Lindy

There is a lot to be excited about with PHP7 - the performance gains are significant and we are eagerly awaiting mainstream adoption. With that said, IPS4 utilizes several third party libraries to provide functionality across the suite -- one of these libraries is HTMLPurifier. The developers of that library are not yet supporting PHP7 and are specifically recommending PHP5. While we have resolved any known IPS specific issues within the suite for the next release, we too must recommend that you remain with PHP 5.4, 5.5 or PHP 5.6 until which time third party library developers update their libraries with full PHP7 compatibility. We will provide an update as soon as full support for PHP7 is given. Please note that IP.Board 3.x does not work at all on PHP7. There are no plans to release a PHP7 compatible update to IP.Board 3.x at this time.

The adoption rate of IPS4 has far surpassed our initial expectations. In response to this as well as client feedback, we are refocusing more internal resources on supporting and solidifying the IPS4 platform. As such, we are revising our product cycle dates for IP.Board (3.4.x) as follows: March 1, 2016 - End of advanced technical support and development. Basic / limited technical support will continue. June 1, 2016 - End of all technical support. Only security updates will be provided. April 1, 2017 - Complete product End of Life (EOL)

IPS is pleased to offer a 15% discount from now through December 4, 2015 (11:59PM Eastern.) This offer extends to all self-hosted software licenses as well Community in the Cloud packages. Whether you've been wanting to add a new component to your current IPS Community Suite license, have been waiting for the right opportunity to renew your license or are considering IPS for the first time, simply use the coupon code BF2015 at checkout to take advantage of this offer. Note: Offer extends to currently expired licenses or licenses that will expire during the promotion. Sorry, may not be used on early renewals but we will be running more holiday promotions.

IPS is seeking knowledgeable and industrious individuals to join its support team as product specialists. Successful applicants will be responsible for answering general support tickets, including providing customers with information, troubleshooting problems and performing maintenance. You would be expected, where appropriate, to interact with other technicians and developers to resolve issues. Requirements: Must be familiar and have extensive experience with IPS applications. Must have a basic knowledge of PHP and MySQL. Must be able to effectively telecommute. Must speak fluent English and possess strong verbal and written communication skills. Experience with working in customer support. Preferred, but not required: Knowledge of server administration and experience working for a web hosting company. Knowledge of additional web technologies such as JavaScript, CSS, JSON, XML, etc. All positions are part-time with full-time opportunity. Schedules are flexible and salary will be based on knowledge and experience. Applications are now closed. Thank you to everyone that applied and those who were not contacted will remain on file for first-contact for future positions!

We are thrilled with the response to the latest generation of our community platform, IPS4 and hope you have been following the exciting progress and enhancements with IPS4.1. I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight IPS’ Community in the Cloud service. IPS provides hosted/cloud service to thousands of communities and because we built the software and we limit our service exclusively to our software, we’re able to tailor and optimize our environment specifically for our products. This leads to an efficient, well supported, turnkey solution with a one-stop provider. There’s no waiting as you ask your host to review error logs, make potential configuration changes, repair database tables because a server was improperly shut down or the database ran out of room to expand or update outdated software to comply with the latest requirements. In the unlikely event you have an issue with your community and we don’t already know about it, we will have all of the tools and access required to take care of it with minimal, if any inconvenience to you. If you’ve previously considered our CiC packages but have hesitated due to disk space constraints, we’re pleased to announce that we have made significant enhancements to our offerings, including doubling the storage capacity on most packages. Whether you’re an existing or prospective client, please take a few minutes to review our offerings on our website. Here are a few of our more Frequently Asked Questions regarding our CiC service: Do I have to pay for each application separately? On all but our Standard 25 package, all IPS applications are included. Starting at $30/mo., you get nearly $500 worth of software wrapped up in a turnkey cloud-based solution. What happens if I exceed my “online visitor” allotment? Online visitors are determined based on the number of people simultaneously active on your community within a 15 minute window. This is not a hard limit, so if you are on, for example, the Super 65 package and you have 100 online visitors for an hour, there will be no change or overage. If, however, your average online visitor count exceeds the package amount for several days consistently within a billing cycle, you would be automatically upgraded to the next package. You can then downgrade after the next billing cycle if your activity levels have decreased. Can I install modifications and themes? Yes! You may install virtually all applications, plugins and themes from the IPS Marketplace. I’m already an IPS self-hosted client, can I move to your CiC service? We’re asked this daily and the answer is, absolutely. In fact, we will move your entire community to our CiC service at no charge to you and will work to make the transition as smooth as possible for you and your users. We can then deactivate your self-hosted license so you’re no longer paying renewals and should you decide to make use of it in the future, it will be as simple as reactivating. What happens if I want to leave the CiC service and self-host? That doesn’t happen often, but your data is just that - yours. We do not charge you to provide a copy of your database and attachments upon request. You would need to purchase a self-hosted license to obtain the files that power the community in a self-hosted environment. Can I use my own domain name? Yes. Initially, you will need to choose an IPS provided subdomain (eg. my community.invisionzone.com) - after your community is activated, we can switch it to your own domain. As always, please don’t hesitate to contact sales@invisionpower.com with any questions. No matter how you choose to use IPS4, we appreciate your business!

You can now purchase IPS Community Suite 4 or, if you are an existing license holder of IP.Board, you can download the upgrade as part of your license! Be sure to read this important information if you are upgrading from IP.Board 3. IPS Community in the Cloud clients can simply submit a support request when you are ready to upgrade and we will take care of it for you. 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Be sure to read this important information if you are upgrading from IP.Board 3. IPS Community in the Cloud clients can simply submit a support request when you are ready to upgrade and we will take care of it for you. Sign Up Now Existing Clients: Go to Client Area Background Online communities are a huge part of the Internet. Millions of people around the world use online communities to connect with each other about the things that matter to them. At IPS, we've been facilitating this for over 13 years, working with some of the most amazing and interesting sites. Fan communities such as those provided by Warner Music Group and Live Nation for their artists, sports leagues such as the NHL for their fan communities or Bethesda Softworks for their games all use communities to bring fans together. Business like Evernote use communities to reach their customers on a more personal level. And specialist sites like FindLaw use communities to help people find the information they need. Every day new communities are born and we're thrilled at IPS to be involved with this amazing part of the Internet, a part that we feel makes the Internet great. Two years ago we started on an ambitious project. We wanted to make our platform even better. We wanted to bring all of our applications together in a tightly-integrated suite with a modern codebase, gorgeous interface and unrivaled experience for users. Philosophy Being a web developer for a distributed application like the IPS Community Suite is an interesting position. The Internet moves very quickly: what looks good, works well and users will enjoy today might not tomorrow. Web development always needs to be modern, fresh and cutting edge to stay relevant. At the same time, a web developer needs to have understanding and respect for everything that has come before, and know what users expect. It’s no good creating a website that most people won’t understand how to use, or might not even work on some platforms. Over the years, we’ve seen a lot of projects rise and fall in popularity, and the ones that don’t do so well tend to fall into one of these two categories - either they fall behind and start to feel clunky, or overexcited developers get too carried away and create something that nobody wants. At IPS, we don’t do either. We make a platform that is modern and both easy and fun to use and customize. In short, we make the best community platform available. This is the philosophy which underlies IPS Community Suite 4. Features / Technology IPS Community Suite 4 is designed for the modern web. The default theme is designed to be clean and simple both so it’s easy to use and simple for designers to expand upon. The design is also responsive meaning it looks great whether you’re on a desktop or a mobile phone, or anything in between (and we do that the right way: we don’t just remove things on smaller screens) and this is true not only for the front-end but even the administration control panel too. Our editor supports drag-and-drop uploading, automatic media embedding, auto-saving and mentions. Every email the suite sends looks great no matter what client you’re using. These are just a few of the countless features that make IPS Community Suite 4 great. Check out the full feature tour The platform is built on modern, but solid, technology. We use PHP and MySQL because they run on pretty much every web server, but we use modern coding techniques within them like the namespacing, late static binding and closures provided by PHP 5.4, and we use HTML5 features like local storage and geolocation. And it’s coded well with meticulous care; things like valid HTML markup which doesn’t really matter to the average user, matters deeply to us. Finally, it’s ready for communities of any size. You can use Amazon S3 for file storage. You can leverage caching technology, including memcached to page output caching for guests which can even mean most requests never even establish a connection to your database. And that’s without mentioning all of the features which have always made IPS stand out, like the spam monitoring service, monetization, Sphinx integration and so on. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Expansion Potential But not only is IPS Community Suite great out of the box, its potential for expansion is huge, and there’s a great community of third party designers and developers working with us. Tools for developers The framework that IPS Community Suite runs on is powerful, but flexible and developers can get started with ease. It is possible to override any class anywhere in the entire framework using a technique called monkey patching, allowing customization of any aspect of the suite. Whole new applications can be created easily, using central classes for common concepts like content handling. And the framework is designed to be safe at low levels: output escaping for XSS protection (note, not input escaping, which is the wrong way round to do it) and prepared statements for SQL injection protection are handled at a low level, global basis, and customizations are sandboxed so an error in a customization cannot bring down the community. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Tools for designers Designers also benefit from a powerful designer mode that allows customization of HTML, CSS and other theme resources using local files so they can use their own code editors and tools. Designers can even create theme settings allowing end-users to customize even further. We also provide tools to allow designers to see the changes made to templates between versions so themes can be updated for new versions. Of course, for the less technically inclined, there is a powerful “easy mode” for creating themes allowing anyone to customize the look easily. Tools for translators Translators too can translate the IPS Community Suite easily. A “quick translation” tool allows any word or phrase to be translated just by clicking and holding to bring up a textbox, or an extensive list of all words and phrases can be browsed. Furthermore, we have been meticulously careful to use phrases throughout the entire suite that can be translated into any language with understanding of the differences many languages have with English such as grammar structure and pluralization. All of these customizations can be exported with one click and distributed as a single file. To install an application, plugin, theme or language, users only need to upload a single file in the administrator control panel. No more uploading dozens of files with FTP. Rapid Development Perhaps though, the most significant thing about IPS Community Suite 4 is what comes next. We now have a solid platform for future development. With the new modern framework, new features and improvements can be written much quicker than ever before. In addition, we have been using new tools and techniques within our development team for faster development, testing and deployment of new releases. For when a new release is ready, IPS Community Suite 4 includes a powerful delta upgrade system: no matter what version you are on, you can download an upgrade package for the latest version - this includes only the files you need, so upgrading is quick and painless. With these three significant improvements (to the framework, to our development processes and to the upgrade process for users) we have been able to adopt a much more rapid release cycle. A more streamlined process also allows us to be much more open about our future plans. The benefits of this have already been seen: since releasing IPS Community Suite 4, we have already added several new features. And this is just the beginning. Conclusion IPS Community Suite 4 has been a huge project. It’s an amazing experience to see the communities that have already upgraded - the countless hours of planning, discussions, whiteboard drawings and thousands of lines of code come that have come together in this incredible platform already spawning online communities of all genres. We’re hugely excited to see the many more to come.

IPS is pleased to offer 15% off starting now through Monday on all new purchases for both new and existing clients! This includes all self-hosted software licenses as well as Community in the Cloud packages. Whether you've been wanting to add a new component to your current IPS Community Suite license or are considering IPS for the first time, simply use the coupon code HOLIDAY2014 at checkout to take advantage of this offer. Get started now!

** We have enough applications to fill this position. Thank you for your interest! ** Piracy is something that all software companies face and IPS is no exception. Our losses due to credit card fraud and software piracy are significant and to minimize passing along costs to customers, we are seeking to expand our piracy department and take a harder stance against piracy and pursue those who engage in it. The position entails: - Identifying customers, using internal tools, that have inactive licenses and are using later versions of the software than their license allows and report to customer service for license termination. - Identifying customers, using internal tools, that have shared IPS products or marketplace purchases with illegal download sites and report to customer service for license termination. - Following up on usage piracy complaints. - Vigorously pursuing distribution hubs. - Working with web hosts, ISPs and law enforcement. To qualify you MUST: - Be at least 18 years old (for legal reasons, no exceptions to this policy can be made.) - Have excellent written communication skills. English is a must. - Be familiar with identifying the owner and host of a website (i.e.: Using WHOIS and other similar tools.) - Be familiar with the DMCA and associated procedures. - Reside in the United States. ** We have enough applications to fill this position. Thank you for your interest! ** Thank you for your interest!

IPS is seeking a knowledgeable and experienced individual to join its support team in an advanced support capacity. Successful applicants will be responsible for answering general support tickets, including providing customers with information, troubleshooting issues not resolved as part of the general product support process and performing maintenance. You would be expected where appropriate to interact with other technicians and developers to resolve issues. Requirements: * Must be familiar with IPS applications. * Must have advanced knowledge of PHP and MySQL. * Must be able to effectively work remotely. * English must be your primary language and you must possess strong verbal and written communication skills. Preferable, but not required: * Knowledge of server administration and experience working for a web hosting company. * Knowledge of additional web technologies such as JavaScript, CSS, XML, etc. * Experience of working in customer support. * Experience working with the codebase or creating hooks/apps in the IPS Suite Working hours are flexible and pay will be based on knowledge and experience. Due to the nature of the position, we require all applicants to be physically located in the United States. No exceptions to United States residency requirements. Please contact hr@invisionpower.com for more information on this position. Please include your salary requirements, availability and an overview of your experience. We look forward to hearing from you!

There has been much confusion over the recent exploit reported to us and subsequently patched. I would like to personally apologize for any confusion and inconvenience caused. We have conducted a review and made appropriate changes to our policies to ensure a smoother release and notification schedule for any future incidents. With that said, it is very important to note that while an IP.Board vulnerability did exist, its impact would have been minimal, if not non-existent on servers that have their PHP installations properly secured. I would like to touch on a couple of basics to minimize the effects of future vulnerabilities not only in IP.Board, but any other PHP application you may be using on your website. open_basedir It's very important that you (if you manage your own web hosting server) or your web host enable open_basedir. In a shared hosting environment without open_basedir, an attacker has the ability to exploit a vulnerability, perhaps on another customer's account, then use that vulnerability to scan for other customers on the server. From there, they could gain access to config files containing database details, write malicious files to world-writeable directories and a host of other ill-willed activities. Enabling open_basedir "locks" all internal PHP functions such as readfile() to the specified path, which is generally a temporary directory and your home directory. disable_functions While open_basedir is a very positive step in securing your PHP scripts, there are unfortunately instances in which it can be bypassed and this is how the recent IP.Board vulnerability gained ground so quickly. For example, the exec(), system() and passthru() functions allow a command to be issued directly to the operating system to view key system files, navigate through other users' web root directories, install 'remote shell' scripts into other users' directories, etc. without any regard to other restrictions such as open_basedir. For this reason, disable_functions should be set to disable system level functions. For example, this is a recommended disable_functions: disable_functions = escapeshellarg,escapeshellcmd,exec,ini_alter,parse_ini_file,passthru,pcntl_exec,popen,proc_close,proc_get_status,proc_nice,proc_open,proc_terminate,show_source,shell_exec,symlink,system You or your host may need to tweak to suit, but at a minimum, execution commands should be disabled. Following the above, you will not necessarily create a fool-proof environment, but you will have additional reassurances that you or your host have taken appropriate measures to better secure your PHP applications. For those that run a cPanel/WHM server you may enable open_basedir by visiting WHM and clicking the "PHP open_basedir Tweak" link under "Security Center" then clicking enable. You may modify the disable_functions line by visiting WHM and clicking "PHP Configuration Editor" under "Service Configuration" then clicking "advanced" and searching for "disable_functions" If you are unsure or do not have the necessary permissions to carry out these tasks, please do contact your host. You are free to link them to this blog entry as well. I hope this helps better explain the recent security concern and what you can do to help protect yourself and your users in the future. As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you might have. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

At IPS, we pride ourselves on providing industry leading products and services, unsurpassed in quality, features and support. Much like any other company, we indeed have our strengths and weaknesses. One admitted weakness is clearly developing an independent mobile app platform that can meet your and our expectations. We have struggled over the past several years in securing a proficient mobile app development team and ultimately, the platform has not met our expectations. Our mantra has become: if we can't do it right, we simply will not do it. That is where we are at with the mobile app platform. Unfortunately, this means the Android app will not make its debut as we originally hoped. We do not wish to release something that we cannot provide proper support for. Instead, we would recommend Android users with an immediate need for a mobile app, visit a third party such as Tapatalk.com Please trust that we are just as disappointed as you in our failure to deliver this particular product as promised and I offer my sincerest apologies. With that, we will do our best to continue polishing the iOS mobile app (which will now be made available for free in the app store) in the short term. For the long-term, we will be incorporating a new mobile integration directly into the product beginning with 4.0. An integrated web app uses the latest standard web technologies such as CSS, Javascript and HTML combined with mobile extensions which will make the site render and feel like a native mobile application. This will allow far more flexibility and tighter integration across the IPS Community Suite (imagine approving orders, responding to support requests or publishing an article with IP.Content from the comfort of your mobile device) than an independent mobile app while being cross-platform compatible with all mobile operating systems. This is also something we have the existing internal expertise to carry out to our standards, alleviating the need to rely on third parties. As always, we welcome any constructive feedback and appreciate your continued business and support. Once again, I apologize for any inconvenience and rest assured - we will continue to do what we do best.