Kpp

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.

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.

I've been with you since the days of Ikonboard, so you I love you. However, I'm starting to grow concerned after reading that IPS have made a specific, conscious decision to start restricting features (albeit with the first) to cloud-hosted SAAS customers. It's perhaps akin the to the controversial Marketplace changes. As a multi-license customer, I'm saddened that there is a visible "It's our way, or the highway" style approach that seems to be increasing these days.
This statement feels like it could be the start of a paradigm shift, and if so, one that I'm concerned is edging gradually towards a pretty slippery slope. I'm concerned that a moment of realisation will inevitably follow such a shift, where more of the latest, long awaited or most requested features could no longer be available to self-hosted clients.
I realise with SAAS you have more or even total overall control of the environment which is good from a support perspective, and it's been stated that if you could have a do-over with today's tech, SAAS would be the way to go from the outset.
SAAS certainly has its benefits, to both sides of the provider/customer fence, don't get me wrong, but I still find the cloud-hosted IPS on offer here (which as your main showcase, it should be super slick, speedier than The Flash using a bathroom and instantly responsive), to be more sluggish and generally slower than many self-hosted sites I come across; even though I'm using a 40Mbps fibre connection (thanks rip off, overselling BT, I'm still paying for that 80Mbps Infinity 2 connection, you know... yeah, that's right, you hear me!).
And then there's this risk, it does happen...

On the way to the point where more features are restricted, how many restricted features will it take before self-hosted clients begin to feel like they are getting the light version or feel less valued. The software is expensive (aside from a couple of the recurring add-ons which a fairly priced), self-hosted clients money is of course just as good as that of SAAS clients, and after all, wasn't it the self-hosted user base that helped get IPS to where it is today? So I would ask IPS to at least consider this approach and also, if you propose removing lesser used large features from products (like Commerce) that's fine but please don't forget to reduce the price accordingly.
Thanks for listening.

This is a bit of a slap in the face to self hosted clients. Nothing to celebrate here. 👎

We are actually in the process of revamping our cloud plans to be much more generous with data storage and are considering other metrics as the headline differentiator.

Very good improvement, step in the right direction of course! Congrats!
However I did not understand if it will be possible to change the layout as we see fit? Take for example like WPBakery where you can set how you want it 1/2 + 1/2 or 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 and so on instead of being forced to have this 2/3 (main center area) + 1/3 (sidebar).

I think it is a waste of your resources for v5... but good to see you have taken this direction... I hope you consider a editor that is like Gutenberg into wordpress (it include tinycme editor and inline option and MORE support old bbcode into new blocks)

This is a good possibility, but not as elementor!
 

Hi @opentype and all,
here's my wish list for Pages. Of course I know that everyone has different requirements and that a change from WordPress to Pages requires compromises.  But let me share my complete wishlist 😉
I use WordPress in its current version. That means: with the Gutenberg editor. I quickly got used to the blocks of the Gutenberg-Editor, I like them. But they are not a must-have. A must-have is an editor that lets me formatting subheadings (h2-h6). Elements like quotations or a picture gallery must be able to be displayed even in the middle of an article. We need more possibilities for interaction in articles - polls, surveys, forms etc. Schema.org markers as FAQ or How-to must be possible. SEO features are a must, and I mean more than meta keywords and meta description as now, but also SEO title, SEO description, settings for no-follow etc. per article. Another must-have for Pages is AMP. An absolute must-have. A good thing would be the possibility to have a "Table of content" by default, which can be switched off per article. (here's the WordPress equivalent). For images in articles it is essential that additional fields are available in the editor (alt text, title, caption, credit, license, image source as URL as in this WordPress plugin). These fields should be displayed at the end of the article (except the caption, of course). Images used in Pages must be better managed and SEO-optimized.  A very German problem is the VG Wort Zählpixel in posts. But this could be realized with an additional field in Pages. A special requirement for us is that the date of the last update should always be displayed in addition to the date of publication. But this can be solved in the template. Other candidates on my wish list concern the whole suite and so Pages too.
Better 404 management (or anyway a 404 management) Better tag pages, which can also be found in a sitemap. With the possibility of editing. With an intro text, an image and SEO functions (title, description, no-follow settings...). And perhaps with customizable sections, for example with 5 entries each from pages, forum, clubs, calendar... Multiple Forms Better newsletter management also for automated mailings (Popular right now, Member suggestions for you, because they wrote in the same forums or clubs or with the same keywords or because they are near me...