AlexWebsites

Hi guys, is there a plan to support social media promotion to LinkedIn ?  I see we have one for Facebook and it's working great.  Just wanted to expand it to the business community on Linkedin via my company page.  Is that possible?

You need the pages app for that and can use the blocks across the IPS suite. This is standalone app to create a landing page (front page) with lots of blocks/custom content. 

Login to cpanel for your site/account and see:

Go to the backup wizard and click backup:

 
Optionally go to just backup and do the same and then maybe back up your databases as well separately. Its pretty straight forward.

 

Hey @AlexWebsites!
There's no member filter yet, but I can add this for sure! It is indeed cached as other blocks are. (It utilizes a permissions based cache, like forums widgets and so on.)

Login to cpanel for your site/account and see:

Go to the backup wizard and click backup:

 
Optionally go to just backup and do the same and then maybe back up your databases as well separately. Its pretty straight forward.

 

Hello @AlexWebsites I have activated Web Application Firewall. with this configuration:
Package: OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set - >Sensitivity:Medium -> Action:Challenge.
The CloudFlare Firewall block the notification to the endpoint. This is the Log:
25 Feb, 2020 23:31:03 Challenge Ireland 54.240.197.117 WAF Ray ID 56ad2093fb2f2973 Method POST HTTP Version HTTP/1.1 Host www.mywebsite.com Path /forum/applications/bouncer/interface/amazon/sns.php Query string Empty query string User agent Amazon Simple Notification Service Agent IP address 54.240.197.117 ASN AS16509 AMAZON-02 Country Ireland Service WAF Rule ID OWASP Block (981176) Rule message Inbound Anomaly Score Exceeded (Total Score: 55, SQLi=6, XSS=15) Rule group OWASP Inbound Blocking Action taken Challenge Export event JSON Additional logs 26 07 · No description available Log WAF 03 · No description available Log WAF 900001 · No description available OWASP Setup Log WAF 900002 · No description available OWASP Setup Log WAF 900006 · No description available OWASP Setup Log WAF 900012 · No description available OWASP Setup Log WAF 960010 · Request content type is not allowed by policy OWASP HTTP Policy Log WAF 960015 · Request Missing an Accept Header OWASP Protocol Anomalies Log WAF 960024 · Meta-Character Anomaly Detection Alert - Repetative Non-Word Characters OWASP Generic Attacks Log WAF 950120 · Possible Remote File Inclusion (RFI) Attack: Off-Domain Reference/Link OWASP Generic Attacks Log WAF 981133 · Prequalify PM OWASP Generic Attacks Log WAF 981305 · SQL from OWASP SQL Injection Attacks Log WAF 981257 · Detects MySQL comment-/space-obfuscated injections and backtick termination OWASP SQL Injection Attacks Log WAF 981245 · Detects basic SQL authentication bypass attempts 2/3 OWASP SQL Injection Attacks Log WAF 981242 · Detects classic SQL injection probings 1/2 OWASP SQL Injection Attacks Log WAF 981246 · Detects basic SQL authentication bypass attempts 3/3 OWASP SQL Injection Attacks Log WAF 981243 · Detects classic SQL injection probings 2/2 OWASP SQL Injection Attacks Log WAF uri-981136 · Check simple XSS patterns OWASP Uri XSS Attacks Log WAF 981136 · Check simple XSS patterns OWASP XSS Attacks Log WAF 973333 · IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected OWASP XSS Attacks Log WAF 973344 · IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected OWASP XSS Attacks Log WAF 973332 · IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected OWASP XSS Attacks Log WAF 2000000 · Skip Joomla Rules OWASP Slr Et Joomla Attacks Log WAF 2000001 · Skip LFI Rules OWASP Slr Et Lfi Attacks Log WAF 2000004 · Skip SQLi Rules OWASP Slr Et SQLi Attacks Log WAF 2000006 · Skip XSS Rules OWASP Slr Et XSS Attacks Log WAF The solution is create a Bypass Rule for the Firewall. In my case:

Hello, After nearly three months, we have solved the problem, thanks to the @stoo2000 invaluable help.
I must publicly thank to @stoo2000 for the support. Answering each email, and even contacting himself with Amazon support.
Finally It was a Cloudflare Firewall issue.
I must emphasize the dedication, interest and time spent by @stoo2000 all this time.
Thank you very much.

 

Everything is posted in my first reply is set up once and then it runs automated. The only thing manual is if you have direct sales that you manage via DFP (Admanager).  I would always use Admanager up front since you will end up there if you scale.  AdSense is integrated. You can set it up to keep your reporting in AdSense. 

This is a good topic and thanks for sharing your experience. I'm using mostly adsense with a mix of amazon affiliate network, and some ad networks like pixfuture. I have a new ad network reaching out once a week but I just don't have time to keep switching around, probably better I just incorporate some bidding. I'm thinking of using google ad manager and building a new strategy and thanks to @Fast Lane! just looked at Amazon UAM and inquired. Not sure what their minimums are.
 

Here is what we do, at a high level.  We are fairly optimized but there are many alternate routes that can obtain great performance.  Ezoic is a good example.  Avoid passbacks -- use header/server-server bidding.  Passbacks kill CPM.
We leverage Google Ad Manager as our ad server (previously known as DFP).  We use header bidding via the opensource prebid.js script.  We have roughly 5 header bidding partners in the stack.  You have to negotiate these deals one by one and can get better splits with them (20-25%).  In addition to this we fold server-server bidding into the prebid header via both Amazon (UAM in this case, https://aps.amazon.com/aps/index.html) and Media.net.  Google adsense competes with everything on a price priority level.  Basically, Adsense has incredible fill (every impression almost always filled) but not always the highest rates (and they take a ~32% cut).  ref: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/180195?hl=en
If you are not familiar with header bidding (or server to server) it works like this.  On every page load the header bidding code (prebid.js for example) will query all your header bidding ad partners for them to "bid" on your on-page inventory in a "blind" fashion (best bid without knowing what anyone else bids).  As a part of your header, the server-server auction occurs as well where those ad networks/partners will provide their bids.  After a set time (typically you set to around 700ms or so) the auction ends and all bids are passed back to Google Ad Manager.  Google also then bids on your inventory (blind to the other bids).  The highest bid wins.  Since your header bidding ad partners typically pay more but have less "fill" you end up with a situation where they win say 10-30% of the time and pay you a lot more on a CPM basis (and you may negotiate a cut of 20-25% with them versus 32% to Adsense).  The rest of the time adsense will win and fill the remaining inventory.  The net effect is you make more.
If I had to pick one network to use if you don't have time for many others, then I'd probably pick Amazon UAM in concert with Admanager, with adsense set up in price priorty.  AUM has a solid set of ad networks they pull in, and they also allow direct Amazon ads (re-targeting, yay!) to your users which convert and hence pay well.  There are no pass-backs since in this config its actually all server-server bidding w/ Admanager and adsense competing on price priority.
So back to the forum.  Some ideas.
Mobile:
320x50 (or 100) ad above the topic but under the topic title.  300x250 ad under post 1.  Another 300x250 ad somewhere around post 8 (assume 15 posts per page).  300x250 ad under the last post but before the reply box.  On the index and forums pages, put a 320x50/100 at the top and one at the bottom.  On the forum index if you have tons of forums then place an ad in the middle between categories.
Desktop:
Do the above, but use 728x90 ads instead of 320x50/100 and 300x250.  Also ad a 160x600 ad unit on topic pages on the right.  Make sure (this is important) that in the Admanager code you have custom ad sizes for each browser width. This is important so when someone shrinks the screen and IPB hides the right column in the responsive view, that ad is not called on a page load.  That can be a major no no. You do this as follows in the page header (ref Google docs for more info.. this is just the key code elements):
for browsers wider than 980 pixels show the 160x600 pixel ad.  Else show nothing (no ad)
var mapping_skyscraper = googletag.sizeMapping(). addSize([980, 200], [160, 600]). addSize([0, 0], []). build(); googletag.defineSlot('/123456/Forums-Topic-Side', [160, 600], 'div-gpt-ad-123456-1').defineSizeMapping(mapping_skyscraper).addService(googletag.pubads()); Also, to show mobile ads versus desktop it is as simple as mapping like below, where above 768 pixels wide will show the 728x90 ad and below that will show a 300x250 ad unit (on page load):
var mapping_leader_rectangle = googletag.sizeMapping(). addSize([768, 200], [728, 90]). addSize([0, 0], [300, 250]). Now more advanced, you can do things like put conditional statements in the templates to not show certain ad units to members with post counts higher than some amount.  I find that useful to reward frequent posters.  Or you can filter by groups.  This is all custom but not that hard.
Hope that helps some.  I didn't proof my above notes too well so pardon any short hand or typos!
 
 
Note, I'm not sure on the UAM minimum page views to be accepted.  If they don't let ya in then you can certainly find many header bidding partners that will let you in.  
https://www.google.com/search?q=best+header+bidding+partners

ipsfocus themes always seem to use custom elements and css throwing IPS out of the window, I only ever has issues with them themes and 95% of my elements with match IPS css, I send you a message I can send you a custom.css code probably to add to that theme
Each block has a unique ID now too so you could only add the css edit to that block only and not all other blocks what use the same elements
body[data-pageapp="landingpage"] div#block_39.landingpage_blocks > aElementAfterThe.landingpage_blocks { your code } body[data-pageapp="landingpage"] div#block_39.landingpage_blocks > aElementAfterThe.landingpage_blocks > maybeAnotherElementAfter { your code } with the block_39 being unique to that block

If your images are squashed with the carousel try adding to custom.css
/* Landing Page */
body[data-pageapp="landingpage"] .ipsColumns > *:only-child{
    flex: 1 1 1%;
}
I have a custom theme from ipsfocus and was having a similar issue.

for next update

Yes. TikTok embedding is in 4.5.

Updated to 1.1.3
New Features
Live Streams
Admin created chatrooms / club chatrooms / member chatrooms can embed a live stream into their chatroom Add a live stream from a choice of 5 popular streaming sites ( More to come ) Twitch Mixer Smashcast Youtube Streaming Facebook Live The video stream division can be dragged and moved around the users screen by dragging the header of the stream around the screen Members can change the size of the video by dragging any side or corner of the stream and expanding the size ( This will inherit the aspect ratio of the video stream )

I'll add a new block what will show the latest posts

Would be nice to have better video upload ability for users and automatic conversion and such. Back in the day I used to used FFMPEG but it was never as good as the mainstream video platforms and people nowadays default to uploading to youtube and other "large" platforms. I would be interested in cloudflare streaming even if it was a third party app for a video gallery. I'd like to see something like where if a user posts a video to a topic or other area, it embeds it within the post/comment, but lives in the gallery or a video section and not as an attachment. Even for images that get attached, something during the upload process to also add it to gallery at the same time.

Sorry, Completly forgot about that, will do it for the next update, Speaking of which

Each content block will have a setting to choose if you want to display them in the normal style grids or as a carousel, the carousel sections only use 1 width size ( 300px ) unlike the grids what will be sized depending on the amount of content it shows

This would be good to show the benefit or free vs paid. Currently to get a block like this you need to create the package in commerce at $0.00. If using subscriptions, you end up having a free subscription. I would be for this as well, if it’s possible.
I wish IPS had this feature built in to subscriptions.

All sounds good, looking forward to the updates!

One last thing, with the Nexus Packages, would you be able to add a default register block which we could customise?

So you'd have [REGISTER] - [NEXUS PACK 1] - [NEXUS PACK 2]
So the register block would be a normal sign up, then next to it would include any of the packages we've selected.

This was we can show the benefits of registering to signing up as a paid member.

Amazon SES is very cost effective for large communities. I haven’t tried gsuite outside of small clients I’ve helped. I’m not sure what the cost would be especially if you sent a newsletter out to thousands of members. Email reputation is a huge part of deliverability, so I also use mailbouncer. The main reason I mention Amazon SES API is because posting delays seem to happen more with SMTP than an API method.

Thing is my sender reputation with Sendgrid was a solid 98%-99% and I still had issues. May just be bad luck on my part, but two weeks with constant support tickets coming in about Hotmail clients not getting validation e-mails made me cut ties only two months after signing up with them.
Amazon SES is definitely cost effective and their deliverability rates may be better, I don't know. It's really hard to find good data on raw delivery rates between these services outside of what's anecdotal.
GSuite I think is amazing for standard notification e-mails for medium to large forums but definitely is not a solution if you need to batch out 10k+ e-mails in a single day.
That said, I do 100% support adding native Amazon SES integration into IPS, as it is a very reputable solution especially for corporate/enterprise clients and does deserve its own spot beside Sendgrid.

I moved to GSuite myself from Sendgrid. Paying $20/month just to get issues with Hotmail e-mails being blocked because of IP reputation issues caused by other clients, and I'm sure not paying $100/month just for a dedicated IP so I can avoid issues I had less often sending mail locally from my server.

Google Suite seems to just work. You also get to set an avatar for users that use the GMail app to see. I considered Amazon SES before moving to GSuite but never have tried it, so not sure how the deliverability is in comparison.
The main limitations with GSuite are that it's a little more of a pain to set up, it requires SMTP (there's no API, though I mean, it's Google, so even their SMTP servers are reasonably fast) and there's hard-capped sending limits (3,000/day was the old advertised limit for G Suite but I've seen posts suggesting it can be up to 10,000/day).

I hope solved. @stoo2000 is is trying his best to make it work in Amazon SES, but we don't get it.

Well that was a huge pain in the butt and there was no support given here.
BUT, I got it working and it's AWESOME. My reputation is now squeaky clean!!
For anyone willing to dive in and try to make this work with their Amazing SES account, the potential rewards are huge. It's worth it!!!
Thank you @stoo2000 !!!!!