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ahc

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  1. Agree
    ahc reacted to Daddy in The numbers don’t lie: Invision Community in 2021   
    The updates this year were pretty sweet, but... This article is a bit misleading. The growth in community engagement here was due to shipping support over to the forums and from when the community came together to push back on the IPS team for radical changes with no warning or solid explanation.
    So technically engagements are up from new features, but not in a good way 😛 Either way, I love it here. Just wanted to point that out ❤️
  2. Agree
    ahc got a reaction from Cannabis Connect in Drum roll please… announcing Achievements!   
    I can't edit my comment above, but I did have an observation now after looking through the new achievements.
    Is the poor image quality forced by the system with some kind of weird compression, or did you guys just not use the right size when uploading them?  The pixels are so poorly resized you can barely read out any wording or numbering details.
  3. Like
    ahc got a reaction from Kpp in No-code automation with Zapier   
    I'm just going to be upfront with you.
    I will remain slightly bitter until the automation and gamification options we could build with Kevin's app become a fully integrated core feature. I cannot overstate just how crippling losing the 30+ custom rules I spent hours building myself was to our site. I'm a broken record about this, but you can go into my post history and find examples of how I used this app to really get Invision going to its full potential based on the needs of my community, which was a lot.
    I'm not talking about just "fun stuff" either, I'm talking about automation that increased the staff workflow tenfold, boosted engagement with custom emails and front-end notifications for too many things to list, added extra functionalities to downloads, commerce, and groups (clubs) that were missing that should come standard (in my personal opinion), etc.  And the biggest kick in the throat is that we also were able to improve on the apps that Invision barely updates, like the gallery for example. That's one of the most used apps in my community, second to pages which features a lot of gallery based content.  I know they just do basic maintenance on the other apps because forums is their bread and butter, but god damn they treat the gallery like their red-headed step child. Since moving here in 2017 I have suggested so many improvements that have fallen on deaf ears it seems.
    We've had to backtrack so much that when I heard of the Zapier integrations, it almost brought a tear to my exhausted, frustrated eyes.  Finally a light at the end of the tunnel for my community... but now it's locked behind their cloud service. 
    Invision charges $590/m for 100GB storage in their cloud service (that's the option I would have to select if I were to switch)... that is more than my yearly server and storage costs combined, and that's PER MONTH.  I pay $7/m for 1TB storage, and if I go over that, it's only an additional $6 per TB.  I don't want to leave Invision.  I'd rather just stick with the software even if it's not perfect to save my community the hassle of having to move again, but that is just very unrealistic.
  4. Like
    ahc got a reaction from Kpp in No-code automation with Zapier   
    I had to stay away from this blog for a few days as my original message was not nice at all and did not properly convey my frustration; It was just an angry, yelling rant.  This is still a rant, but a bit more coherent I suppose.
    After the botched mobile app that still to this day doesn't work outside of forums, Zapier integration was the last thing keeping us with an active license.  From the first time you guys announced the possibility up until last week, we were all led to believe that it would be something we would all have access to, and you waited until now to tell us otherwise when I'm sure you knew it was headed down this path a long time ago.  Nice little observation of you conveniently using your new community advocate to take the brunt of the backlash. (Clever, whether it was intended or not. Let's be real and not pretend like we didn't know this would be a massive controversy.)
    Invision could be so much better, but it is so behind in even simple automation and gamification at its core that it is almost quite literally painful every time I discuss it with other community managers, warning them to stay away.  The shiny extra apps do not make up for the extra workload of keeping your members engaged that other sites handle for you.  Why such a seasoned and developed paid software is being outshined by newborn open-sources in this particular department will continue to baffle me.  I can't even do super basic automation such as happy birthday emails, moving members based on banned status, or rewarding general activity without having to pay for something else that isn't officially supported!
    Moving my members over to Invision a few years ago was hell, and I don't want to subject them to that again so soon, but as of making this post, I have zero reason to ever renew again.  We were in the process of getting custom work done that required a budget in the thousands, but we'll need to rethink that investment majorly now.
  5. Agree
    ahc got a reaction from mcartemon2we23 in Drum roll please… announcing Achievements!   
    Are those... RULES I SEE?!?!
    Just 100 more to go and that automation will be chef's kiss. 

  6. Like
    ahc got a reaction from zyx in Drum roll please… announcing Achievements!   
    I can't edit my comment above, but I did have an observation now after looking through the new achievements.
    Is the poor image quality forced by the system with some kind of weird compression, or did you guys just not use the right size when uploading them?  The pixels are so poorly resized you can barely read out any wording or numbering details.
  7. Thanks
    ahc got a reaction from AlexJ in Drum roll please… announcing Achievements!   
    Are those... RULES I SEE?!?!
    Just 100 more to go and that automation will be chef's kiss. 

  8. Agree
    ahc got a reaction from SammyS in Drum roll please… announcing Achievements!   
    Are those... RULES I SEE?!?!
    Just 100 more to go and that automation will be chef's kiss. 

  9. Agree
    ahc got a reaction from gabs007 in No-code automation with Zapier   
    I'm just going to be upfront with you.
    I will remain slightly bitter until the automation and gamification options we could build with Kevin's app become a fully integrated core feature. I cannot overstate just how crippling losing the 30+ custom rules I spent hours building myself was to our site. I'm a broken record about this, but you can go into my post history and find examples of how I used this app to really get Invision going to its full potential based on the needs of my community, which was a lot.
    I'm not talking about just "fun stuff" either, I'm talking about automation that increased the staff workflow tenfold, boosted engagement with custom emails and front-end notifications for too many things to list, added extra functionalities to downloads, commerce, and groups (clubs) that were missing that should come standard (in my personal opinion), etc.  And the biggest kick in the throat is that we also were able to improve on the apps that Invision barely updates, like the gallery for example. That's one of the most used apps in my community, second to pages which features a lot of gallery based content.  I know they just do basic maintenance on the other apps because forums is their bread and butter, but god damn they treat the gallery like their red-headed step child. Since moving here in 2017 I have suggested so many improvements that have fallen on deaf ears it seems.
    We've had to backtrack so much that when I heard of the Zapier integrations, it almost brought a tear to my exhausted, frustrated eyes.  Finally a light at the end of the tunnel for my community... but now it's locked behind their cloud service. 
    Invision charges $590/m for 100GB storage in their cloud service (that's the option I would have to select if I were to switch)... that is more than my yearly server and storage costs combined, and that's PER MONTH.  I pay $7/m for 1TB storage, and if I go over that, it's only an additional $6 per TB.  I don't want to leave Invision.  I'd rather just stick with the software even if it's not perfect to save my community the hassle of having to move again, but that is just very unrealistic.
  10. Like
    ahc got a reaction from AlexJ in No-code automation with Zapier   
    @Pavel Chernitsky  Thanks for the recommendation. I am aware some of the functionality I lost can be replaced by other marketplace items, but my main point is that these things should already exist in core to be competitive at the bare minimum to a lot of cheaper/open source softwares.
    I already have so many apps/plug-ins, custom and not, that I’m constantly having to fight to play nice with each other. I’ve had to abandon a lot of customizations to make sure those that take priority don’t have conflictions. It’s a lot of wasted effort and wasted money at this point, with no disrespect to the marketplace developers. Most of the time it’s not their fault things don’t play nice. 
  11. Like
    ahc got a reaction from sobrenome in Web push notifications, native sharing & offline support   
    Just so I'm clear on this, the push notifications will not work on iPhones and iPads?
  12. Like
    ahc got a reaction from sobrenome in Web push notifications, native sharing & offline support   
    Well that’s unfortunate on their part. A large portion of my members use Apple based systems for creative purposes with their Retina display, pen, and file syncing with iCloud between devices.
    The app doesn’t work for our community. Gallery and Downloads are broken in the app, so I disabled it. 
  13. Agree
    ahc reacted to Pavel Chernitsky in No-code automation with Zapier   
    Thank you. I'm really not saying all this to whine and moan, but to stress the fact that some (I guess a sizeable chunk) of Invision's renewing clients aren't choosing to be self hosted because they're cheap or in order to "cheat you" out of money, because you guys damn well deserve this money - you made one hell of a software. We're doing it because it's the only viable option for our communities and businesses, and I think you'd agree with me on the fact we shouldn't be "punished" for that. 
    I think that if there are technical difficulties or added costs or whatever in making this integration (or any other future feature) happen for self-hosted communities, you guys (if we're already on the subject of being open, upfront and vulnerable) should just be clear and say "hey, we want do to X, but for Y type community we have A, B, C difficulties. If you want this feature you're going to have to do 1, 2, 3". Just like was the case with Elasticsearch. It says right there - you're gonna need a dedicated server to run that. Just let us choose. Choosing for us, especially when we don't really have the choice to switch to a cloud program, just feels kinda jerky 😄 
  14. Agree
    ahc reacted to Pavel Chernitsky in No-code automation with Zapier   
    I thinks @Adriano Faria's plugin can get this done for you really easily, we're using it and it works like a charm.
     
     
     
    Hey @Jordan Invision I think we're kind of missing the mark here... So I'll address snippets of what you said. Hopefully that'll make my point easier.
    No one isn't respecting it. Just to understand the reasoning behind it.
    So, it's business decision? 
    Because of technical reasons?
    That's kind of like saying gray isn't light black, it's dark white. that's the same thing.
     
    Ok, so it is a business decision?
     
    What are the reasons for you saying that? are they technical.
     
    You're right, it doesn't.
     
    No, they don't. I don't even know what "a Zapier" is. "They" just want to not be left out in the cold, and if they are going to be, they want to be talked to like adult business owners, and just hear the actual reasons for that decision and not just beating around the bush.
    I'm sure everybody here would have taken it better if you were to say "we know it's annoying, but it's such a pain to implement and maintain, and it's so full of bugs and needs so much attention, that doing that for a 100-200$ a year plan just isn't worth it to us."
  15. Like
    ahc reacted to Maxxius in Web push notifications, native sharing & offline support   
    Petition Apple so they come to their senses 😄 They're the ones slowing the rest of us down this time on this particular question.
  16. Like
    ahc reacted to Matt in Web push notifications, native sharing & offline support   
    Correct, or Safari on MacOS.

    Apple prohibit push notifications on iOS via PWA (regardless of browser you use), and they require you to register with Apple and go through their development onboarding to allow to push to MacOS.

    That's why we have a mobile app.
  17. Like
    ahc got a reaction from Matt in Web push notifications, native sharing & offline support   
    Just so I'm clear on this, the push notifications will not work on iPhones and iPads?
  18. Like
    ahc got a reaction from Ibai in Web push notifications, native sharing & offline support   
    Just so I'm clear on this, the push notifications will not work on iPhones and iPads?
  19. Like
    ahc reacted to Matt in No-code automation with Zapier   
    @ahc I appreciate your honesty and passion here. As @Jordan Invisionsaid, we are currently building out an achievements system that finally brings gamification to Invision Community. It won't be a direct replacement for the Rules app, but it'll go some way to bring back some functionality for you.

    And it won't be locked to Invision ☁️ Communities.

    (Jordan is training me on how to use emoji, sorry everyone)
  20. Like
    ahc reacted to Pavel Chernitsky in No-code automation with Zapier   
    I'm not, in any way, trying to be overly critical or harsh, but that post is pretty much 100% verbal fluff and no actual actionable content. We're all adults here, and we're all (I guess) community managers ourselves and know fluff when we see it. Maybe it's my Israeli no-bullcrap-"chutzpah" talking, but I'd would LOVE it if you could point out some of the actual technical reasons that led to making this decision, and how Invision is looking to proceed from here - is this feature never going to be available for self-hosted clients? Are you wanting to implement some sort of alternative? What's the probability of there being more of those cases in the future? Are you at all interested in doing the work needed to get hard-to-implement features available for self-hosted clients or will you put those efforts into more seamlessly integrating them for cloud clients?
     
    I know what I'm saying might come off as harsh or rude, but you have to understand that none of us (I hope) bought the IPS suite as a single time purchase and "the next time" we buy a community software "we'll try something else". This isn't a bottle of shampoo, we're all making long-term plans based on your software, some of us have businesses involving actual money and peoples' jobs and livelihoods relying on it. So "being vulnerable" is nice and all, but it can't be taken to the bank, and is - honestly - kind of insulting. This whole interaction needs to be WAY more pragmatic and way less like we're a community of 10 year olds getting together to have a great time.
  21. Like
    ahc got a reaction from Sonya* in No-code automation with Zapier   
    I'm just going to be upfront with you.
    I will remain slightly bitter until the automation and gamification options we could build with Kevin's app become a fully integrated core feature. I cannot overstate just how crippling losing the 30+ custom rules I spent hours building myself was to our site. I'm a broken record about this, but you can go into my post history and find examples of how I used this app to really get Invision going to its full potential based on the needs of my community, which was a lot.
    I'm not talking about just "fun stuff" either, I'm talking about automation that increased the staff workflow tenfold, boosted engagement with custom emails and front-end notifications for too many things to list, added extra functionalities to downloads, commerce, and groups (clubs) that were missing that should come standard (in my personal opinion), etc.  And the biggest kick in the throat is that we also were able to improve on the apps that Invision barely updates, like the gallery for example. That's one of the most used apps in my community, second to pages which features a lot of gallery based content.  I know they just do basic maintenance on the other apps because forums is their bread and butter, but god damn they treat the gallery like their red-headed step child. Since moving here in 2017 I have suggested so many improvements that have fallen on deaf ears it seems.
    We've had to backtrack so much that when I heard of the Zapier integrations, it almost brought a tear to my exhausted, frustrated eyes.  Finally a light at the end of the tunnel for my community... but now it's locked behind their cloud service. 
    Invision charges $590/m for 100GB storage in their cloud service (that's the option I would have to select if I were to switch)... that is more than my yearly server and storage costs combined, and that's PER MONTH.  I pay $7/m for 1TB storage, and if I go over that, it's only an additional $6 per TB.  I don't want to leave Invision.  I'd rather just stick with the software even if it's not perfect to save my community the hassle of having to move again, but that is just very unrealistic.
  22. Like
    ahc got a reaction from AlexJ in No-code automation with Zapier   
    I'm just going to be upfront with you.
    I will remain slightly bitter until the automation and gamification options we could build with Kevin's app become a fully integrated core feature. I cannot overstate just how crippling losing the 30+ custom rules I spent hours building myself was to our site. I'm a broken record about this, but you can go into my post history and find examples of how I used this app to really get Invision going to its full potential based on the needs of my community, which was a lot.
    I'm not talking about just "fun stuff" either, I'm talking about automation that increased the staff workflow tenfold, boosted engagement with custom emails and front-end notifications for too many things to list, added extra functionalities to downloads, commerce, and groups (clubs) that were missing that should come standard (in my personal opinion), etc.  And the biggest kick in the throat is that we also were able to improve on the apps that Invision barely updates, like the gallery for example. That's one of the most used apps in my community, second to pages which features a lot of gallery based content.  I know they just do basic maintenance on the other apps because forums is their bread and butter, but god damn they treat the gallery like their red-headed step child. Since moving here in 2017 I have suggested so many improvements that have fallen on deaf ears it seems.
    We've had to backtrack so much that when I heard of the Zapier integrations, it almost brought a tear to my exhausted, frustrated eyes.  Finally a light at the end of the tunnel for my community... but now it's locked behind their cloud service. 
    Invision charges $590/m for 100GB storage in their cloud service (that's the option I would have to select if I were to switch)... that is more than my yearly server and storage costs combined, and that's PER MONTH.  I pay $7/m for 1TB storage, and if I go over that, it's only an additional $6 per TB.  I don't want to leave Invision.  I'd rather just stick with the software even if it's not perfect to save my community the hassle of having to move again, but that is just very unrealistic.
  23. Like
    ahc got a reaction from LiquidFractal in No-code automation with Zapier   
    I'm just going to be upfront with you.
    I will remain slightly bitter until the automation and gamification options we could build with Kevin's app become a fully integrated core feature. I cannot overstate just how crippling losing the 30+ custom rules I spent hours building myself was to our site. I'm a broken record about this, but you can go into my post history and find examples of how I used this app to really get Invision going to its full potential based on the needs of my community, which was a lot.
    I'm not talking about just "fun stuff" either, I'm talking about automation that increased the staff workflow tenfold, boosted engagement with custom emails and front-end notifications for too many things to list, added extra functionalities to downloads, commerce, and groups (clubs) that were missing that should come standard (in my personal opinion), etc.  And the biggest kick in the throat is that we also were able to improve on the apps that Invision barely updates, like the gallery for example. That's one of the most used apps in my community, second to pages which features a lot of gallery based content.  I know they just do basic maintenance on the other apps because forums is their bread and butter, but god damn they treat the gallery like their red-headed step child. Since moving here in 2017 I have suggested so many improvements that have fallen on deaf ears it seems.
    We've had to backtrack so much that when I heard of the Zapier integrations, it almost brought a tear to my exhausted, frustrated eyes.  Finally a light at the end of the tunnel for my community... but now it's locked behind their cloud service. 
    Invision charges $590/m for 100GB storage in their cloud service (that's the option I would have to select if I were to switch)... that is more than my yearly server and storage costs combined, and that's PER MONTH.  I pay $7/m for 1TB storage, and if I go over that, it's only an additional $6 per TB.  I don't want to leave Invision.  I'd rather just stick with the software even if it's not perfect to save my community the hassle of having to move again, but that is just very unrealistic.
  24. Like
    ahc got a reaction from Steph40 in No-code automation with Zapier   
    I'm just going to be upfront with you.
    I will remain slightly bitter until the automation and gamification options we could build with Kevin's app become a fully integrated core feature. I cannot overstate just how crippling losing the 30+ custom rules I spent hours building myself was to our site. I'm a broken record about this, but you can go into my post history and find examples of how I used this app to really get Invision going to its full potential based on the needs of my community, which was a lot.
    I'm not talking about just "fun stuff" either, I'm talking about automation that increased the staff workflow tenfold, boosted engagement with custom emails and front-end notifications for too many things to list, added extra functionalities to downloads, commerce, and groups (clubs) that were missing that should come standard (in my personal opinion), etc.  And the biggest kick in the throat is that we also were able to improve on the apps that Invision barely updates, like the gallery for example. That's one of the most used apps in my community, second to pages which features a lot of gallery based content.  I know they just do basic maintenance on the other apps because forums is their bread and butter, but god damn they treat the gallery like their red-headed step child. Since moving here in 2017 I have suggested so many improvements that have fallen on deaf ears it seems.
    We've had to backtrack so much that when I heard of the Zapier integrations, it almost brought a tear to my exhausted, frustrated eyes.  Finally a light at the end of the tunnel for my community... but now it's locked behind their cloud service. 
    Invision charges $590/m for 100GB storage in their cloud service (that's the option I would have to select if I were to switch)... that is more than my yearly server and storage costs combined, and that's PER MONTH.  I pay $7/m for 1TB storage, and if I go over that, it's only an additional $6 per TB.  I don't want to leave Invision.  I'd rather just stick with the software even if it's not perfect to save my community the hassle of having to move again, but that is just very unrealistic.
  25. Like
    ahc reacted to LiquidFractal in No-code automation with Zapier   
    @Jordan Invision, first off, thanks for responding and taking into account what you call the "justifiable outrage" here.  For the record, I myself don't feel "outrage" so much as a bit of anxiety that this is the beginning of a larger trend, under the rubric of "business decisions," to exclude self-hosted clients - not so much from core apps, but from key improvements and developments that keep the suite attuned to the evolving needs of communities.  Tell me I'm wrong, because this isn't something I particularly want to be right about!
    So I'm somewhat disappointed: I understand the necessity of "business decisions," but as a long-term customer I can say that I've been waiting for something like this for quite some time since Kevin Carwile's unannounced and profoundly disappointing abandonment of his apps.  Not to say I know what's best for Invision of course, and I get the appeal of outsourcing, but speaking as a customer I can't help but think that this particular aspect of gamification really is not something which should be outsourced, or should only be outsourced in the short term.
    In the longer term, I suspect it may be a far more powerful selling point to be able to have (and advertise) it as a native feature, which would ensure its development in step with the Invision suite so that key parts of the CMS aren't beholden to a third-party company for whom Invision is just one of many clients.  I don't know the CMS market, but I ask the question out loud: could this put Invision in a unique position, having inbuilt gamification and triggers/actions?  I realise it isn't something you can just add to Invision overnight and that it would take extensive development, testing, troubleshooting etc., but I (and I think others here) believe that it would be well worth it in the long term.
    Anyway, just my two cents.  I'm still here until they kick me out of the place!
    EDIT: upon thinking this over, I want to ask if I'm talking about two different things?  Is Zapier Invision's answer to a point-system style "gamification," or is this separate from Zapier?
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