Cedric V

I wasn't expecting this outcome. It's no secret it has been declining for years, so action was bound to be made. I like the Dev Directory, it's a very nicely made alternative and it gives more freedom to our Devs. Well done.

Nothing is really changing in that regard. We don't have a backdoor or anything like that to shut your community down 🙂 
Of course it would be detrimental to your community success and security to run any software platform that has not had an update in years, but that's up to you in the end.

I think a lot is just misunderstood. But it's a bit confusion as well, so it was bound to happen. Some will say it's a bad thing, without realizing it's in their best interest and gain. 
 
Keep it up Invision Community.

As always, keep calm and talk to us if it’s unclear. We are here every day. 

I think a lot is just misunderstood. But it's a bit confusion as well, so it was bound to happen. Some will say it's a bad thing, without realizing it's in their best interest and gain. 
 
Keep it up Invision Community.

I'll be honest when I saw this thread, I almost went for the popcorn, but this is actually a pretty big W for self-hosted licenses.
Removing the ability to select apps is actually smart. While it may greatly restrict your ability to budget on smaller orgs, it kind of pushes you into trying them and finding ways to monetize.
Both of my licenses were missing apps, so having access to them all while still paying less kind of blows my mind. This was not on my "what will IPS do next" bingo card. A step in the right direction and much appreciated by us self-hosted customers!

I can see how you might look at it that way in terms of saving money. But we spent a lot of time, resources, and money in development of those 3 years of features and other clients have an expectation from us.
The only way to make self-hosted viable for the future is to ensure people are paying for the effort put into developing it. Otherwise we really should just get rid of it. If you are not willing to do that, there are cheap or low cost alternatives out there but you don't get the owners of the company replying to you and you most certainly do not get monthly updates and constant improvements. Look at literally any other community platform and you will see many are at worst dead and at best barely supported.
It is also very, very common. I'm not sure where you have been living in 30+ years of the software world. It's very normal for software to require a subscription fee or to require a re-purchase at major versions. I get emails all the time from software I own that says "new version pay up!"
We are not requiring people to re-purchase for v5 as other platforms would. The "catch up" renewals only apply to the monthly option as it is basically a finance version of the annual fee. You may wish to review the new terms in the client area as you seem incorrect here.
We are growing and, if you are actually serious about your community, a few more dollars a year to get a platform that is actually alive must be worth it. If having something that is actively developed is not worth it to you, then your community will probably suffer with another platform.
But, as has been said a lot already in this topic, you don't have to do anything. You can stick right where you are on your current terms.
 
TL;DR: We are committed to our clients using Classic, self-hosted who are committed to their communities being a success. It is a joint venture.
 
And to your examples:
1. Insurance companies actually do charge you more if you have a huge gap in coverage. They see you as a greater risk. Same idea here.
2. Microsoft does not do upgrade fees they just make you buy the new version outright. If you would prefer that, I would be HAPPY to do that as it would make our software cost way more.

I'm very excited to see the new version.

I'm very excited to see the new version.

I'm very excited to see the new version.

I'm very excited to see the new version.

I guess there is no news. 
It's so hard to get a reply from people who own points apps.  Kevin Carwile pulled his app after there was a bug detected which was posted on his forum.  Can't get a reply from Mike John - I hear you on family issues but you're replying in other threads.  Looks like TheJackal84 hasn't replied in his Members Shop thread since Sept 21.  Not saying people don't have issues in life and our busy, but geez the points apps... not doing so well.