Matt

This has now been resolved. :)

Thanks for the update ;) As mentioned above, our turn-around is within 48 hours. Our techs are working flat out and we'll get to your issue ASAP. Thanks.

It does get quite complex, doesn't it? It was precisely this situation that we wanted to avoid as it is a bit of a nightmare keeping track of it all in the customer center. Paying the difference would only really work on the renewal anniversary so the first question we'll get asked is "My support is up in 5 months, can I pay 40% of the $20 to access the spam service now or do I have to wait until my support is up or do I have to bring my renewal forward to today in which case can I get a partial refund or credit on my last renewal?" etc. It's an ongoing issue trying to apply legacy licenses to new frameworks and models.

Ah yes, I did mean year! I appreciate that you would be OK with it, but we can't assume everyone will. In any case, we will review the feedback offered and take it from there.

Well, if we did we'd have to make it optional. I don't think that a current perpetual license holder who is used to paying $30 a year for support is going to appreciate a price hike.

It's very unusual to have those two missing from a standard PHP install, but there you go. We've seen odder things. In any case, I'm dealing with this issue now and have just updated you again. I'll close this topic as it's run its course and thank you for bringing this matter to my attention.

Honestly, it was never our intention to make anyone feel 'second-class'. We just introduced a new service to help combat spam. If there's enough demand for a separate pay-for service then we'll be foolish to not consider it. Please understand that we value all our customers and will always take on any feedback that's given.

And I've replied to your ticket.

Hello, I see that it's been just over 90 minutes since Larry's last reply. I'm sure he will get back to it ASAP but he's in the middle of another upgrade. Needless to say we won't leave you like this for long.

To reiterate, you would not be receiving a new feature but rather a new service. It's an important distinction to make. We are offering a brand new service free to standard and business license holders. It really is as simple as that. What would be the nature of your complaint, though? The fact that we are not allowing you access to a brand new service? We immediately clarified the term 'support and service license' with a reply to the announcement. I certainly apologise if the wording wasn't clear. I really don't see how anyone can claim that we've moved goal posts. Again, I reiterate, we are offering a new service that is free to current standard and business licenses. It is not a new feature within IP.Board. You still get exactly what you paid for and continue to pay for. Please understand this basic concept: we are not 'stripping features' for legacy licensed customers. We will not do that. We have a duty to uphold the terms of your license and we continue to do so willingly. It is a brand new service. At no point did we say that a licence purchase will entitle you to all new products and/or services that we provide. It's no different really from IP.Blog or Gallery, etc. They are all separate products and purchasable separately. I have a Blackberry and an unlimited data plan yet I would have to purchase a subscription if I wanted to use the installed GPS navigator. I own an iMac yet I had to purchase an extra subscription for .Mac (mobileme) access. These are additional opt-in services. We just decided to give ours away free as long as you have an active or business license.

We have looked at options. The biggest issue for us is entrusting the data to a third party. Grading users registering would be out of our hands. Askimet deals with content, though, not members. There are other free services out there but none of them could handle the load that tens of thousands of IP.Boards would generate. We wouldn't want to rely on something that was unreliable. There would also be nothing stopping them from changing how their services work at a drop of a hat forcing us to make a quick release or update, etc.

It would be a one way conversion.

You are getting precisely the level of service you paid for, so it is not a waste of money. You get the same download as everyone else and the same support as everyone else. You are not excluded from ongoing developments within IP.Board. If we add a cool new feature within IP.Board then you'll get that too. The spam service is an external service it is not a cool new feature within IP.Board. Any new services we roll out will be just that; a service - not a cool new feature in IP.Board. Arguably the spam service does not enhance your IP.Board in anyway. It just helps prevent spammers from signing up to your board and you just need an active current license, not an active legacy license. Then you can carry on with your current license just fine. :)

Perpetual license holders currently pay $30 for 12 months access to support and downloads whereas standard license holders pay $25 every 6 months. For those perpetual license holders who wish to use the service then converting the license is probably cheaper than paying for the service independently (if we chose to do that). It's only an extra $20 a year or $1.67 a month. Lifetime license holders continue to get support and downloads for free. We have no desire to break apart the software and offer a tiered version to different license holders. There is no desire to withhold features from anyone and this is an important distinction as the new spam service is a service, not a feature. We're going to have to maintain several servers, pay for the bandwidth, run and maintain back-ups, deal with IP removal requests, etc, which all incurs cost. Ultimately, it is not an essential service for some and no compunction to use it. It does show, however, that we are committed to tackling the spam issue that plagues many customers. May I also add that the IP.Board 3.0.2 download zip will be the same for standard, perpetual and lifetime license holders. We're not removing code for anyone.

Done. Will be in 3.0.2. Too many template, lang and file edits to release a quick 'patch'.

Simply turn off the ability for validating members to view or edit their profile information for now. I think we probably do need to add a field per group to filter this out. Actually, I can do this with the bitwise options. I'll do it now.

The words "Future" and "IE6" are at odds with each other. I am aware of the service and while it's great for off-the-cuff discussion it's not really designed as a fully feature forum. It's too basic in terms of moderation and managing discussions.

Of course you did. Once you start a public rant that compares us to Nazis, the best course of action is to keep quiet on any details that back up your complaint. ;) Regardless, I see no way to move foward and will lock this topic. I have nothing further to say either publicly or via PMs. Jawohl

A couple of days ago? I got a PM from you yesterday evening at 5:30pm my time which was after I had left work for the day. I try and reply to PMs where possible but it might take a day or so to get a response. For the record, I remember you very well. Oh yes. I remember you very well indeed. We had quite an interesting time, didn't we?

Why do we need to take a closer look? My eyesight is fine.

There were just so many changed files. It would be easier just telling you what wasn't changed. We can provide a DIFF but our repo contains everything including blog, gallery, downloads, etc. It would be a pain to go through it and manually remove those items.

We have stuff in the pipeline for spammers. Watch this space. Well, figuratively speaking.

Yeah, we tweaked search and somewhere along the multiple SVN commits some code went missing. I fixed that. I still have a few other things to tinker with. FTR, 3.0.1 contains the 'fixed' version of search.

Cheques in the post.