rodege5389

I've been around a long time too,  a lot of us have. There is no 'attack here' we're simply expressing our views. As Lindy has said in the past many times... Express our views and it's taken on board and sometimes changed. We have seen it, sometimes it doesn't change but if we do not speak out, nothing gets 'changed' and sometimes, that can be for the worse.

It's nice to see that I am not the only one, not liking the idea to not be able to download the files manually, or have an active licence in order to download files or updates to them.

So, is the 20% commission that you are earning off the Marketplace purchases just an exaggerated number from some of the developers?

I had an inactive license for over a year because there was nothing significant enough to warrant the extra $190 we would have spent.
I was able to purchase and download files from the marketplace the entire time right up until 4.5 Beta 1 came out. All of a sudden I was locked out of things I had just paid for or renewed. I sent in a ticket and was told that this was always the intended behavior and that if I had access to purchase, renew, and download files before with an inactive license, it was in error.
So.. which one is the truth?

This I agree with and this is how it used to be before IPS got greedy. When security patches were released, most of the time it was just one file that you would just easily download and replace on your environment. However, I expect them to come back with some cover-up excuses about why it shouldn't be that way anymore, but hopefully they will surprise me.

I'd really like to see IPS take action against a prolific site offering nulled versions of IPS, that seems to have existed for a decade or more despite being discussed here in the forums. Not doing so is almost like turning a blind eye, essentially a slap in the face for all of us who are loyal clients but also struggle to keep the lights on at IPS and our communities. Get them shut down, blacklisted from Google, whatever you can. 
Regarding security patches for fixing vulnerabilities, I believe they should be removed from point releases and instead made available separately for free through the Support Tool, especially with auto updates coming closer. You should NEVER, EVER have to renew a licence to ensure your member's data is safe and your site is secure, especially after you have paid a lot of money for professionally developed quality software with increased security in the first place.
Thats an instant PR win for IPS, right there. 🙂

You are correct, I did not include elastic search.
I'm not trying to argue with anyone, just expressing my frustration.
Every now and then there is a thread with many responses and a title like "Formus are dead" or "Facebook is taking over".
I run three sites.  I make almost no money and spend a lot of time keeping the sites active.  This is one more financial hit.
It's no wonder "Forums are dying", it's really hard for them to survive.

That's not entirely true.
Yes, I chose IPS.
They changed their business model after I chose them and am now heavily invested in them in that my sites rely on the software in its current state, including the many add-ons I have.

I think it's great that the apps are available through the ACP, I don't agree with the requirement to have an active license.  For me, there have not been any updates in a very long time.  I was looking forward to upgrading to 4.5, now that is soured by the requirement to have an active license moving forward.  I have looked at other options.  Does IPS care?  It would seem not as they indicate I am the in the minority in not maintaining my license, even though there have not been updates in a very long time.
It is true I do not understand the business reason for you doing this, but as one of the (I suspect) many people running hobby sites that don't make money, this is really hard to take.  @Lindy, you mentioned XF, as you are aware, their upgrade fees are significantly less (85 a year if you buy everything - not every 6 months, but a full year), and you do not need an active license to purchase add-ons.  The license fees here are nearly triple that if you buy most products.
I understand IPS won't be bothered by losing a small customer like me, 3 licenses, and that makes me sad.  The culture felt more welcoming when I joined 13 years ago.

It’s currently 10% and has not yet increased to 20% - we’ve left it alone in light of Covid and ironing out the new marketplace.
That said, even at 20% it’s expected to almost break even. The marketplace operates at a net loss to IPS just because of the price point of most resources. So on. $5 resource, we get a $.50 commission - now, say that $5 resource has a chargeback that’s $20. So our net loss on a $5 resource is $20.50. That also means we need up to 40 more of those transactions in commission just to break even on the original transaction. There is also payout fees to pay the authors. The marketplace operates in the red even before considering the staffing. When you slice it up, you could see why apple takes 30% and never refunds their fees.
Thats neither her nor there, my comment was reinforce we don’t make money in the marketplace - the opposite, so it’s ok if you use the authors site too. It’s just not ideal (for you.)

Join our other topic:
https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/458218-removal-of-15-domain-change/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-2828512

I m quiting IPB. They are acting like beggars now.

so if my license expires in a week, and i just paid renewal of marketplace items for another half / full year
that means I only have access to them for a week? this on top of 20% commission you're charging developer while also require active license just to have access to marketplace
for real?

The Marketplace now (we introduced this change a few months ago) requires an active license. I can see you've just renewed your license so you should have access to it now. If you're still seeing the issue, please submit a ticket and let us know.

With 4.5 you can access to install files only through your website ACP.

I bought lot's of plugins an applications, but now (since 4.5 here) I always get this message:
"Sorry, you aren't permitted to download this file."
What's wrong?

This is very disappointing.  I suspect it will affect developers too.  That was one of the best parts of IPS for me, the active developer community.  It's not likely I will switch as I am pretty invested in IPS, but as others have pointed out, forums are dying a slow death, this is not helping.

Thanks, that what I was trying to find...

I was going to make a separate topic, but since we're all talking about it here. This isn't a good move if it's true? I thought it was a glitch on my side and I left it as was renewing anyway.

Not to be 'that person' but if you force us to have an active licence in order to keep 3rd party apps/plugins up to date OR purchase then, I won't be using the marketplace and will source the files outside like I do already with a couple that I own. This has its own inherent problems, but I only buy from long standing developers.

I've always thought that if you put in a ticket and explained the circumstances for a domain change then IPS would/should look fairly and reasonably at it. $15 is a bit cheeky I suppose, and I never agree with anything that penalises the majority because of the actions of a small minority. If the account and admin is in good standing, why not allow such a request? It's called good customer service and it's the kind of thing that you remember and judge other providers by.
That said, IPS don't always get it right, for instance a couple of years ago they insisted I buy a new Pages licence for one of my existing community sites when I already had an unused Pages license I wanted to reactivate (for a site on which I'd disabled the Pages app some time ago), and it was just sitting there unused; they wouldn't let me move it from one active licensed site to another. I've been with the founders since Ikonboard and stayed with them, that's loyalty. That's just not right. Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't, and if you have multiple site licenses it is only fair and reasonable that you might want to try make an app work on a different community site where it may be better utilised or do better. I went ahead in the end and bought a new Pages license but it left a bitter taste. That reminds me, I suppose I really should start using it!
Escalating the Marketplace fees to 'Apple rates' whilst was wrong but they did hold off because of the financial impacts of pandemic which was positive. IMHO being able to advertise your product as having a long established and reputable third party developer system is worth its wait in gold, it might not break even but holistically, surely it's a positive loss leader.
On the other side of the coin, Lindy recently allowed me to use Marketplace credit I'd saved up to renew a full suite license renewal, that's good customer service.

One of my sites currently makes enough money to pay for my server and software, but that's it.  I have a million post hobby site.  That one causes me to increase my server costs every now and then.  Adding on regular update fees for all three is not an option at this point.  My licenses expired in April.  There have not been updates until now so no reason to update.  
Hopefully all my add-ons will be available outside the Marketplace. 

Sometimes I can't see an obvious solution right in front of me.  I will use this option also.  Xenforo is the alternative, and while I like their software, the change would be huge for me.

Here's what I found earlier today: 
 

That right there is the deal breaker. I was going to renew my IPS license to switch things up a bit from XenForo, but after I saw that I'm not able to purchase and download new add-ons for my forums after the license expires in six months, I decided to stick with my XenForo installation. The greed from the IPS team is real and I can't believe it's come to this.

This is frustrating.  I like IPS and don't plan to move.  Now I will be more careful of the add-ons I buy and will likely try to move closer to a stock forum.  I have not updated my IPS license in a while since there have not been any updates in a while.  What would I have been paying for?  
Now I'll be trapped into paying for IPS just to be able to download an add-on.  Not going to happen.  This will likely hurt developers too.

All. Of. This.
With a box to say "mark all notifications as read"

Yes, THAT!
Also, when clicking one notification and going to that content, other notifications should remain as unread. otherwise you have to open all of them at once in different tabs, and can't leave one or more notifications to handle later (i.e a user reported a post and you can't deal with it right now, or someone posted in a thread you're following and you want to read later). Right now, morons with bad memory like yours truly, are in danger of leaving something for later and then forgetting about it.