was just pointing out that especially with all the hardships of 2020 and the coming hardships and difficulty of 2021 that a new method for this really needs to be developed.

There have been some really good suggestions in the past that include:

• Dismiss until next update.
• Dismiss for X amount of time (1 day, 1 week, 1 month)
• Dismiss and only show this update in the ACP. Hell, this one could be a setting for notifications in the ACP. "Show update notifications in the ACP or email update notifications to me". NGL, emailing me may work better for a lot of admins.

They aren't impossible asks and would relieve the stress for those that are struggling in this time and cannot afford it. I don't think its a fair ask to have me completely remove update reminders from my template in order to ignore them when my license lapses but as it stands, to save myself the headache and heartache of being reminded that is what would have to be done. Then I'd have to remember to remove that when I'm able to update again which likely wouldn't be high on my priority list at that time.

This NEEDS to be improved. I don't just WANT it to be improved.

[CoffeeCake]

This was an issue from the 4.4 to 4.5 upgrade, though not do to licensing costs. We had to wait until we had addressed a number of blocking issues before performing the update, yet the reminder was up there the whole time in full force. If a change is made, it should be something a bit more involved than clicking a link. I'd hate to accidentally click the "SHH" button out of force of habit or half awake. Whatever it is should require another shh push should another update be made available. "Ignore this particular update" is as far as that should go, and extra alertiness/ignoring this is at your own peril when it's a security issue should be in place. Or, please provide a value for constants.php that makes sure those who would like to be notified everywhere of a security issue can continue to opt in for that.

I'd suggest considering the ramifications of an additional hardship of having your community exploited through a known security vulnerability whose alert you did not receive for a lapse in license, or whose alert you disabled entirely. From my perspective, and my perspective alone, that would be a far greater hardship than being faced with a notification. I could easily imagine someone coming here very upset (personal hardships aside) that they weren't notified about an important security issue, now are faced with the aftermath of having their community impacted by a known security issue, and saying that they would have found a way to renew or have disabled their community entirely had they known the impact. The fallout from something like that may be far more expensive in direct and indirect ways than the cost of renewal.

If it's just the front-end notification you'd like removed, you can do so with a one line custom CSS, setting display: none to the notification div.

[Morrigan]

53 minutes ago, Paul E. said:

I'd suggest considering the ramifications of an additional hardship of having your community exploited through a known security vulnerability whose alert you did not receive for a lapse in license, or whose alert you disabled entirely.

NGL, that doesn't magically make money fall out of your pocket. "OMG ITS SUPER IMPORTANT LET ME NOT GET THAT PRESCRIPTION MED FOR MY FAMILY MEMBER BECAUSE MY COMMUNITY IS AT RISK!!!!! THEY WILL TOTALLY UNDERSTAND WHY THEY ARE STILL SICK!"

No matter what you do as an administrator you have to make decisions on your priorities and my family and myself will always come first.

I would prefer that if I dismiss it because I can't afford it and can't get it until I can (which I was able to do a few weeks ago mind you and updated immediately) that it go the hell away. I don't need to be on my community where I like to relax and escape from my daily troubles to be reminded of them every other day.

58 minutes ago, Paul E. said:

If it's just the front-end notification you'd like removed, you can do so with a one line custom CSS, setting display: none to the notification div.

 

1 hour ago, Morrigan said:

don't think its a fair ask to have me completely remove update reminders from my template in order to ignore them when my license lapses but as it stands, to save myself the headache and heartache of being reminded that is what would have to be done.

 

[CoffeeCake]

1 minute ago, Morrigan said:

NGL, that doesn't magically make money fall out of your pocket. "OMG ITS SUPER IMPORTANT LET ME NOT GET THAT PRESCRIPTION MED FOR MY FAMILY MEMBER BECAUSE MY COMMUNITY IS AT RISK!!!!! THEY WILL TOTALLY UNDERSTAND WHY THEY ARE STILL SICK!"

No matter what you do as an administrator you have to make decisions on your priorities and my family and myself will always come first.

Absolutely understandable, Morrigan. I've been in a similar position before and had to do what I would have considered unthinkable and take a community offline because we were simply not able to pay the bills, and I was simultaneously coupled with horrific personal tragedies. I completely empathize with the difficult position you are in, and while I could never stand in your shoes, I wish I had the ability to solve the much larger issues for you that have nothing to do with this software.

Last week, there was an active, coordinated attack on our community attempting to exploit previously patched vulnerabilities. My suggestion is not that somehow money will fall out of the sky, but rather that what seems like the appropriate course of action (don't show security notifications if my license is expired), may actually be an indicator that there may be other avenues to consider.

Your family obviously comes first. Let your members know where things stand (you don't need to fully disclose things, but just that personal circumstances have put the community in this unfortunate position), and ask if they can chip in with donations with a goal to cover your costs to stay updated. Consider passing the reigns to someone else permanently or temporarily until you're in a better place, or let folks know it's time to move on and shut the community down. There are a few other RPG communities that have been asking questions here in the past week--maybe they'd be willing to take in your community and give it a home, or partner with you in some creative way.

I'd strongly encourage you to not risk something worse by leaving things unpatched and ending up with something landing somewhere between increasing your hosting costs by having your servers compromised, to having your members' personal information compromised, to having your site's reputation tarnished.

[CoffeeCake]

 

2 hours ago, Morrigan said:

I don't think its a fair ask to have me completely remove update reminders from my template in order to ignore them when my license lapses but as it stands, to save myself the headache and heartache of being reminded that is what would have to be done.

Personally, and this is just my opinion on the matter, security fixes should be provided for a given version within a contractually agreed period of time that is unlinked from having access to continued improvements and bug fixes. With each released version, an end of life date should be provided where we all know when security fixes will be abandoned for a particular version.

I completely understand not getting the benefit of continued development and new features, or fixing or improving upon things without an active license, but holding security fixes hostage behind a support contract is on the lower end of the ethical spectrum of things. 

Can you open a gofundme and would IPS be okay with you linking that here?

[Morrigan]

This situation was completely temporary for me but a nuisance. I was (as I said in my previous post) able to get my license paid for and updated a few weeks ago now.

This post was done as it was stressful and this insistent niggling reminder of my newly expired license which expired, quite accurately, the same week as my life fell apart was just one more added stress to something that was already stressful.

I didn't need or want help as I knew that once everything came back down to something more level I would be capable of paying and updating but I didn't think that the reminder every day or every other day was necessary or even helpful in my situation of having an inactive license. Hell someone offered to pay for my license and I declined. Its also why I didn't reach out to IPS about it as I knew that as the storm passed everything would be back to normal and that meant me paying my renewal as well as I've been running this site as a beta site for about 5 years now?

[CoffeeCake]

Glad to hear you're up to date, that the temporary hiccups have been overcome, and that you were able to resolve things.

I didn't realize until just now that this thread had been resurrected from Christmas day and that @Joel R was digging into the archives.

I'm all for a constants.php setting called \define('I_HEREBY_KNOWINGLY_BREAK_THE_WARRANTY_STICKER_AND_PROMISE_I_WILL_BE_COMPLETELY_AT_BLAME_FOR_DISABLING_UPDATE_NOTIFICATIONS_ITS_NOT_IPS_FAULT_PINKY_PROMISE', true);

[Jordan Miller]

16 hours ago, Morrigan said:

I don’t need them to hide it. I need it to behave @Joel R

 

My daughter attempted to take her life in December and unfortunately that plus my boyfriend getting COVID in January where I now have it? I’m not going to lie, the fact that I CANNOT update because I don’t have the money to do it but am so incessantly reminded of it with an expired license is hot garbage. 

If my license was active that’s on me and I am making an active decision to ignore it. When my license is inactive that is not the case. I don’t see why a “if license inactive no reminders” statement can’t be added to them.

@Charles @Lindy is it really necessary to be this insistent to remind me of what a hard time I’m having? It was hard enough dealing (and still dealing) with my life issues. This feels just like an extra kick in the teeth in my opinion. These last two months have quite literally been the worst of my life, I don’t know why IPS had to rub it in my face every 24-48 hours when it decided to remind me again that my site wasn’t up to date on my expired license that I legit just couldn’t pay for.

Super sorry to hear this @Morrigan. I can't imagine how you're feeling right now. 

I know this might sound silly, but perhaps these notifications can serve as a goal (that you CAN achieve cause you're strong) rather than a reminder of difficult times. Life will funnel $105 your way somehow. I know your community is important to you. It'll happen. 

 

2 hours ago, Morrigan said:

This situation was completely temporary for me but a nuisance. I was (as I said in my previous post) able to get my license paid for and updated a few weeks ago now.

This post was done as it was stressful and this insistent niggling reminder of my newly expired license which expired, quite accurately, the same week as my life fell apart was just one more added stress to something that was already stressful.

I didn't need or want help as I knew that once everything came back down to something more level I would be capable of paying and updating but I didn't think that the reminder every day or every other day was necessary or even helpful in my situation of having an inactive license. Hell someone offered to pay for my license and I declined. Its also why I didn't reach out to IPS about it as I knew that as the storm passed everything would be back to normal and that meant me paying my renewal as well as I've been running this site as a beta site for about 5 years now?

Oh I should have probably read the full thread before replying. This is awesome to hear an update. Super happy things have calmed down 🙏 

[Davyc]

Really happy for you that your issues have levelled and you're back on track.  I had a gut feeling that you'd weather the storm and come back from out of the shadows. Good to hear that your site is back too.  All the best wishes and luck in the world to you and I hope those dark clouds never venture onto your doorstep again 🙂