Tom S.

For those of you who would like to see the public facing site through the years, I put this together a while back: edit: I would add more recent ones, but I can't edit the post 😕

This week I've been trying to implement the built in referrals feature from IPS and I just keep coming across limitation after limitation. It begs the question; does any one actually use this... So, another improvement I would like to suggest is that you add the option to allow referrers to earn commission on renewals of a product and not just the initial sale. Sadly, these limitations are stacking up and I may have to go ahead and build my own system 😕

Following on from my earlier post: Another suggestion I have is to add an option in the commission rules to allow us to set a date range related to when the referral was made. So, for example, you could set something like: Only allow commission if the referral as made less than 6 months ago.

Big +1

Totally agree that for less common languages it would be hard to make work. But for common languages it should be easy to create a decent return. If an approved translator quits, it just opens a spot for another to apply. In fact, in my mind the point where you buy a translation should be at this stage: And the translations would have renewals as well. Then the approved translator would get early access to the new string set for every new release so that the translations could be available day 1 of version releases.

Yes, that is the main problem. Translations should not be offered in an open market place like they are currently. It needs to be closed off with a set price and approved translators who will be willing to keep translations up to date for a fair return on their investment.

It's a shame there isn't a better marketplace solution for translations. The current offering is awful.

Are you saying that charging people for a renewal of a license is illegal? Or have I misunderstood?

I would feel the same way in your position. Would be nice to get an update on whether we can ever expect this to be a feature.

I'm starting to implement the referrals system into my site and off the bat I have a few suggestions for improvement. The first is that there is no way for referrers to see where exactly they are getting the credit from or how they are performing. For example they should be able to see how many referrals they have. Also statistics as to where their credit has come from (Sale of this item, sale of that item). In other words, a nice dashboard with graphs and statistics. A second suggestion is to add the ability for automatic payouts of credit. Instead of users having to manually withdraw their credit from time to time. It would be nice if you could set intervals where earnings are paid out. And thirdly, the option when setting up commission rules to ignore any discount applied to a purchase, and give commission based on the non-discounted value of the sale.

The features only serve to convince you to buy a license. If the feature list changes and you no longer feel it is worth the license then you stop paying for the license (renewals) and stick with the old version or go somewhere else. I can appreciate your frustration of a feature you found useful being discontinued. But your claim that you have the right to this feature is just wrong. And I still can't get my head around the fact that you can't make this financially viable. All you need is the initial investment of $100 and then $6 a month in sales to cover the cost of renewals. Meaning even if you only managed $20 a month you would fairly quickly make your $100 back. Why are you even concerned about subscriptions if you can't make more than $6 a month...

Commerce is a highly important and powerful app for many communities, which should generate extra income for IPS. If it was just a basic add-on that generated no extra revenue, then it would be treated a bit like the way profiles are treated - with the occasional minor update. I happily pay the extra fees so that IPS put in the time and effort to keep improving it. And like @opentype stated, it should be relatively easy to make your money back as the cost is relatively low. If you are making less than $35 over 6 months then what is the point in you offering subscriptions anyway. You paid for a license to use their software. If tomorrow they released an update turning their app into nothing more than a stream of cat pictures, they have the right to do so.

Not being able to offer discounts is the main blocker for me not being able to use the Subscriptions feature in Commerce. I cannot see any logical reason for this option not being available. Am I missing a trick? If not, please can I get an explanation as to why this is the case.

Yes, exactly what I had in mind. I don't expect turning your software entirely into a SPA is feasible (although would be cool). But certain areas would benefit from a localised SPA greatly.