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Mike Gholson

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  1. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from Martin Svitak in Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5   
    Is there an ETA or published release schedule for IPB5 ?  I am very interested in this upcoming release.
  2. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from SeNioR- in Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5   
    I'm ready!

  3. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from Matt in Things I need with Invision   
    Awesome, thank you!  I thought the removal of Marketplace was depreciating the 3rd party capability.  I appreciate the clarification and this is great to see.  Hopefully the 3rd party developers can still make enough money to continue updating and supporting the apps.
  4. Like
    Mike Gholson reacted to Daniel F in Things I need with Invision   
    To clarify: The possibility to install 3rd party apps wasn't removed in v5!
    Plugins were deprecated, but applications can still be created, exported, imported, etc.. Hooks were replaced with Code Listeners and several new Extensions But all in all, 3rd parties will still be able to create new apps like Member Garage, Member Maps, Classified Ads, Member Info blocks etc..
    More information about the upcoming changes can be found in our Dev Blog: https://invisioncommunity.com/developers/devblog/blog/
  5. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from Ehren in Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5   
    Yeah, IPB5 will be pretty sweet, from what I can tell.  Looking forward to seeing more from the team.  I find it extremely satisfying to see how active the developers are making a difference in our communities.  Also heavy involvement with us is key and you are hitting that nail on the head too.  Much appreciate everything you guys are doing!!
  6. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from Como in Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5   
    Yeah, IPB5 will be pretty sweet, from what I can tell.  Looking forward to seeing more from the team.  I find it extremely satisfying to see how active the developers are making a difference in our communities.  Also heavy involvement with us is key and you are hitting that nail on the head too.  Much appreciate everything you guys are doing!!
  7. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from SeNioR- in Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5   
    Yeah, IPB5 will be pretty sweet, from what I can tell.  Looking forward to seeing more from the team.  I find it extremely satisfying to see how active the developers are making a difference in our communities.  Also heavy involvement with us is key and you are hitting that nail on the head too.  Much appreciate everything you guys are doing!!
  8. Thanks
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from Stuart Silvester in Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5   
    Yeah, IPB5 will be pretty sweet, from what I can tell.  Looking forward to seeing more from the team.  I find it extremely satisfying to see how active the developers are making a difference in our communities.  Also heavy involvement with us is key and you are hitting that nail on the head too.  Much appreciate everything you guys are doing!!
  9. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from Neville1 in Things I need with Invision   
    As a community owner for over two decades, I wanted to give some personal feedback as to what I find very useful (and need) to keep my community alive. 
    Big Tech Competition:  The biggest challenge has been competing with other online services like FB, Reddit, Twitter, etc, etc.  You guys have hit the sweet spot in generating useful integrations to these services.  I would also like one for Linkedin but I'm sure that's on the radar.  With any competition like big tech, we can provide a more specialized touch to any community.  I hope we can still maintain this presence and I have a feeling IBP5 will give us even more ways to create active sites that give the big boys a run for their money.
    Monetization:  I have a specialized car club and, with Invision, I've been able to monetize our existence and pay our bills.  We are hosted on a dedicated server environment so we have our fair-share of bills.  I've looked into using a cloud-host but the costs don't justify simply putting a machine into a colo site.  We also have other bills like licensing, email services, and annual domain costs.  With the integrations to Google Adsense, Infolinks, and the paid subscription model (built into IPB), this has enabled us to pay these bills and continue well into the future.  The addition of Subscriptions has also helped us a LOT!!!!

    3rd Pary Marketplace:  I have appreciated the Invision Community capabilities with 3rd party apps (Marketplace).  However, I see these have been depreciated for the upcoming release.  Some of these modules really gave us an edge and we were able to stand out.  I fear that removing this integration may put us into a general category just like everyone else.  So, I hope the team considers opening this up again or at least making it easier for us to customize our sites to provide unique services.  Some of the more important apps for us are Member Garage, Member Maps, Classified Ads (big one), Tapatalk, and Member Info blocks (we use member numbers for members to use as discount codes to our partners).
    Advertising Banners:  We have used, and will continue to use banner sponsor placements on our site.  The one place we are missing is at the top of the screen.  Of course we can always do a pop-up or slide-down style ad.  But people tend to hate these and disable them.  So, if we can add more customizable locations for these banners, it would be a big hit for our business.  
    Google & SEO:  This service is so strange and it seems to change every other quarter.  New rules all the time, and I've gone from ~$700/mo in banner income to ~$125/mo.  I have no idea why this is, but I did notice that Google doesn't do very well with active community sites (they prefer static pages I guess).  So, if you are building something new with the release of IPB5, I would be very interested to see how we can improve our SEO or even Google results.
    Forum Layout:  I *REALLY* like the new look of your forum design in IPB5.  I cannot wait to use it.  The one thing our members really appreciate are the active notifications and easy way to see how things changed over the last 24/48 hours.  The new features coming seem to compliment this very well.  Not to mention a lot of people have been asking for the light/dark mode and it will be nice to see this capability built-in rather than having to design our own.
    Community Experts:  I did see something about the addition of community experts.  VERY GOOD addition!!  In an automotive community like ours, there are always guys hanging around that are considered RL experts as well.  I'd love to give them the recognition they deserve and let people know they actually *DO* know what they are talking about.  I hope this is an 'approved only' capability as I am sure some people may request this status and don't really deserve it.  😉
    Downloads, Knowledgebase, Gallery:  These existing capabilities are huge wins for us.  Although I would like to see an update to Gallery, the majority of the existing features work very well.  I hope these stay and continue to see improvements as the product goes into the next stage.
    Blogs:  For us, the blog module has been a strange experience.  Some guys know how to use it, while other people tend to post questions and use it like a forum.  If we were to continue using blogs, it might be a great idea to make sure end-users know they are in a "blog module" rather than part of the forums.  It's hard to explain on text but honestly I think people get confused as to what a blog is versus a forum.
    All in all, I am so happy to see that I've invested with a company that is taking this product to the next level.  Your team is amazing and it's reassuring to see that private communities are still a necessary part of the Internet.  As we continue forward, please understand that I'll stick around as a long term customer.  Just don't jack up the rates too high on us.   😉
    Mike
  10. Agree
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from Gary in Things I need with Invision   
    As a community owner for over two decades, I wanted to give some personal feedback as to what I find very useful (and need) to keep my community alive. 
    Big Tech Competition:  The biggest challenge has been competing with other online services like FB, Reddit, Twitter, etc, etc.  You guys have hit the sweet spot in generating useful integrations to these services.  I would also like one for Linkedin but I'm sure that's on the radar.  With any competition like big tech, we can provide a more specialized touch to any community.  I hope we can still maintain this presence and I have a feeling IBP5 will give us even more ways to create active sites that give the big boys a run for their money.
    Monetization:  I have a specialized car club and, with Invision, I've been able to monetize our existence and pay our bills.  We are hosted on a dedicated server environment so we have our fair-share of bills.  I've looked into using a cloud-host but the costs don't justify simply putting a machine into a colo site.  We also have other bills like licensing, email services, and annual domain costs.  With the integrations to Google Adsense, Infolinks, and the paid subscription model (built into IPB), this has enabled us to pay these bills and continue well into the future.  The addition of Subscriptions has also helped us a LOT!!!!

    3rd Pary Marketplace:  I have appreciated the Invision Community capabilities with 3rd party apps (Marketplace).  However, I see these have been depreciated for the upcoming release.  Some of these modules really gave us an edge and we were able to stand out.  I fear that removing this integration may put us into a general category just like everyone else.  So, I hope the team considers opening this up again or at least making it easier for us to customize our sites to provide unique services.  Some of the more important apps for us are Member Garage, Member Maps, Classified Ads (big one), Tapatalk, and Member Info blocks (we use member numbers for members to use as discount codes to our partners).
    Advertising Banners:  We have used, and will continue to use banner sponsor placements on our site.  The one place we are missing is at the top of the screen.  Of course we can always do a pop-up or slide-down style ad.  But people tend to hate these and disable them.  So, if we can add more customizable locations for these banners, it would be a big hit for our business.  
    Google & SEO:  This service is so strange and it seems to change every other quarter.  New rules all the time, and I've gone from ~$700/mo in banner income to ~$125/mo.  I have no idea why this is, but I did notice that Google doesn't do very well with active community sites (they prefer static pages I guess).  So, if you are building something new with the release of IPB5, I would be very interested to see how we can improve our SEO or even Google results.
    Forum Layout:  I *REALLY* like the new look of your forum design in IPB5.  I cannot wait to use it.  The one thing our members really appreciate are the active notifications and easy way to see how things changed over the last 24/48 hours.  The new features coming seem to compliment this very well.  Not to mention a lot of people have been asking for the light/dark mode and it will be nice to see this capability built-in rather than having to design our own.
    Community Experts:  I did see something about the addition of community experts.  VERY GOOD addition!!  In an automotive community like ours, there are always guys hanging around that are considered RL experts as well.  I'd love to give them the recognition they deserve and let people know they actually *DO* know what they are talking about.  I hope this is an 'approved only' capability as I am sure some people may request this status and don't really deserve it.  😉
    Downloads, Knowledgebase, Gallery:  These existing capabilities are huge wins for us.  Although I would like to see an update to Gallery, the majority of the existing features work very well.  I hope these stay and continue to see improvements as the product goes into the next stage.
    Blogs:  For us, the blog module has been a strange experience.  Some guys know how to use it, while other people tend to post questions and use it like a forum.  If we were to continue using blogs, it might be a great idea to make sure end-users know they are in a "blog module" rather than part of the forums.  It's hard to explain on text but honestly I think people get confused as to what a blog is versus a forum.
    All in all, I am so happy to see that I've invested with a company that is taking this product to the next level.  Your team is amazing and it's reassuring to see that private communities are still a necessary part of the Internet.  As we continue forward, please understand that I'll stick around as a long term customer.  Just don't jack up the rates too high on us.   😉
    Mike
  11. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from Dreadknux in Things I need with Invision   
    As a community owner for over two decades, I wanted to give some personal feedback as to what I find very useful (and need) to keep my community alive. 
    Big Tech Competition:  The biggest challenge has been competing with other online services like FB, Reddit, Twitter, etc, etc.  You guys have hit the sweet spot in generating useful integrations to these services.  I would also like one for Linkedin but I'm sure that's on the radar.  With any competition like big tech, we can provide a more specialized touch to any community.  I hope we can still maintain this presence and I have a feeling IBP5 will give us even more ways to create active sites that give the big boys a run for their money.
    Monetization:  I have a specialized car club and, with Invision, I've been able to monetize our existence and pay our bills.  We are hosted on a dedicated server environment so we have our fair-share of bills.  I've looked into using a cloud-host but the costs don't justify simply putting a machine into a colo site.  We also have other bills like licensing, email services, and annual domain costs.  With the integrations to Google Adsense, Infolinks, and the paid subscription model (built into IPB), this has enabled us to pay these bills and continue well into the future.  The addition of Subscriptions has also helped us a LOT!!!!

    3rd Pary Marketplace:  I have appreciated the Invision Community capabilities with 3rd party apps (Marketplace).  However, I see these have been depreciated for the upcoming release.  Some of these modules really gave us an edge and we were able to stand out.  I fear that removing this integration may put us into a general category just like everyone else.  So, I hope the team considers opening this up again or at least making it easier for us to customize our sites to provide unique services.  Some of the more important apps for us are Member Garage, Member Maps, Classified Ads (big one), Tapatalk, and Member Info blocks (we use member numbers for members to use as discount codes to our partners).
    Advertising Banners:  We have used, and will continue to use banner sponsor placements on our site.  The one place we are missing is at the top of the screen.  Of course we can always do a pop-up or slide-down style ad.  But people tend to hate these and disable them.  So, if we can add more customizable locations for these banners, it would be a big hit for our business.  
    Google & SEO:  This service is so strange and it seems to change every other quarter.  New rules all the time, and I've gone from ~$700/mo in banner income to ~$125/mo.  I have no idea why this is, but I did notice that Google doesn't do very well with active community sites (they prefer static pages I guess).  So, if you are building something new with the release of IPB5, I would be very interested to see how we can improve our SEO or even Google results.
    Forum Layout:  I *REALLY* like the new look of your forum design in IPB5.  I cannot wait to use it.  The one thing our members really appreciate are the active notifications and easy way to see how things changed over the last 24/48 hours.  The new features coming seem to compliment this very well.  Not to mention a lot of people have been asking for the light/dark mode and it will be nice to see this capability built-in rather than having to design our own.
    Community Experts:  I did see something about the addition of community experts.  VERY GOOD addition!!  In an automotive community like ours, there are always guys hanging around that are considered RL experts as well.  I'd love to give them the recognition they deserve and let people know they actually *DO* know what they are talking about.  I hope this is an 'approved only' capability as I am sure some people may request this status and don't really deserve it.  😉
    Downloads, Knowledgebase, Gallery:  These existing capabilities are huge wins for us.  Although I would like to see an update to Gallery, the majority of the existing features work very well.  I hope these stay and continue to see improvements as the product goes into the next stage.
    Blogs:  For us, the blog module has been a strange experience.  Some guys know how to use it, while other people tend to post questions and use it like a forum.  If we were to continue using blogs, it might be a great idea to make sure end-users know they are in a "blog module" rather than part of the forums.  It's hard to explain on text but honestly I think people get confused as to what a blog is versus a forum.
    All in all, I am so happy to see that I've invested with a company that is taking this product to the next level.  Your team is amazing and it's reassuring to see that private communities are still a necessary part of the Internet.  As we continue forward, please understand that I'll stick around as a long term customer.  Just don't jack up the rates too high on us.   😉
    Mike
  12. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from Sonya* in Things I need with Invision   
    As a community owner for over two decades, I wanted to give some personal feedback as to what I find very useful (and need) to keep my community alive. 
    Big Tech Competition:  The biggest challenge has been competing with other online services like FB, Reddit, Twitter, etc, etc.  You guys have hit the sweet spot in generating useful integrations to these services.  I would also like one for Linkedin but I'm sure that's on the radar.  With any competition like big tech, we can provide a more specialized touch to any community.  I hope we can still maintain this presence and I have a feeling IBP5 will give us even more ways to create active sites that give the big boys a run for their money.
    Monetization:  I have a specialized car club and, with Invision, I've been able to monetize our existence and pay our bills.  We are hosted on a dedicated server environment so we have our fair-share of bills.  I've looked into using a cloud-host but the costs don't justify simply putting a machine into a colo site.  We also have other bills like licensing, email services, and annual domain costs.  With the integrations to Google Adsense, Infolinks, and the paid subscription model (built into IPB), this has enabled us to pay these bills and continue well into the future.  The addition of Subscriptions has also helped us a LOT!!!!

    3rd Pary Marketplace:  I have appreciated the Invision Community capabilities with 3rd party apps (Marketplace).  However, I see these have been depreciated for the upcoming release.  Some of these modules really gave us an edge and we were able to stand out.  I fear that removing this integration may put us into a general category just like everyone else.  So, I hope the team considers opening this up again or at least making it easier for us to customize our sites to provide unique services.  Some of the more important apps for us are Member Garage, Member Maps, Classified Ads (big one), Tapatalk, and Member Info blocks (we use member numbers for members to use as discount codes to our partners).
    Advertising Banners:  We have used, and will continue to use banner sponsor placements on our site.  The one place we are missing is at the top of the screen.  Of course we can always do a pop-up or slide-down style ad.  But people tend to hate these and disable them.  So, if we can add more customizable locations for these banners, it would be a big hit for our business.  
    Google & SEO:  This service is so strange and it seems to change every other quarter.  New rules all the time, and I've gone from ~$700/mo in banner income to ~$125/mo.  I have no idea why this is, but I did notice that Google doesn't do very well with active community sites (they prefer static pages I guess).  So, if you are building something new with the release of IPB5, I would be very interested to see how we can improve our SEO or even Google results.
    Forum Layout:  I *REALLY* like the new look of your forum design in IPB5.  I cannot wait to use it.  The one thing our members really appreciate are the active notifications and easy way to see how things changed over the last 24/48 hours.  The new features coming seem to compliment this very well.  Not to mention a lot of people have been asking for the light/dark mode and it will be nice to see this capability built-in rather than having to design our own.
    Community Experts:  I did see something about the addition of community experts.  VERY GOOD addition!!  In an automotive community like ours, there are always guys hanging around that are considered RL experts as well.  I'd love to give them the recognition they deserve and let people know they actually *DO* know what they are talking about.  I hope this is an 'approved only' capability as I am sure some people may request this status and don't really deserve it.  😉
    Downloads, Knowledgebase, Gallery:  These existing capabilities are huge wins for us.  Although I would like to see an update to Gallery, the majority of the existing features work very well.  I hope these stay and continue to see improvements as the product goes into the next stage.
    Blogs:  For us, the blog module has been a strange experience.  Some guys know how to use it, while other people tend to post questions and use it like a forum.  If we were to continue using blogs, it might be a great idea to make sure end-users know they are in a "blog module" rather than part of the forums.  It's hard to explain on text but honestly I think people get confused as to what a blog is versus a forum.
    All in all, I am so happy to see that I've invested with a company that is taking this product to the next level.  Your team is amazing and it's reassuring to see that private communities are still a necessary part of the Internet.  As we continue forward, please understand that I'll stick around as a long term customer.  Just don't jack up the rates too high on us.   😉
    Mike
  13. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from SeNioR- in Things I need with Invision   
    As a community owner for over two decades, I wanted to give some personal feedback as to what I find very useful (and need) to keep my community alive. 
    Big Tech Competition:  The biggest challenge has been competing with other online services like FB, Reddit, Twitter, etc, etc.  You guys have hit the sweet spot in generating useful integrations to these services.  I would also like one for Linkedin but I'm sure that's on the radar.  With any competition like big tech, we can provide a more specialized touch to any community.  I hope we can still maintain this presence and I have a feeling IBP5 will give us even more ways to create active sites that give the big boys a run for their money.
    Monetization:  I have a specialized car club and, with Invision, I've been able to monetize our existence and pay our bills.  We are hosted on a dedicated server environment so we have our fair-share of bills.  I've looked into using a cloud-host but the costs don't justify simply putting a machine into a colo site.  We also have other bills like licensing, email services, and annual domain costs.  With the integrations to Google Adsense, Infolinks, and the paid subscription model (built into IPB), this has enabled us to pay these bills and continue well into the future.  The addition of Subscriptions has also helped us a LOT!!!!

    3rd Pary Marketplace:  I have appreciated the Invision Community capabilities with 3rd party apps (Marketplace).  However, I see these have been depreciated for the upcoming release.  Some of these modules really gave us an edge and we were able to stand out.  I fear that removing this integration may put us into a general category just like everyone else.  So, I hope the team considers opening this up again or at least making it easier for us to customize our sites to provide unique services.  Some of the more important apps for us are Member Garage, Member Maps, Classified Ads (big one), Tapatalk, and Member Info blocks (we use member numbers for members to use as discount codes to our partners).
    Advertising Banners:  We have used, and will continue to use banner sponsor placements on our site.  The one place we are missing is at the top of the screen.  Of course we can always do a pop-up or slide-down style ad.  But people tend to hate these and disable them.  So, if we can add more customizable locations for these banners, it would be a big hit for our business.  
    Google & SEO:  This service is so strange and it seems to change every other quarter.  New rules all the time, and I've gone from ~$700/mo in banner income to ~$125/mo.  I have no idea why this is, but I did notice that Google doesn't do very well with active community sites (they prefer static pages I guess).  So, if you are building something new with the release of IPB5, I would be very interested to see how we can improve our SEO or even Google results.
    Forum Layout:  I *REALLY* like the new look of your forum design in IPB5.  I cannot wait to use it.  The one thing our members really appreciate are the active notifications and easy way to see how things changed over the last 24/48 hours.  The new features coming seem to compliment this very well.  Not to mention a lot of people have been asking for the light/dark mode and it will be nice to see this capability built-in rather than having to design our own.
    Community Experts:  I did see something about the addition of community experts.  VERY GOOD addition!!  In an automotive community like ours, there are always guys hanging around that are considered RL experts as well.  I'd love to give them the recognition they deserve and let people know they actually *DO* know what they are talking about.  I hope this is an 'approved only' capability as I am sure some people may request this status and don't really deserve it.  😉
    Downloads, Knowledgebase, Gallery:  These existing capabilities are huge wins for us.  Although I would like to see an update to Gallery, the majority of the existing features work very well.  I hope these stay and continue to see improvements as the product goes into the next stage.
    Blogs:  For us, the blog module has been a strange experience.  Some guys know how to use it, while other people tend to post questions and use it like a forum.  If we were to continue using blogs, it might be a great idea to make sure end-users know they are in a "blog module" rather than part of the forums.  It's hard to explain on text but honestly I think people get confused as to what a blog is versus a forum.
    All in all, I am so happy to see that I've invested with a company that is taking this product to the next level.  Your team is amazing and it's reassuring to see that private communities are still a necessary part of the Internet.  As we continue forward, please understand that I'll stick around as a long term customer.  Just don't jack up the rates too high on us.   😉
    Mike
  14. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from Daniel F in Things I need with Invision   
    As a community owner for over two decades, I wanted to give some personal feedback as to what I find very useful (and need) to keep my community alive. 
    Big Tech Competition:  The biggest challenge has been competing with other online services like FB, Reddit, Twitter, etc, etc.  You guys have hit the sweet spot in generating useful integrations to these services.  I would also like one for Linkedin but I'm sure that's on the radar.  With any competition like big tech, we can provide a more specialized touch to any community.  I hope we can still maintain this presence and I have a feeling IBP5 will give us even more ways to create active sites that give the big boys a run for their money.
    Monetization:  I have a specialized car club and, with Invision, I've been able to monetize our existence and pay our bills.  We are hosted on a dedicated server environment so we have our fair-share of bills.  I've looked into using a cloud-host but the costs don't justify simply putting a machine into a colo site.  We also have other bills like licensing, email services, and annual domain costs.  With the integrations to Google Adsense, Infolinks, and the paid subscription model (built into IPB), this has enabled us to pay these bills and continue well into the future.  The addition of Subscriptions has also helped us a LOT!!!!

    3rd Pary Marketplace:  I have appreciated the Invision Community capabilities with 3rd party apps (Marketplace).  However, I see these have been depreciated for the upcoming release.  Some of these modules really gave us an edge and we were able to stand out.  I fear that removing this integration may put us into a general category just like everyone else.  So, I hope the team considers opening this up again or at least making it easier for us to customize our sites to provide unique services.  Some of the more important apps for us are Member Garage, Member Maps, Classified Ads (big one), Tapatalk, and Member Info blocks (we use member numbers for members to use as discount codes to our partners).
    Advertising Banners:  We have used, and will continue to use banner sponsor placements on our site.  The one place we are missing is at the top of the screen.  Of course we can always do a pop-up or slide-down style ad.  But people tend to hate these and disable them.  So, if we can add more customizable locations for these banners, it would be a big hit for our business.  
    Google & SEO:  This service is so strange and it seems to change every other quarter.  New rules all the time, and I've gone from ~$700/mo in banner income to ~$125/mo.  I have no idea why this is, but I did notice that Google doesn't do very well with active community sites (they prefer static pages I guess).  So, if you are building something new with the release of IPB5, I would be very interested to see how we can improve our SEO or even Google results.
    Forum Layout:  I *REALLY* like the new look of your forum design in IPB5.  I cannot wait to use it.  The one thing our members really appreciate are the active notifications and easy way to see how things changed over the last 24/48 hours.  The new features coming seem to compliment this very well.  Not to mention a lot of people have been asking for the light/dark mode and it will be nice to see this capability built-in rather than having to design our own.
    Community Experts:  I did see something about the addition of community experts.  VERY GOOD addition!!  In an automotive community like ours, there are always guys hanging around that are considered RL experts as well.  I'd love to give them the recognition they deserve and let people know they actually *DO* know what they are talking about.  I hope this is an 'approved only' capability as I am sure some people may request this status and don't really deserve it.  😉
    Downloads, Knowledgebase, Gallery:  These existing capabilities are huge wins for us.  Although I would like to see an update to Gallery, the majority of the existing features work very well.  I hope these stay and continue to see improvements as the product goes into the next stage.
    Blogs:  For us, the blog module has been a strange experience.  Some guys know how to use it, while other people tend to post questions and use it like a forum.  If we were to continue using blogs, it might be a great idea to make sure end-users know they are in a "blog module" rather than part of the forums.  It's hard to explain on text but honestly I think people get confused as to what a blog is versus a forum.
    All in all, I am so happy to see that I've invested with a company that is taking this product to the next level.  Your team is amazing and it's reassuring to see that private communities are still a necessary part of the Internet.  As we continue forward, please understand that I'll stick around as a long term customer.  Just don't jack up the rates too high on us.   😉
    Mike
  15. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from Marc Stridgen in Things I need with Invision   
    As a community owner for over two decades, I wanted to give some personal feedback as to what I find very useful (and need) to keep my community alive. 
    Big Tech Competition:  The biggest challenge has been competing with other online services like FB, Reddit, Twitter, etc, etc.  You guys have hit the sweet spot in generating useful integrations to these services.  I would also like one for Linkedin but I'm sure that's on the radar.  With any competition like big tech, we can provide a more specialized touch to any community.  I hope we can still maintain this presence and I have a feeling IBP5 will give us even more ways to create active sites that give the big boys a run for their money.
    Monetization:  I have a specialized car club and, with Invision, I've been able to monetize our existence and pay our bills.  We are hosted on a dedicated server environment so we have our fair-share of bills.  I've looked into using a cloud-host but the costs don't justify simply putting a machine into a colo site.  We also have other bills like licensing, email services, and annual domain costs.  With the integrations to Google Adsense, Infolinks, and the paid subscription model (built into IPB), this has enabled us to pay these bills and continue well into the future.  The addition of Subscriptions has also helped us a LOT!!!!

    3rd Pary Marketplace:  I have appreciated the Invision Community capabilities with 3rd party apps (Marketplace).  However, I see these have been depreciated for the upcoming release.  Some of these modules really gave us an edge and we were able to stand out.  I fear that removing this integration may put us into a general category just like everyone else.  So, I hope the team considers opening this up again or at least making it easier for us to customize our sites to provide unique services.  Some of the more important apps for us are Member Garage, Member Maps, Classified Ads (big one), Tapatalk, and Member Info blocks (we use member numbers for members to use as discount codes to our partners).
    Advertising Banners:  We have used, and will continue to use banner sponsor placements on our site.  The one place we are missing is at the top of the screen.  Of course we can always do a pop-up or slide-down style ad.  But people tend to hate these and disable them.  So, if we can add more customizable locations for these banners, it would be a big hit for our business.  
    Google & SEO:  This service is so strange and it seems to change every other quarter.  New rules all the time, and I've gone from ~$700/mo in banner income to ~$125/mo.  I have no idea why this is, but I did notice that Google doesn't do very well with active community sites (they prefer static pages I guess).  So, if you are building something new with the release of IPB5, I would be very interested to see how we can improve our SEO or even Google results.
    Forum Layout:  I *REALLY* like the new look of your forum design in IPB5.  I cannot wait to use it.  The one thing our members really appreciate are the active notifications and easy way to see how things changed over the last 24/48 hours.  The new features coming seem to compliment this very well.  Not to mention a lot of people have been asking for the light/dark mode and it will be nice to see this capability built-in rather than having to design our own.
    Community Experts:  I did see something about the addition of community experts.  VERY GOOD addition!!  In an automotive community like ours, there are always guys hanging around that are considered RL experts as well.  I'd love to give them the recognition they deserve and let people know they actually *DO* know what they are talking about.  I hope this is an 'approved only' capability as I am sure some people may request this status and don't really deserve it.  😉
    Downloads, Knowledgebase, Gallery:  These existing capabilities are huge wins for us.  Although I would like to see an update to Gallery, the majority of the existing features work very well.  I hope these stay and continue to see improvements as the product goes into the next stage.
    Blogs:  For us, the blog module has been a strange experience.  Some guys know how to use it, while other people tend to post questions and use it like a forum.  If we were to continue using blogs, it might be a great idea to make sure end-users know they are in a "blog module" rather than part of the forums.  It's hard to explain on text but honestly I think people get confused as to what a blog is versus a forum.
    All in all, I am so happy to see that I've invested with a company that is taking this product to the next level.  Your team is amazing and it's reassuring to see that private communities are still a necessary part of the Internet.  As we continue forward, please understand that I'll stick around as a long term customer.  Just don't jack up the rates too high on us.   😉
    Mike
  16. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from DawPi in Things I need with Invision   
    As a community owner for over two decades, I wanted to give some personal feedback as to what I find very useful (and need) to keep my community alive. 
    Big Tech Competition:  The biggest challenge has been competing with other online services like FB, Reddit, Twitter, etc, etc.  You guys have hit the sweet spot in generating useful integrations to these services.  I would also like one for Linkedin but I'm sure that's on the radar.  With any competition like big tech, we can provide a more specialized touch to any community.  I hope we can still maintain this presence and I have a feeling IBP5 will give us even more ways to create active sites that give the big boys a run for their money.
    Monetization:  I have a specialized car club and, with Invision, I've been able to monetize our existence and pay our bills.  We are hosted on a dedicated server environment so we have our fair-share of bills.  I've looked into using a cloud-host but the costs don't justify simply putting a machine into a colo site.  We also have other bills like licensing, email services, and annual domain costs.  With the integrations to Google Adsense, Infolinks, and the paid subscription model (built into IPB), this has enabled us to pay these bills and continue well into the future.  The addition of Subscriptions has also helped us a LOT!!!!

    3rd Pary Marketplace:  I have appreciated the Invision Community capabilities with 3rd party apps (Marketplace).  However, I see these have been depreciated for the upcoming release.  Some of these modules really gave us an edge and we were able to stand out.  I fear that removing this integration may put us into a general category just like everyone else.  So, I hope the team considers opening this up again or at least making it easier for us to customize our sites to provide unique services.  Some of the more important apps for us are Member Garage, Member Maps, Classified Ads (big one), Tapatalk, and Member Info blocks (we use member numbers for members to use as discount codes to our partners).
    Advertising Banners:  We have used, and will continue to use banner sponsor placements on our site.  The one place we are missing is at the top of the screen.  Of course we can always do a pop-up or slide-down style ad.  But people tend to hate these and disable them.  So, if we can add more customizable locations for these banners, it would be a big hit for our business.  
    Google & SEO:  This service is so strange and it seems to change every other quarter.  New rules all the time, and I've gone from ~$700/mo in banner income to ~$125/mo.  I have no idea why this is, but I did notice that Google doesn't do very well with active community sites (they prefer static pages I guess).  So, if you are building something new with the release of IPB5, I would be very interested to see how we can improve our SEO or even Google results.
    Forum Layout:  I *REALLY* like the new look of your forum design in IPB5.  I cannot wait to use it.  The one thing our members really appreciate are the active notifications and easy way to see how things changed over the last 24/48 hours.  The new features coming seem to compliment this very well.  Not to mention a lot of people have been asking for the light/dark mode and it will be nice to see this capability built-in rather than having to design our own.
    Community Experts:  I did see something about the addition of community experts.  VERY GOOD addition!!  In an automotive community like ours, there are always guys hanging around that are considered RL experts as well.  I'd love to give them the recognition they deserve and let people know they actually *DO* know what they are talking about.  I hope this is an 'approved only' capability as I am sure some people may request this status and don't really deserve it.  😉
    Downloads, Knowledgebase, Gallery:  These existing capabilities are huge wins for us.  Although I would like to see an update to Gallery, the majority of the existing features work very well.  I hope these stay and continue to see improvements as the product goes into the next stage.
    Blogs:  For us, the blog module has been a strange experience.  Some guys know how to use it, while other people tend to post questions and use it like a forum.  If we were to continue using blogs, it might be a great idea to make sure end-users know they are in a "blog module" rather than part of the forums.  It's hard to explain on text but honestly I think people get confused as to what a blog is versus a forum.
    All in all, I am so happy to see that I've invested with a company that is taking this product to the next level.  Your team is amazing and it's reassuring to see that private communities are still a necessary part of the Internet.  As we continue forward, please understand that I'll stick around as a long term customer.  Just don't jack up the rates too high on us.   😉
    Mike
  17. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from SC36DC in Things I need with Invision   
    As a community owner for over two decades, I wanted to give some personal feedback as to what I find very useful (and need) to keep my community alive. 
    Big Tech Competition:  The biggest challenge has been competing with other online services like FB, Reddit, Twitter, etc, etc.  You guys have hit the sweet spot in generating useful integrations to these services.  I would also like one for Linkedin but I'm sure that's on the radar.  With any competition like big tech, we can provide a more specialized touch to any community.  I hope we can still maintain this presence and I have a feeling IBP5 will give us even more ways to create active sites that give the big boys a run for their money.
    Monetization:  I have a specialized car club and, with Invision, I've been able to monetize our existence and pay our bills.  We are hosted on a dedicated server environment so we have our fair-share of bills.  I've looked into using a cloud-host but the costs don't justify simply putting a machine into a colo site.  We also have other bills like licensing, email services, and annual domain costs.  With the integrations to Google Adsense, Infolinks, and the paid subscription model (built into IPB), this has enabled us to pay these bills and continue well into the future.  The addition of Subscriptions has also helped us a LOT!!!!

    3rd Pary Marketplace:  I have appreciated the Invision Community capabilities with 3rd party apps (Marketplace).  However, I see these have been depreciated for the upcoming release.  Some of these modules really gave us an edge and we were able to stand out.  I fear that removing this integration may put us into a general category just like everyone else.  So, I hope the team considers opening this up again or at least making it easier for us to customize our sites to provide unique services.  Some of the more important apps for us are Member Garage, Member Maps, Classified Ads (big one), Tapatalk, and Member Info blocks (we use member numbers for members to use as discount codes to our partners).
    Advertising Banners:  We have used, and will continue to use banner sponsor placements on our site.  The one place we are missing is at the top of the screen.  Of course we can always do a pop-up or slide-down style ad.  But people tend to hate these and disable them.  So, if we can add more customizable locations for these banners, it would be a big hit for our business.  
    Google & SEO:  This service is so strange and it seems to change every other quarter.  New rules all the time, and I've gone from ~$700/mo in banner income to ~$125/mo.  I have no idea why this is, but I did notice that Google doesn't do very well with active community sites (they prefer static pages I guess).  So, if you are building something new with the release of IPB5, I would be very interested to see how we can improve our SEO or even Google results.
    Forum Layout:  I *REALLY* like the new look of your forum design in IPB5.  I cannot wait to use it.  The one thing our members really appreciate are the active notifications and easy way to see how things changed over the last 24/48 hours.  The new features coming seem to compliment this very well.  Not to mention a lot of people have been asking for the light/dark mode and it will be nice to see this capability built-in rather than having to design our own.
    Community Experts:  I did see something about the addition of community experts.  VERY GOOD addition!!  In an automotive community like ours, there are always guys hanging around that are considered RL experts as well.  I'd love to give them the recognition they deserve and let people know they actually *DO* know what they are talking about.  I hope this is an 'approved only' capability as I am sure some people may request this status and don't really deserve it.  😉
    Downloads, Knowledgebase, Gallery:  These existing capabilities are huge wins for us.  Although I would like to see an update to Gallery, the majority of the existing features work very well.  I hope these stay and continue to see improvements as the product goes into the next stage.
    Blogs:  For us, the blog module has been a strange experience.  Some guys know how to use it, while other people tend to post questions and use it like a forum.  If we were to continue using blogs, it might be a great idea to make sure end-users know they are in a "blog module" rather than part of the forums.  It's hard to explain on text but honestly I think people get confused as to what a blog is versus a forum.
    All in all, I am so happy to see that I've invested with a company that is taking this product to the next level.  Your team is amazing and it's reassuring to see that private communities are still a necessary part of the Internet.  As we continue forward, please understand that I'll stick around as a long term customer.  Just don't jack up the rates too high on us.   😉
    Mike
  18. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from FanClub Mike in Things I need with Invision   
    As a community owner for over two decades, I wanted to give some personal feedback as to what I find very useful (and need) to keep my community alive. 
    Big Tech Competition:  The biggest challenge has been competing with other online services like FB, Reddit, Twitter, etc, etc.  You guys have hit the sweet spot in generating useful integrations to these services.  I would also like one for Linkedin but I'm sure that's on the radar.  With any competition like big tech, we can provide a more specialized touch to any community.  I hope we can still maintain this presence and I have a feeling IBP5 will give us even more ways to create active sites that give the big boys a run for their money.
    Monetization:  I have a specialized car club and, with Invision, I've been able to monetize our existence and pay our bills.  We are hosted on a dedicated server environment so we have our fair-share of bills.  I've looked into using a cloud-host but the costs don't justify simply putting a machine into a colo site.  We also have other bills like licensing, email services, and annual domain costs.  With the integrations to Google Adsense, Infolinks, and the paid subscription model (built into IPB), this has enabled us to pay these bills and continue well into the future.  The addition of Subscriptions has also helped us a LOT!!!!

    3rd Pary Marketplace:  I have appreciated the Invision Community capabilities with 3rd party apps (Marketplace).  However, I see these have been depreciated for the upcoming release.  Some of these modules really gave us an edge and we were able to stand out.  I fear that removing this integration may put us into a general category just like everyone else.  So, I hope the team considers opening this up again or at least making it easier for us to customize our sites to provide unique services.  Some of the more important apps for us are Member Garage, Member Maps, Classified Ads (big one), Tapatalk, and Member Info blocks (we use member numbers for members to use as discount codes to our partners).
    Advertising Banners:  We have used, and will continue to use banner sponsor placements on our site.  The one place we are missing is at the top of the screen.  Of course we can always do a pop-up or slide-down style ad.  But people tend to hate these and disable them.  So, if we can add more customizable locations for these banners, it would be a big hit for our business.  
    Google & SEO:  This service is so strange and it seems to change every other quarter.  New rules all the time, and I've gone from ~$700/mo in banner income to ~$125/mo.  I have no idea why this is, but I did notice that Google doesn't do very well with active community sites (they prefer static pages I guess).  So, if you are building something new with the release of IPB5, I would be very interested to see how we can improve our SEO or even Google results.
    Forum Layout:  I *REALLY* like the new look of your forum design in IPB5.  I cannot wait to use it.  The one thing our members really appreciate are the active notifications and easy way to see how things changed over the last 24/48 hours.  The new features coming seem to compliment this very well.  Not to mention a lot of people have been asking for the light/dark mode and it will be nice to see this capability built-in rather than having to design our own.
    Community Experts:  I did see something about the addition of community experts.  VERY GOOD addition!!  In an automotive community like ours, there are always guys hanging around that are considered RL experts as well.  I'd love to give them the recognition they deserve and let people know they actually *DO* know what they are talking about.  I hope this is an 'approved only' capability as I am sure some people may request this status and don't really deserve it.  😉
    Downloads, Knowledgebase, Gallery:  These existing capabilities are huge wins for us.  Although I would like to see an update to Gallery, the majority of the existing features work very well.  I hope these stay and continue to see improvements as the product goes into the next stage.
    Blogs:  For us, the blog module has been a strange experience.  Some guys know how to use it, while other people tend to post questions and use it like a forum.  If we were to continue using blogs, it might be a great idea to make sure end-users know they are in a "blog module" rather than part of the forums.  It's hard to explain on text but honestly I think people get confused as to what a blog is versus a forum.
    All in all, I am so happy to see that I've invested with a company that is taking this product to the next level.  Your team is amazing and it's reassuring to see that private communities are still a necessary part of the Internet.  As we continue forward, please understand that I'll stick around as a long term customer.  Just don't jack up the rates too high on us.   😉
    Mike
  19. Agree
    Mike Gholson reacted to Grafidea in Introducing a fresh new vision for Invision Community 5   
    Is there any approximate release date for version v5 yet?
  20. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from Marc Stridgen in Image Uploads Failing with Error -200   
    I just had the same problem...  it turns out my datastore was full.  I deleted a few backup files and all is good.
     
  21. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from OptimusBain in Subscription Discounts for Annual Purchase   
    Hi all,
    I currently use month-to-month pricing for my subscriptions.  I would like to provide an option to provide a discount if the user wants to pay for an annual membership.  Is there an option for this in the subscription system?  It would look something like this:
    Subscription 1 - $5/mo or $60 $50/year (discounted) Subscription 2 - $10/mo or $120 $100/year (discounted) Trick is, I want to keep these as the same subscription.  I realize I could add more subscriptions with the annual rate but I want to keep it simple for users.
    Mike
  22. Thanks
    Mike Gholson reacted to Marc Stridgen in Marketplace missing renewal button   
    For clarification, this shows as available to buy within the marketplace on ACP, and we are aware of that.  You need to renew the product, which can only be done via the marketplace here on the IPS site at present. 
  23. Thanks
    Mike Gholson reacted to Mark H in Subscription Discounts for Annual Purchase   
    No worries, I've moved the topic to the suggestions section.
  24. Thanks
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from The Old Man in Upgrading to 4.6.3 screwed up my forum!   
    If it's any consolation, I've always had problems with RSS Import process.
  25. Like
    Mike Gholson got a reaction from The Old Man in Upgrading to 4.6.3 screwed up my forum!   
    Aack..  ok thanks I will revert back then.  Appreciate having this thread...  
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