Randy Calvert

I'm quoting a question I asked earlier... but it is also not catching that it is a question and linking it to the question.

Replying to a question I asked on who can ask questions. When you click on a question in the sidebar... It filters the display to just that question and answers to it, but it does not set the reply to automatically be to the question. It instead is a generic comment.

Is there some sort of way to flag which posts were questions vs which were just chat?

Why would someone ask a question versus just type it into the chat?

Can you control who can ask questions or who can answer questions?

Is there any plans to easily schedule live events? (Have it tied with the events system, RSVPs, reminders?)

When creating a live event with video, what platforms are supported? (Zoom, Webex, Google video, Facebook live?)

The only way to make this work if you're using your domain for mail today (meaning like Office 365, Google, or some VPS running mail) is to use multiple mail servers. So you might have [email protected], [email protected], etc all pointing to mx.mydomain.com (Google for example). That stays as-is so as not to disrupt existing mail. Anything related to the IPB community could be [email protected]. Basically a vanity address pointing to something controlled by IPS. something.mydomain.com could point to a mail server that is controlled by IPS that could receive the bounces and maybe even forward inbound to [email protected]. Or instead of forwarding inbound email, possibly pipe it into Commerce into a ticket queue.

Yes. Typically it's targeted only to show to people impacted though. For example, it had an Elasticsearch message in it once, and another during the PHP7->PHP8 time. 🙂

Because the default mobile theme does not have a text box to enter a search keyword/phrase. It’s simply a link to the search page.

It provides outbound email, but it is not a mail hosting service. Inbound email would have to be processed by API or POP3.

There is no reason it could not be done in Pages. You would not be able to just copy/paste the exact code (table names would be different, etc) but pages or even custom applications could absolutely handle this. It would have most likely been easier to do from Pages to start with as it would have handled providing a system to enter data only for approved people automatically.

By the way… even if you don’t move to IPS cloud… I would recommend consolidating everything into the IPB framework. It’s so much easier having a single source of truth for even the basic functions like user management, permissions, and being able to control everything from a single pane of glass.

Move your self written app to Pages. It can store data in a database and you can even then tie it more directly in with the rest of your site. And IPB is not just a “basic forum”. It’s a framework for you to run a full and rich featured site including a content management system, gallery, file download management system, etc. You can run complete and complex sites from within the application suite not needing to stitch together 50 different random scripts to make a site. In the early days, you would have a forum, a separate CMS, and dozens of scripts each that had one function. Now you have one. It’s like having an iPhone versus early mobile devices. Remember Steve Jobs on stage… “an iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator”. Those were all separate functions previously. IPB is designed to be a complete ecosystem. Those that actually embrace it find that they can do a lot more than just trying to stitch together a forum with a bunch of other tools.

You would still need to retain something to run your custom database or PHP scripts. This is a hosted IPB service, not a hosting account. Your website might be www.domain.com while your history app might be history.yourdomain.com. History would be on a hosting account where IPB is run off of www. Regarding backups… they’re automatically done by IPS. In fact because they directly control the hardware AND software, you’re muuuuuuuch less likely to run into problems that would trigger needing a restore. No more things like mod_security issues or PHP running in the wrong mode or dealing with the wrong settings in php.ini. When an upgrade is done, you’re just re-mapped to different cloud servers running the correct code base.

No. Why is it needed? You’re buying a hosted solution. You’re not buying a server. You don’t get database access with Gmail or a separate area to directly edit the files in a mail queue either. Think of this like Gmail or Salesforce, or a SaaS platform. You can upload images, you can create CSS, but you’re not uploading random PHP scripts. Again… this is not a hosting account. You should not be “mass uploading” content. No. Again, you don’t need to. No hosted solution such as Gmail or Salesforce does that. You keep framing this to hosting when it’s a different solution. Think about just USING the service instead of trying to RUN it. Now if you need to install other scripts like Wordpress and you want to manage things like backups or play in the firewall or get your hands dirty… a hosted solution is not the right thing for you.

Pages app. It was actually even faster than FTP'ing it as someone who has done both methods.

There is one self-hosted plan: https://invisioncommunity.com/buy/self-hosted/ With that option, you can choose which modules you want with your license. You get access to the software, but need to run everything yourself. You get to run the software forever, but updates and support are included for 6 months. After the 6 months, you need to renew your support/updates for an additional 6 month period. The various cloud plans are at: https://invisioncommunity.com/buy With the cloud plans, it's 100% hosted by IPB, so there is no software... you access it like you would Gmail in that you simply use the solution. IPS takes care of all of the underlying "stuff" such as managing hardware, backups, firewalls, etc. There is a matrix on that page that shows which features are included with each plan. The pricing is shown with the monthly or annual cost. (Paying by the year is cheaper.) There is a smaller Beginner plan that is not included in the matrix as well.... So if you need just the forum app without the other things such as commerce, blogs, files, pages, etc... that could potentially be a starting point for you as well.

I've seen several people comment that all of the new features added recently are only available for the cloud platform or that IPS is only focusing on the cloud platform. Out of curiosity, I actually went back and looked at all of the features released in the 4.6 and 4.7 versions. There were over 45 new features or major enhancements made across those two major versions. Of those 45 features, 7 were cloud-only features. That means 85% of the features added in that time were available to both platforms. Ver Feature S C 4.7.7 Gallery - UI Redesign X X 4.7.7 Gallery - Better Video Support X X 4.7.7 Gallery - Video Transcoding X 4.7.7 Gallery - Searchable Videos X 4.7.7 Gallery - NSFW Tagging X X 4.7.7 Gallery - Performance & Usability X X 4.7.7 GraphQL X X 4.7.7 Converters - Improved Performance X X 4.7.4 Personal Alerts X X 4.7.4 Moderator Approval Queue Improvement X X 4.7.4 Events - Support for Streaming Platforms X X 4.7.3 Events - Revamp of Calendar to Events X X 4.7.3 OpenSearch 2.1 Support X X 4.7.2.1 Improved Mark Post as Solution X X 4.7.1 Search Bar Enhancement X X 4.7.1 Topics - Future Publishing Added X X 4.7.0 Alerts Feature X X 4.7.0 Fluid Mode Revamp X X 4.7.0 hCaptcha Support X X 4.7.0 Solved/Unsolved in Activity Streams X X 4.7.0 ElasticSearch Enhancements X X 4.7.0 Zapier Enhancements X X 4.7.0 Realtime - Who's Typing X 4.7.0 Realtime - Who's Viewing X 4.7.0 Image AI - Moderation and Search X 4.7.0 Sentament Analysis X 4.7.0 Trending Content X 4.6.11 Block Submission X X 4.6.10 IndexNow Support X X 4.6.10 Webhooks Improved (New Triggers) X X 4.6.8 SEO Improvements X X 4.6.8 Achievements for Commerce/Downloads X X 4.6.8 In-Browser Audio File Support X X 4.6.8 New ACP Reports X X 4.6.7 Stream Subscriptions X X 4.6.7 Stock Replies X X 4.6.0 Zapier Support X X 4.6.0 Achievements System Release X X 4.6.0 Web App and Push Notifications X X 4.6.0 Anonymous Posting X X 4.6.0 Solved Content X X 4.6.0 Show When Team Replied X X 4.6.0 Health Dashboards X X 4.6.0 Spam Improvements X X *Note: Zapier when initially added was cloud-only. It was changed to support both in a later release. I did not include Live Topics in this list above as it's not available in any version yet. When it does, it will be the 8th. In looking at the list above, I don't understand how it could be said that IPS is only caring about the cloud platform and that self-hosted customers are not getting enhancements/features.

You too! 🙂

Snarky is not about being “made up” or “genuine”. critical or mocking in an indirect or sarcastic way. "snarky remarks" bad-tempered or irritable. "Bobby's always a bit snarky before his nap" Your comment was snarky. I’m sorry you can’t see that. And I don’t need to represent IPS. I just speak my mind. I call a spade a spade when I see it.

If you’re going to toss out a snarky message, expect to see some push back.

Huh? There have literally been hundreds of non-cloud features released in the last year and a half. Based on what has been said previously, bugs are fixed based on severity, level of difficulty in fixing, and also when it can be done without impacting other areas. By the way... the bug you reported impacts "cloud" based versions too, so I don't think they're ignoring for the fact that its "not cloud". 😉

That can happen from time to time. Sometimes a fix can span multiple areas/categories.