Hump Day: new live community features

[Matt]

25 minutes ago, Sonya* said:

@Matt just big thanks for your words. There are so many insights for me, so many hints between the lines. I appreciate it.

There are no hints between the lines. There are no secret manoeuvres or plans. I am just stating what is happening and why. This does not mean that we do not value our existing customers or respect the loyalty that has built the foundations of Invision Community.

[Sonya*]

5 minutes ago, Matt said:

There are no hints between the lines.

There are hints for me of where we've all moved on and will 😉 Nothing about IPS and its plans. I get a batch of ideas by just reading you 😄 Thanks for this!

[Kirill Gromov]

Sooner or later, the graph will drop below the red line, when it will no longer be profitable to sell self-hosted licenses.

[TDBF]

So it begins.

If you remove self hosting, you will lose us as a customer, plain and simple.

I already have hosting for which I use with other domains and other software. I don't require your cloud services, just your software.

[Randy Calvert]

13 minutes ago, TDBF said:

So it begins.

If you remove self hosting, you will lose us as a customer, plain and simple.

I already have hosting for which I use with other domains and other software. I don't require your cloud services, just your software.

Just to be VERY clear...  IPS has said multiple times that there are literally ZERO plans to remove self hosting options at this time.  Any other comment to the contrary is 100% pure speculation by individuals outside of IPS who are not subject to those decisions and are not qualified to say that the self hosted option is disappearing.  

There is nothing to "begin" as it's not going away.  🙂 

[Jordan Miller]

17 hours ago, Randy Calvert said:

I agree it's better to lead than follow.  And that's what I think IPS is doing.  Rather than simply trying to stay a software company that makes a web-based application, they're reinventing themselves to be a company that enables communities...  both as a turnkey solution and as a self-hosted service.  

I disagree with your statement that it's better to sell more products at a cheaper price.  Sometimes it's better to focus on quality than quantity.  If you have a premium product, you can get a premium price for it.  Apple is a great example of this...  it makes more from its hardware AND its services than others that just churn out cheap devices.  

If a company simply focuses on being cheap, it becomes an effort to simply cut corners and not necessarily do the "cool" thing or work on other things simply because it's not going to drive new revenue.  

That's a rather presumptuous statement that self-hosted customers should not be made to feel disappointed.  That literally queues a thousand Karen videos about people who felt disappointed for things they should not.  

Instead I would make the argument that companies should try to do right by their customers...  ALL of their customers.  

Sometimes it's not possible to give everyone what they want... especially at the price they want.  (Heck, I want a Tesla Model X Plaid and I want to pay only 60K for it....  since I have a Model 3, they should give it to me cheaper right?!)

But the question becomes then what's right?  

IPS has already said that the self hosted model will continue and that there are no plans to end it.  Customers are not being forced to move to cloud hosted plans.  They've even changed the "upgrade" to cloud button to change the text and make it dismissible.  (Again, I never had a problem with it since end-users never saw it and it's not in the way.)  They listened to those who felt it was a horrible slight and changed it.  In addition there are new features in the works that will apply to all licenses as well.  Just because a few features are only available to cloud instances (because they require advanced features and do not work in all standard LAMP stack environments) does not mean the company is trying to screw over self hosted customers.  

IPS is trying to do right by its customers and listens to feedback.  Just because they can't do everything that every customer asks does not mean they don't care.  And could it mean that a customer gets disappointed as a result?  Absolutely...  and that would be fair for them to feel that way.  But at the same time, IPS can still do right by their customers by listening to that feedback and where it makes sense implementing it.  

Appreciate you weighing in with this. 

We are definitely doing our best to navigate our community building journey while offering a solution for those who want to embark on their own journey as well. While we have made some mistakes along the way (a natural part of any company's evolution in my opinion), we also do our best to ensure we're creating a great experience and product for clients on our standard plans as well as our self-hosted. 

Thank you for this. 🙏 

[Matt]

2 hours ago, TDBF said:

So it begins.

If you remove self hosting, you will lose us as a customer, plain and simple.

I already have hosting for which I use with other domains and other software. I don't require your cloud services, just your software.

I don’t want to lose you, or anyone as a customer.

[kotaco]

8 hours ago, TDBF said:

So it begins.

If you remove self hosting, you will lose us as a customer, plain and simple.

I already have hosting for which I use with other domains and other software. I don't require your cloud services, just your software.

Adobe and Microsoft both faced similar responses when they went SaaS. They also got negative feedback from small businesses and adjusted course accordingly. Adobe by offering cheaper lighter option and Microsoft by offering 1 time licenses as well as 365 licenses. 

https://medium.com/bigfootcapital/7-lessons-from-adobes-successful-transition-to-saas-d0f7250ab352

Quote

7. Be willing and prepared to continuously adjust.

While the Creative Cloud was meant to provide services for a range of clients, from individuals to large companies, freelancers and hobbyists specifically were unhappy with the pricing structure early on. “Adobe is robbing small business, freelancers, and the average consumer. They do not seem to understand that every company is a not multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporation that has an infinite amount of resources,” they wrote in the Change.org petition.

This didn’t fall on deaf ears. The company listened to the complaints of this subgroup of users and in response introduced a cheaper, photography-only plan which included variations of Photoshop and Lightroom. It proved hugely popular.

In short, Adobe approached its transition to SaaS as a full-scale business transformation. And, like most successful business transformations, it took time, incorporated stakeholder feedback, and came to fruition in a steady progression toward its goals.