SJ77

So this has nothing to do with the day my wife convinced me that we should get married? oh well. Still a good article I suppose 😊

So this has nothing to do with the day my wife convinced me that we should get married? oh well. Still a good article I suppose 😊

I always see it as a literal “evolutionary” process. I constantly try out new “mutations”, i.e. features. If they turn out to be beneficial, I might put more work into them and make them more prominent. If they do not work, I scale them back slowly (e.g. by first demoting them in the menus) and remove them eventually. There certainly is a danger in adding too much stuff. Not just in regards to the software conflicts you will get, but also in the way you confuse your users. I even have tons of “display:none” declarations in my theme to hide stock functionality. Often less is more. 

@Joel R Just to be clear, I don't really have 98% of the marketplace as the rumor @Rhett has started. Maybe only 96% LOL .. I kid.
Hey someone has to keep the 3rd party folks funded!!! I'm an altruist dammit!!!
Realistically I have lately been limiting it to things I really need that my clients depend on. Right now I have 4.4 running  smoothly with a paired back limited set of specialized plugins that are supported very well by the BEST developers we have here. 
However, I have made similar rookie mistakes back in my SMF/phpbb .. specifically phpBB I had so many modifications I ended up basically destroying the site. 😞
I don't want to get too philosophical but there are conflicting interests at play here. From the IPB perspective they need the software to be GENERAL so that it will run well and suit the needs of the widest audience possible. However as a site owner you need the opposite. You need your site to be very unique, targeted and specific. This is how you can best appeal to your niche and win in your market. That can only be achieved with 3rd party plugins.
IPS knows this and have done a VERY good job at making their software (all things considered) bullet proof. It handles the 3rd party stuff in a genius way with specific hooks and deals with the change very well. Clever enable/disable features really help.
Great article Joel!!!! 🙂 🙂

@Joel R Just to be clear, I don't really have 98% of the marketplace as the rumor @Rhett has started. Maybe only 96% LOL .. I kid.
Hey someone has to keep the 3rd party folks funded!!! I'm an altruist dammit!!!
Realistically I have lately been limiting it to things I really need that my clients depend on. Right now I have 4.4 running  smoothly with a paired back limited set of specialized plugins that are supported very well by the BEST developers we have here. 
However, I have made similar rookie mistakes back in my SMF/phpbb .. specifically phpBB I had so many modifications I ended up basically destroying the site. 😞
I don't want to get too philosophical but there are conflicting interests at play here. From the IPB perspective they need the software to be GENERAL so that it will run well and suit the needs of the widest audience possible. However as a site owner you need the opposite. You need your site to be very unique, targeted and specific. This is how you can best appeal to your niche and win in your market. That can only be achieved with 3rd party plugins.
IPS knows this and have done a VERY good job at making their software (all things considered) bullet proof. It handles the 3rd party stuff in a genius way with specific hooks and deals with the change very well. Clever enable/disable features really help.
Great article Joel!!!! 🙂 🙂

Facts!!
Thank you for this Joel.
 
One of our "Rookie Mistakes" back in 2017 was that we tried to have every single app and plugin that the marketplace offered, then try to "cram" it all into One place, not creating "doors" that led into other places to find "More"
Also we were changing Themes way to much and too often
 
Now, we have staff meetings every week, we have each staff member familiar with IPS and it's Powerful Core Features, then they are always going thru the marketplace to research key apps and plugins to make sure they are needed, not needed, and pro's vs con's of having them

I think a lot of us overdose on the Marketplace (looking at you @SJ77!!) And I'm guilty if this too (sorry Tier 1 support!!) but I do believe that as long as you have a significant reason for the Marketplace app or plugin then you'll be fine.  
Its one thing to install something like a Member of the Month app where it's a central component of your community activity, versus an app that you think will magically run itself.  And that's where I think a lot of us get into trouble with the big apps or plugins, where we don't invest the time or energy or strategy to make it a central focus.  
Great point.  This goes to the new article by @Matt on Primark Cafe where they're creating new experiences.  
You see this with malls in the United States, where instead of the same boring department stores they're inviting more "pop up" stores for unique and changing experiences.  
From my own life, I just spent the weekend shopping at Ikea.  I don't furniture shop at all, but my friend dragged me to the store - and whoa!  For anybody who does not know about Ikea's furniture stores, it's not a store -- it's an experience.  You're eating Swedish meatballs, the kids are in the play area, you're on their walking tour of Swedish ingenuity, you're surrounded by these amazing full room installations of new cabinets and lighting and pillows and furniture that are perfectly curated, and by the end of the day, your life goal is to sell your home, move to Sweden, and rent an 800 square foot economy space just so you can redecorate a multi purpose living / kitchen / bedroom and install one of their crazy lighting fixtures and your life really won't be complete until you do so.  
You still need to offer functional value to your members as a fundamental reason to visit your community.  But layered on top of that functional value is how you want to deliver, present, and delight your users.  Whether that's Instagram-ready visuals, a compelling tour through your site, or Swedish meatballs 🤣, that's the hard part of creating a unique community experience.  

One of the navigation tabs on my site says "Forums"... Should I be thinking about relabeling it? Maybe I can call it "Conversations"  (or something) @Matt

For me, conversations are between two parties/people, and might be confused to messages. Thats why i called them Discussions. But if Forum is not a problem for your community, i don't see any reason why to change it - it would be very interesting to see if activity in the forum increased after renaming them!
Also, a tip - renaming the lable was one small part of this. I went through the language file, and replaced all Forum with Discussion, forums with discussions, forum to discussion etc. Took a little time, but was worth it. Only place that users see the word forum now is in the URL and i don't think they notice

Only the main Commerce storefront right now.
Sydney 😘 I will accept all kisses on behalf of the team.
 

I applied for Braintree long ago and they denied me with zero explanation. Only said my site was unfit. No option for appeal. They can kiss my ***

I can’t wait for this!! 🤘😀

I applied for Braintree long ago and they denied me with zero explanation. Only said my site was unfit. No option for appeal. They can kiss my ***

I applied for Braintree long ago and they denied me with zero explanation. Only said my site was unfit. No option for appeal. They can kiss my ***

Those filters would be extremely useful in all apps that uses custom fields, since we can’t search for them, but it will be a Commerce thing only.

I think IPS also needs to improve their video embeds *cough cough*

Still waiting for proper EU support of Commerce (i.e. taxation based on B2B/B2C clients with live VAT ID checks). Until then, no filters, widgets or other details will make a substantial difference. 

It means @onlyME made some good money while it lasted.  
Tons of prior Marketplace mods are now part of the core ... Content ratings by @newbie LAC, Group Collaboration by @Kevin Carwile, Names 2 Avatar by @CodingJungle.  

Yes. ?

This site. 

Alright I've been waiting YEARS for 5.2.1 and this is just getting ridiculous. How much longer must I wait?!

I am hoping that discounts can be provided for downloads purchases based on which member group someone is in. Thus the subscription will be a VIP group that gets discounts (X% off) on everything.

1) We clean up the files no longer used on upgrade automatically.
2) The option shows up right next to the 'Set credit on all' button, but Matt must have had tagging disabled/been submitting as a user without permission when taking the screenshot.

1. Storage of copies -- will that be a retroactive process to existing images or can we run the rebuild tool? 
2. How do we batch apply tags? I didnt see anything in the screenshots.