Chris Anderson

I reached out to Spanner's widow to see if some arrangement could be made to transfer his apps to someone else, and she indicated his will stipulated he did not wish his work to be transferred.  
 
 

I reached out to Spanner's widow to see if some arrangement could be made to transfer his apps to someone else, and she indicated his will stipulated he did not wish his work to be transferred.  
 
 

I would like this too. 

You might consider installing the Requirements Checker found below on your server to see if the current PHP settings meet the minimum requirements for the IPS Suite. Once installed you open up a browser and type in your domain followed by ips4.php like this: https://www.mydomain.com/ips4.php
It's not out of the realm of possibility that one of the required php addons is not being loaded.  This checker may alert you of which one.  If one or more are not being loaded, then you need to work with your hosting provider to get them loaded for you.  If you manage your php settings via a GUI interface all you might have to do is to select the missing addons and save the settings.  
 

Many self-hosted servers are setup to support running just one version of PHP.  All PHP scripts need to support that particular version or there will be compatibility issues. 
Now that PHP 7.4 is approaching it's EOL there will be a concerted effort by developers to ensure their PHP code supports PHP 8.0 and PHP 8.1 in the very near future.
The challenge is that some developers will release products that will only work when PHP 8.0 or PHP 8.1 is running on a server as they will have decided to abandon support for PHP 7.4 all together.
So IPS and custom and marketplace apps will support (or not) a variety of vastly different PHP versions for the next several years. 
With the upcoming release of 4.7 developers are already starting to upload compatible updates of their apps.
The rule of thumb in the past has been that marketplace submissions had to fully support PHP 7.4 and support for PHP 8 or higher was optional, so there was little reason to note PHP compatibility.
Now that PHP 8 support is no longer going to be optional but will soon be a necessity the marketplace will need to track PHP compatibility for each new release. 
After a quick audit of the new marketplace releases, some developers are being very diligent and are clearly noting which PHP versions are supported and some are not.
It would be nice to put into place a marketplace guideline that all new uploads post 4.7 should clearly state which PHP version or versions that release is fully compatible with.
That way customers can audit their marketplace purchases to see if all of them will uniformly support a particular PHP version. 
It would be great if IPS added an additional "File Information" attribute as shown below to allow customers to more readily see and search for PHP version compatibility on this site and in the ACP marketplace.

Hopefully, PHP 8.2 and beyond we won't have to worry so much about PHP compatibility. 

Many self-hosted servers are setup to support running just one version of PHP.  All PHP scripts need to support that particular version or there will be compatibility issues. 
Now that PHP 7.4 is approaching it's EOL there will be a concerted effort by developers to ensure their PHP code supports PHP 8.0 and PHP 8.1 in the very near future.
The challenge is that some developers will release products that will only work when PHP 8.0 or PHP 8.1 is running on a server as they will have decided to abandon support for PHP 7.4 all together.
So IPS and custom and marketplace apps will support (or not) a variety of vastly different PHP versions for the next several years. 
With the upcoming release of 4.7 developers are already starting to upload compatible updates of their apps.
The rule of thumb in the past has been that marketplace submissions had to fully support PHP 7.4 and support for PHP 8 or higher was optional, so there was little reason to note PHP compatibility.
Now that PHP 8 support is no longer going to be optional but will soon be a necessity the marketplace will need to track PHP compatibility for each new release. 
After a quick audit of the new marketplace releases, some developers are being very diligent and are clearly noting which PHP versions are supported and some are not.
It would be nice to put into place a marketplace guideline that all new uploads post 4.7 should clearly state which PHP version or versions that release is fully compatible with.
That way customers can audit their marketplace purchases to see if all of them will uniformly support a particular PHP version. 
It would be great if IPS added an additional "File Information" attribute as shown below to allow customers to more readily see and search for PHP version compatibility on this site and in the ACP marketplace.

Hopefully, PHP 8.2 and beyond we won't have to worry so much about PHP compatibility. 

Well, IPS has outlasted all but a few competitors.  While that has benefits, a little good old-fashioned competition is good for businesses as it often inspires employees to be ever more creative and to push themselves and their company as a whole to be just a little bit better year in and year out. 
Without competition businesses often become more and more complacent and more willing to accept the status quo.  There's a term in the startup world, the MVP or minimum viable product. 
Too often that becomes the norm for product release cycles and not for the early months while you are striving to make it big.  With no "real" competitors companies tend to release a string of "nice" features and never seem to stive to release only "great" ones.  They embrace quantity over quality.
Meeting you customer's needs is "fine", but delighting them?  That can really set a company apart and make them truly competitive in the marketplace, even against far larger competitors.
Instead of releasing a bunch of features one after another I would encourage looking more holistically at the product suite and release features that work together to better allow communities to interact more effectively and truly delight their membership. Release a feature once with all of the things one would want on day one not fill in the missing pieces over the course of many subsequent releases. Release a feature once (and be bug free) then move on. Repeat the process with the next feature.
That would be something I would like IPS to strive for in the future, doing so would put the last remaining competitors in their dust.
 

Well, IPS has outlasted all but a few competitors.  While that has benefits, a little good old-fashioned competition is good for businesses as it often inspires employees to be ever more creative and to push themselves and their company as a whole to be just a little bit better year in and year out. 
Without competition businesses often become more and more complacent and more willing to accept the status quo.  There's a term in the startup world, the MVP or minimum viable product. 
Too often that becomes the norm for product release cycles and not for the early months while you are striving to make it big.  With no "real" competitors companies tend to release a string of "nice" features and never seem to stive to release only "great" ones.  They embrace quantity over quality.
Meeting you customer's needs is "fine", but delighting them?  That can really set a company apart and make them truly competitive in the marketplace, even against far larger competitors.
Instead of releasing a bunch of features one after another I would encourage looking more holistically at the product suite and release features that work together to better allow communities to interact more effectively and truly delight their membership. Release a feature once with all of the things one would want on day one not fill in the missing pieces over the course of many subsequent releases. Release a feature once (and be bug free) then move on. Repeat the process with the next feature.
That would be something I would like IPS to strive for in the future, doing so would put the last remaining competitors in their dust.
 

@beats23 There are a multitude of professional level Learning Management Systems created to run on the WordPress platform.  Some professionally hosted and managed (with their own subscription plans) and some you can install on your own site. You might be able integrate one of these solutions with your IPS suite with WordPress to create an all-in-one solution.  
You should read the following thread about such an integration:
Or you could simply provide a link to the LMS platform via the menu and members could create an account on that site and navigate back and forth from that site to your site. Not a seamless experience by any means but it might "just" work for your members.
 

Check this thread out:
 

Thanks, I'm not able to reproduce it, but can see how it could happen, so I have pushed a possible fix for this.

I can see everything on this page "as expected" on four different browsers.

Zapier and Intregromat are two automation services that work closely with the IPS suite.
I created my first Zapier Zap a few days ago.  When a new member gets created Zapier sends my Slack Channel a notice that a new member has been created moments later. 

You'll need to convert the tab-separated values to CSV, you should be able to do this in Excel.
I have committed a change for an upcoming version to output a CSV to be consistent with the import. -- It was changed about 4 years ago due to some character corruption issues when using non-ASCII characters but I've implemented an alternative fix for that issue.

Also note that once IPS announces support for 8.1 anyone using third-party apps will have to be assured each and every app is fully 8.1 compliant.  There will likely be a lag between official IPS support and every app getting updated (if needed).  There are lots of great new features in 8.1 that some developers may want to take advantage of to take their apps to the next level.  This upcoming PHP version will likely be a bumpy ride, but hopefully worth it in the long term.

Marketplace views are cached, it has just been approved about 50 minutes ago. You'll see it show up soon.

That's a goer, as long as you don't expect it to be an 'exact' representation of the actual content.

@Elliot MarxEach self-hosted customer will utilize this software in completely different ways. Very few of us use the platform "as is", we tweak this, we tweak that, we install a multitude of marketplace or custom apps and then our customers (and bad actors) abuse our sites in every conceivable way. We also tend try to run our sites on hosting platforms that aren't "really" setup to accommodate this platform, or if so, not always well.
The IPS programmers and testers do think outside of the box but its next to impossible to guess how every site will be configured and if there might any underlying problems with a site. So, they create upgrade scripts that will work well on "healthy" default installs.  When an upgrade fails it is more likely than not to be attributable to something from the above paragraph.
The more details you can provide IPS (and any customer who might lend a hand) about how you setup the IPS suite and your customers use it the more likely they might hit upon some workarounds to get your site up and running again and prepare you for upcoming upgrades.
One wonders about the number of tables created and prefixes.  What led to their creation in the first place? What has been your upgrade path over the last year or so? The more clues you can provide, the better chance one can deduce what the underlying problem(s) might be. 

@MattI did check the sales page and help guides for mentions of branding. If I had seen something I would have provided a link. Some companies provide for personalized branding some don't, some charge and some don't.  As such, you might consider letting potential customers know your policy and pricing before purchase.
Customers:
Some third-party developers charge an extra fee to remove their branding some don't brand their apps at all.  To replicate the functionality of the IPS suite and third-party add-ons it would take a dedicated development team and a very, very large budget.  Paying to remove branding can give the appearance of a custom site while only having to pay pennies on the dollar.  The reality is few members will be fooled that you designed and built the site from scratch.
Increased sales for IPS and third-party apps via branding links insures they continue to have the development budget to continue releasing new and useful updates. They need every win they can to continue to develop.  
Instead of looking at personalized branding simply as another fee, think of it as an investment in your community.
I would recommend reaching out to the sales team for any company you wish to do business with to find out what is or isn't included and pricing for various add-ons prior to making any purchases.

Login as an Admin and click on the "Create" option, then select "Announcement":

You might consider utilizing this app:
 

Use the guide above to setup a promotion for new members. Use the "Profile Field Per User Group" app to grant access to the promoted group to edit the "About Me" field. 

I found the answer:
 

Check out the support forum for this app:
You can ask the developer any questions you like about the app prior to purchase. 
 

Plugins and Apps can be found here:
Downloads - Invision Community
Help Guides can be found here:
In addition to reading through the forums you can learn more about the platform by reading the company blogs:
Invision Community Blog - Invision Community
I would also recommend using the search function to see if any questions you may have in the future have already been answered by the IPS staff or other members. Sometimes you might find a thread that answers your question, and sometimes you won't, but it tends to be worth the effort overall.
This suite is highly configurable, but alas not every single option has a tutorial on how to set it up.  Many settings in one section of the ACP may impact other functionality so it's best not to make changes to the default settings without some thought as to the possible consequences.  I would recommend setting up a test server to try out things and when you are confident that a new feature works for your environment you implement it on your live server. 
Also note that some features like "Achievements" and reactions are setup for you on install. These features may or may not work for your community using the default settings so you may have to tweak them to work for you.
Often times admins think they know their community better than they actually do, as such, I would recommend working closely with your community to ensure the platform you develop works well for them.