elonegenio

Unofficial solution: I created a video course about using Pages:
https://opentype.space/academy/pages-master-class/

What you need to do is only permit registered users to make a purchase. Do not allow guests to make a purchase.
We got hit several yrs ago with a similar situation. We got attacked in our donation prompt as we permitted guests to make donations. Big mistake. Inivision did a fix in commerce where only registered users (not guests) could access the donation box. 
 

I don't suffer from FOMO and I understand my community far better than anyone else. I don't jump on bandwagons or follow the herd. Only dead fish swim with the current. 
It's about having vision and content, not the new shiny object. 

Luckily we are the experts in seeing usage trends 😉
Trust me. You have no idea how many problematic things we prevented from being published in the Marketplace over the years.
PSA: you might want to use multi-quote when doing many replies 🙂 

How many devs have the time or are willing to go to the trouble to develop free/paid versions for each of their products?  This would run @Adriano into the ground methinks.....

I understand that the shutdown of the Marketplace is a huge shock to everyone, thinking it's the end of the world when it's honestly not. 
 
3rd party developers will still be able to offer their applications, and with the help of @Joel R building a directory, that is bound to be good. Have a little trust everyone.
 
Also worth noting: Other forum software developers don't maintain an official marketplace and don't review codes or anything that is being released. It's entirely on the BUYER's responsibility to check for recommendations, reviews, sales, and reputation of the 3rd party developer. As always, think and do research before you buy and if it's too good to be true then it most likely is.

I'm very upset InvisionCommunity is not pushing to be the #1 forum software available. Years ago it was vBulletin, they faded because they didn't adjust with times and ipb overtook them. Now  InvisionCommunity is in a GREAT position to expand and they decide to start "closing" features. From a business perspective, it makes no sense and your clearly missing data.

I've been in the crypto space for 8 years now working NUMEROUS blockchain/crypto/defi projects. You know what they ALL have in common? They ALL use DISCOURSE (EWW) because they're unaware of other real enterprise compatible options. I wouldn't eve CONSIDER closing the marketplace until you've tapped into the very massive market you obivously haven't tapped into.

The companies that ARE using Discourse and i present them InvisionCommunity, they feel they've been duped after realizing what i quality forum is. The marketplace is a HUGE sell point and i mean BIG. Companies wants to feel they can customize different features within their own world/ecosystem and the marketplace is the best way to do that. 

If you expect enterprise grade companies to want to HUNT DOWN 3rd part addons and feel secure as opposed to current setup, i truly believe i can help InvisionCommunity and would like an e-mail i can reach.

 

So I just looked at the Provider Directory and visited their links. Some of them only do custom work. Some of them have some work to do on their sites. But your regular marketplace contributors like @opentype @Adriano Faria @Miss_B all have very well developed Marketplaces of their own on their respective sites. 
I could care less if I am getting a 3rd party app/plugin or theme from outside the marketplace, but it was nice to have a one stop shop to search for what's available.
I was thinking of the exact same thing but you beat me to it. 😉
 

Yes, I will corral all of the Marketplace devs together so we come to consensus on this project. I've been fortunate to have worked with many of them over my 10 years with the community.  They all know me (for better or for worse, ha 😆). 
My goal for this new Marketplace Directory  is simple: provide an independent directory using Downloads.  It will link you to the providers' own website for support. 
 
More broadly, to anyone who is hesitant about these changes, there are some pros and cons: 
- More independence, more variation, and total flexibility for developers and themers.   They can build their own core, their own gallery, their own package of plugins.  You can't do any of that in the current Marketplace.  I expect to see some truly experimental and innovative approaches to how developers and themers work with IPS 5. 
- More independence, more variation, and total flexibility in how they charge.  Providers can charge crypto, they can offer a bundled set, they can offer discounts, they can set their own policies for chargebacks and refunds. 
- Trust will be deeper, not wider. The IPS Marketplace gave a broad stamp of trust to all providers for meeting standard IPS coding. But for clients, this is an opportunity to deepen ties to one or two trusted developers and take our most important apps private and control our own development pipeline.  I do believe the biggest developers will still offer - and can make healthy income - off a broad portfolio of single purpose mods, but those by itself aren't going to dramatically fulfill your community's specific needs.  

My goal is to provide a listing directory to make it easy for developers to list their apps.
A directory will provide visibility, scale, and ease for everyone to visit.  
Developers will handle payments and support on their own.  

Our guest widget is having issues, too.  It doesn't show up.  I've tried to reconfigure it.  I've removed it and tried to place it again.  It won't work.

Is this plugin supported anymore?

looking for a new version to replace Who Was Online on my 4.7 board. Any ideas? 🙂

You can activate it per field.

There are also option how to style that content. 

You are missing that this is impossible. There is no bullet-proof way to differentiate registrations that have the intention to spam your site from those which don’t have that intention. Captchas reduce the amount of bot registrations, but bots can also be trained to get through captchas eventually.
And spam is not necessarily made by bots. Tens of thousands of people in low-income countries have the sad job of doing nothing but manually registering on websites to post spam. So even if detecting “automatic spam” would be possible (which it is not), it wouldn’t mean that there would be no spam. 
You can use the anti-spam services (from IPS or third-parties) which use known spam IPs and email addresses, but nothing is stopping the spammers from using a new IP and new email address and then register successfully. That’s just the way it is. 

We too are having problems with our subscription feature. On 1-1-22 we changed our annual subscription fee from $19.95 to $24.95. Most of the time the renew invoice comes up as it should. However, sometimes it comes up and when the members clicks on the renew button it shows the renew period in terms of months. We have never offered any subscription in terms of months yet the month period magically appears. The member puts a 12 in the open box next to months and comes up with a order review of $299.40 instead of the one yr at $24.95. I have had to manually fix several of these cases. 
In addition, some members renew and get an invoice that was created prior to 1-1-22 with the old subscription fee of $19.95. Those invoices expired but it is appearing as though they have never expired and these members are renewing for 1 year under the old rate instead of renewing for the price increase rate that took effect in 2022.
Several times a day I look at the new invoices created. I have had to delete many of these bad invoices and create new invoices for member accounts that accurately reflect how the renewal invoice should read. I hate that I have had to be so manually involved in this process. As I mentioned above, sometimes the new invoice is generated correctly and sometimes it is not.
Thanks @opentypefor starting this topic as we thought that this invoice issue was something unique only to our situation.
 

We too are having problems with our subscription feature. On 1-1-22 we changed our annual subscription fee from $19.95 to $24.95. Most of the time the renew invoice comes up as it should. However, sometimes it comes up and when the members clicks on the renew button it shows the renew period in terms of months. We have never offered any subscription in terms of months yet the month period magically appears. The member puts a 12 in the open box next to months and comes up with a order review of $299.40 instead of the one yr at $24.95. I have had to manually fix several of these cases. 
In addition, some members renew and get an invoice that was created prior to 1-1-22 with the old subscription fee of $19.95. Those invoices expired but it is appearing as though they have never expired and these members are renewing for 1 year under the old rate instead of renewing for the price increase rate that took effect in 2022.
Several times a day I look at the new invoices created. I have had to delete many of these bad invoices and create new invoices for member accounts that accurately reflect how the renewal invoice should read. I hate that I have had to be so manually involved in this process. As I mentioned above, sometimes the new invoice is generated correctly and sometimes it is not.
Thanks @opentypefor starting this topic as we thought that this invoice issue was something unique only to our situation.
 

I was not aware of this advertising twist but for you guys that self-host I will tell you from first hand experience that the IPS cloud service is excellent and they need to get the word out somehow about this service. I self hosted a IPS site from 4-2011 thru 4-2018 and I can't tell you how many years that dealing with different hosting companies took out of my. From completely corrupt up charging hosting companies to the totally inept hosting services. Plus, the learning curve associated with self-hosting is a total pain in the ass.
I am primarily a content guy, know how to run a community guy and a guy that doesn't want to deal with hosting. I have been with the IPS cloud service since 4-2018 and I hope to never go back to any type of self-hosting scenario. In the past 4 yrs we have not had a single hosting issue since we have gone with the IPS cloud package. I have been a huge advocate for IPS to create a turnkey one stop shop so I would not have to go thru the intellectual hurdles of self-hosting. 
Now that IPS has gotten closer to the expanded media storage levels I see no reason to ever switch. No shill here but I will tell you from first hand experience, I love the IPS cloud package. I hope my testimonial will compel some of you to at least explore switching from self hosting and if you do end up making the move, it will result in you having more time to spend on your community admin needs. Additionally, you will be able to take some of the time you will save from dealing with hosting issues to having extra time to enjoy life.

I was not aware of this advertising twist but for you guys that self-host I will tell you from first hand experience that the IPS cloud service is excellent and they need to get the word out somehow about this service. I self hosted a IPS site from 4-2011 thru 4-2018 and I can't tell you how many years that dealing with different hosting companies took out of my. From completely corrupt up charging hosting companies to the totally inept hosting services. Plus, the learning curve associated with self-hosting is a total pain in the ass.
I am primarily a content guy, know how to run a community guy and a guy that doesn't want to deal with hosting. I have been with the IPS cloud service since 4-2018 and I hope to never go back to any type of self-hosting scenario. In the past 4 yrs we have not had a single hosting issue since we have gone with the IPS cloud package. I have been a huge advocate for IPS to create a turnkey one stop shop so I would not have to go thru the intellectual hurdles of self-hosting. 
Now that IPS has gotten closer to the expanded media storage levels I see no reason to ever switch. No shill here but I will tell you from first hand experience, I love the IPS cloud package. I hope my testimonial will compel some of you to at least explore switching from self hosting and if you do end up making the move, it will result in you having more time to spend on your community admin needs. Additionally, you will be able to take some of the time you will save from dealing with hosting issues to having extra time to enjoy life.

We too are having problems with our subscription feature. On 1-1-22 we changed our annual subscription fee from $19.95 to $24.95. Most of the time the renew invoice comes up as it should. However, sometimes it comes up and when the members clicks on the renew button it shows the renew period in terms of months. We have never offered any subscription in terms of months yet the month period magically appears. The member puts a 12 in the open box next to months and comes up with a order review of $299.40 instead of the one yr at $24.95. I have had to manually fix several of these cases. 
In addition, some members renew and get an invoice that was created prior to 1-1-22 with the old subscription fee of $19.95. Those invoices expired but it is appearing as though they have never expired and these members are renewing for 1 year under the old rate instead of renewing for the price increase rate that took effect in 2022.
Several times a day I look at the new invoices created. I have had to delete many of these bad invoices and create new invoices for member accounts that accurately reflect how the renewal invoice should read. I hate that I have had to be so manually involved in this process. As I mentioned above, sometimes the new invoice is generated correctly and sometimes it is not.
Thanks @opentypefor starting this topic as we thought that this invoice issue was something unique only to our situation.
 

Use a different browser (Chrome)

That’s why it never gets fixed. IPS just pretends there is no issue with excuses. The expiration isn’t the point. It’s the fact that an existing expired invoice on file blocks future purchases, which is very clearly wrong and not how ANY other subscription service on the planet is working. If I subscribe to a newspaper and cancel it, I will always be able to start FRESH in the future. Of course I am. It’s what I want, it’s what the newspaper wants. Why would the software prevent it for now reason against my will and the provider’s will? The Washington Post or Netflix aren’t saying “oh, your subscription expired 5 years ago, so you will never ever be able to start a new subscription”. That would be insane. But it is how IPS has coded it. And that it even fine in the sense, that things like that happen. It was probably an honest mistake to set it up like that originally. But it is not fine to not own up to it and correct it after admin after admin runs into this problem for years, loosing money because people willing to continue a subscription can’t and just give up.
Not letting invoices expire is a work-around at best, it’s the not the proper solution. If someone would let the subscription expire and they did not use it for years, the SHOULD be starting fresh with with any product and the current conditions, maybe even higher prices, because their subscription has expired years ago. Why should I set it so that they will forever be able to pick up the old subscription just so users don’t run into this problem of not being able to continue a subscription at all. This is objectively flawed. An expired invoice is meaningless. It should not block people from buying the product like a new subscriber. Anyone with expired subscriptions should get exactly the same offers as someone who never had a subscription to begin with. 

I just followed the instructions at the admin center;
If Invision Community Staff requires access to your community, please click here to create an administrator account.
Things where a lot easier before...
It is all so unclear to me. It feels like hurdle after hurdle are thrown up. In the past this would had been solved by now.
Ok I just read the PM, it mentions a ticket, what ticket? And this guide. As staff this is apparently crystal clear for you, for me, I haven't got the slightest idea where to look for this "guide".
 
I feel really stupid right now...
 

The issue: when someone let’s a subscription (product subscription or regular subscription) expire, they will later not be able to buy it again, because the invoice on file prevents a new subscription. But the existing subscription also cannot be renewed because the invoice has expired. This can only be solved by intervention from an admin (manually finding and deleting these invoices), but there might be hundreds of those and it would require a constant monitoring of expired invoices. 
The solution: The check that prevents a new subscription with an invoice on file should be removed or adjusted. Someone who doesn’t have a subscription anymore, because subscription and invoice have expired, must be treated like anyone who never had a subscription. Both groups should see exactly the same offers because their status in relation to these subscriptions is the same. 
Why it matters: People run into this problem all the time and it’s not just an inconvenience, it it costing them money, because people who would want to pay cannot pay and probably just give up. Here are just a few examples from the recent days (and I have observed this and commented on it for years): 
Subscription buttons don't show up. (yesterday)
Subscriptions Bug (yesterday)
invoice has expired but member cannot renew (7 days ago)
The development time to fix this is probably much cheaper than having IPS support deal with this issue for years, constantly identifying the issue and guiding people through the process of the possible work-arounds. So it would be a win-win situation to finally fix this. 😉 

Patrick (and Matt), this is hardly a case of "momentary frustration". I've been purchasing and using IPS products since 2007, for Pete's sake. It is an irrefutable fact that the IPS ACP now makes it (at best) difficult, and (at worst) essentially impossible to start a support ticket. It wasn't always that way. I am not a casual, ignorant or lazy end-user...as an FAA LAX air traffic controller and international aircraft accident investigator, I ran $100M+ safety-critical national airspace capital software projects, and am a highly-experienced tech dude in a hugely diverse range of disciplines by virtually any standard. I personally developed the ReachOut365 platform, which is used by some of the world's largest insurance companies, and routinely work with Fortune 500 companies. I'm not bragging; it's just the truth. If I have access to decent self-support, I can resolve 99.9% of any issues that arise. I hate having to start a support ticket and engage in the time-consuming back and forth by email dance and would much rather self-serve. I should not be penalized and jacked around simply because "the rest of the human race is stupid" (to paraphrase Patrick).
On the contrary, with IPS, I do not enjoy such access. Your "Help & Support" pages, despite having voluminous articles, rarely enable me to solve complex issues. Many of them are hopelessly out-of-date, and refer to screens and settings (e.g., social media integration) that bear no resemblance whatsoever to the present realities. Many of them are also extremely "shallow" in terms of necessary detail as well. I fully understand how difficult it is to keep such things updated, but that is not my problem in this case (except that at the end of the day, you've made it "my problem"). On the other hand, you marketing/sales media is first-rate. It's clearly a matter of priorities.
Furthermore, your ACP "Get Support" function explicitly and unavoidably requires the Admin to disable all third-party customizations (in order to even start a ticket). A few days ago, I did that (with extreme hesitation, and for good reason, as it turned out), and when I clicked the "Re-enable customizations" (or similar button), my custom app settings (developed by one of, if not the Number-1 IPS-savvy and experienced [non-IP employee] Devs on Planet Earth), all but one were not re-enabled, which effectively nuked my website. I had to call that Dev to have her re-enable everything, which cost me out-of-pocket). I rarely ask for support, but when I do, after spending thousands on your products over a 15 year period, it shouldn't be such an unmitigated pain in the ass. I've been told by not merely one, but several IPS-expert Developers that we've worked with (in so many words), that, "IPS products are generally really good, but their support absolutely sucks. It's not just "my" opinion...it is a widely-held truism.
Whilst I certainly understand you guys wanting to "channel" the support process to prevent issues that can be thusly resolved (by disabling 3rd-party plugins and apps, etc.). I have better things to do than to bust your balls, but I am extremely unhappy with this convoluted and crappy support ticket process, and I am not the only one by any stretch.
I've already paid my Developer to work around the issue that I was attempting to start a stupid support ticket about, so that's no longer an issue. We have a highly customized site that has cost me tens of thousands to develop. Much of that expense is because the IPS front-end UI is so clearly designed by Developers (rather than talented UI designers), and among other things, so profoundly inefficient (in terms of screen "real estate" usage) and un-intuitive in terms of UXI strategies.
In all fairness, I must also say that, once a support ticket actually somehow gets through, you guys are excellent (for the most part) in resolving issues (provided they don't come anywhere near straying from your frankly draconian definition of what constitutes "covered" topics). I understand that your margins require tight control, but I feel like you guys take it to a rather absurd extreme at times. Again, it wasn't always that way. Perhaps I'm just spoiled by the polar opposite end of the spectrum, such as Rackspace's Support and documentation, which blows your doors off on its worst day. It is hardly surprising or inappropriate for a businessman who has a lot riding on this platform choice to express strident frustration at poor performance.
Even despite the huge pile of cash I've spent to self-resolve the clumsy UI issues (in particular), I am finding myself very seriously wondering if we made a ginormous error in judgment by going with the IPS platform, and the lack of effective, timely support is no small part of that second-guessing. Could you (Matt and IPS) please consider:
Streamlining the support ticket process. Focus a bit on bringing your Support articles up-to-date, and; Hire or contract with skilled UXI designers? Thank you.

Dropped it 10 years ago. It was crap then, and it’s still crap now. Caused nothing but problems. It’s old, out dated, we’ve all moved on. We have a modern and fully responsive layouts now. Absolutely no need for it.