Matt

I prefer communities without (external) advertisement. 
The only real interesting part for me are the IPS subscription services which are highly customizable.
My monetization strategy is
virtual currencies / points systems that integrate perfectly into commerce/downloads. It's a natural incident, that most customers never use/spend all their deposited credits, so the community wins all forgotten or expired credits.  better handling for transactions for digital products for european union customers/members, so we won't get in conflict with laws and tax regulation. Please help us expand in the EU and reach out for more paying customers. something like an IPS native "automation rules" / trigger systems, if event x happens then do y (f.e. send pms, emails, react, superlike...) the more you can target and engage your members (and add your own ads in there) the more will be sold. With such a trigger system, make it happen to generate personal vouchers and limited time offers enhance email marketing campaigns, introduce options for bulk email subscribers filtering, so we can entice more members to subscribe into bulk emails, award subscribers (with community benefits), disclose the opt-outs. As soon as you have a bunch of willing subscribers and good, valid emails, you have a very high chance to power up your conversion value. If you don't like (external) advertisements in your own community, but you already are a commercial actor, then monetization requires a different strategy. 

I sell ads to vendors and have a custom solution for displaying them.
I also use Google ads.  We could really use some help there from IPS in that we are not supposed to display ads on certain pages, i.e. registration and others.  IPS builds in the option to display Google Ads, but does not prevent those from displaying where they should not.

Nice article. I sell ads directly to advertisers and premium membership to members. IPS is offering a lot of features to attract people buying subscriptions.

Starting in 2006 with open source software, I went from MyBB, and thent to Phorum. I was stubbornly hooked on that threaded display format, but in time my community made it clear they preferred a linear layout. Phorum was fun, but I had to do a lot of template and script hacking to get it to do the things I wanted. As we grew, we became too busy for our shared hosting environment, and had to graduate to a VPS server. As technology advanced, the Phorum started to break and the primary developers had since abandoned the project and just one remaining person was trying his best to handle tech support issues. Realizing that I was dealing with dead software that had reached end of life, I knew my best option would be paid software that has ongoing development and good tech support. I did a trial of both Xenforo and Invision, and Invision was the clear winner.

I originally started out on vBulletin 2! Started making modifications for vBulletin 3 on vB.org. Very disillusioned with vBulletin 4, I was one of the first members on XenForo's bandwagon when that rolled along. Offered my services for vBulletin and XenForo for around 3 years freelance, started building my own forum softwares and also supporting the many free forum software such as PHPBB, MyBB and SMF with modifications.
At some point along the way I saw a tech support job at IPS, and had to go for it. Eventually I moved on to maintaining the free Converters, writing Single Sign On's and Managed Services dealing with some amazing clients here. The guys are great and it is still one of the favourite jobs I've had, and I still have fond memories of this place so I thought I had to share my own story. (PS, Lindy my mum still mentions your facebook chats )
I'm still building forum software and all sorts of other bespoke stuff as the lead developer with my own team of 6 very talented guys in a local digital agency, but I really did get my first "real" start here.

Your place or mine? Can't believe we were in Bristol the week you were away!

A good read! I originally used to hang out/post on some old car forums back in 2000/2001 and eventually got involved helping out as mod/admin. Back then it was Ikonboard 2.x and then the jump to 3.x. I then remember the excitement of IPB starting up and the first build of the forum back in early feb 02 I guess? I used to love the pre beta 1.0 skin. At the time I was working as an electronic engineer but good friends with the boss of a local IT/Software company who hosted the football forums for both clubs in the area. I eventually convinced him to take the leap from an old text file threaded board to IPB in 2003 as there were MSSQL drivers available back then  (big up the Wilzor!) - by 2004 I was working for the software company and have done ever since. So that's the job of the last 14 years thanks in part to IPB and then also I met my now wife through that very forum around the same time and we'll have our second child in July.  I probably owe @Matt a meal at Frankie & Benny s sometime.. its' been a while! 

was just looking for the best forum software back in November of 2002.

A trusted friend recommended you to me and said it would be great if my taste was for something more professional... I dipped straight in early 4.0 and have not regretted that decision.
Great work from the team here.

Thanks @The Old Man - that's a lovely and measured reply.
Absolutely we want to help but we can't claim to be certificated experts on this field and we can't accept liability for non-compliance. We provide the tools, we can't control what you guys do with them.
But yes, please do ask questions and we'll do our best to help but we'll underline that by recommending you speak to experts for a complete answer. As you've pointed out, there are lots of free support groups about that offer this help.
I sense a lot of panic over this subject, but there doesn't need to be. I don't believe that the entire internet is going to be audited on May 26th. Just keep good records, be responsible with the data and you are most of the way there.
The best advice I can give is research the subject yourself and consult with those that know more if you are unclear.

I started with I think was some forum that was a cgi script every post was a file on the server - blew past all quotas very quickly. Then went to UBBThreads that had a database back end - was good their till development team fractured and started a new company InteractivePHP and their product FuisonBB then development tapered off (they all had day jobs) and like many came to IPB, been happy here ever since.

I needed a forum software but at that time I only knew about vbulletin  phpbb and smf. I don't like vbulletin, and the others don't look professional to me. So I needed to goggle for options.
Instead of googling "forum software", I did what I normally do to find competitors. I typed in google "vbulletin vs " and all the options appeared to me.
 

I started with IPB in 2004. I was with phpbb before that. we were using 1.3 back then. Every time there was an upgrade I would have to pull an all-nighter to edit all the skins and files for modifications. Crazy days. We have come a long way since then.
 

I got involved with forums soon after I got married (in 2003). My husband had a job with extremely late hours, we had no kids yet, and I was home from my own job by 6:00 and very, VERY bored. My husband is an avid fan of the New York Yankees, and really wanted me to join him at the games, so I started to learn a little more about baseball. I wanted to sound halfway intelligent, so I began spending time on the YES Network forums to see what other fans were saying. (Solid choice, Esther, hang around with crazy trolls. Excellent decision-making skills.)
After a couple of months there, one of the more active members decided he was fed up with the sheer number of trolls and total lack of moderation - there was 1 moderator for nearly 1 million members. This guy was asking around to see if anyone could help him get the site up and running. As I mentioned, I was VERY bored, so I figured I'd do it.
The site was running IPB 2.2, and I started poking around and learning how to customize things. Taught myself PHP by implementing the modifications, then started making my own. 
Our site ran for nearly 5 years (and was really popular) before we had to shut it down simply because we had no time to run it. By then I was distributing my own minor modifications and doing really small custom pieces. 
In 2010, I quit my job to go out on my own and do this full time. I love this job. I love that my customers never ever want the same things twice, I love that nearly anything is possible with IPS. I'm really enjoying watching the framework "grow up", so to speak. 

16 years ago i was using XMB and the bigger the thread got the slower it became, so switched to IPB which worked very well. Never looked back.
 

As of Beta 4/Final - yep!

The automatic moderation feature that was added to Invision Community 4.3 will help.

The automatic moderation feature that was added to Invision Community 4.3 will help.

This topic has been coming up lately on virtually every forum. Facebook overtakes forums.
Facebook has its own terms and conditions. Many times they embarrass a member publicly by deleting their posts. In my city senior police officers have been put through this humiliation. 
In Facebook there is nothing like hierarchy. Once you comment on a six month old post the newer ones get buried deep down. if you want to own and hold your head high without the Fear of humiliation then forums are the way to go. 
Why are forums slowing down. Firstly its the cost of forum licence and hosting. Facebook is free. Secondly there is lot of trolling in forums. Facebook is very tough on this. The user can completely block a members if he is bothering him. If there are too many spam complaints the account is altogether closed down. 
In the long run the solution is to integrate forums and social media together as seamlessly as possible. Facebook Twitter Instagram and similar platforms need to be integrated into forums. Without this forums will slow down. 
To mention here Invision Power is not just a forum . It blog, Ecomm, Gallery and of-course with the right CMS coding a complete solution for an organisation. 
If they are able to deal with trollers IP is going nowhere for a longtime to come. 

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An excellent forum truth we have years using invision power the truth leaves us surprised with the characteristics that each new version brings new.
A hug to the team for their hard work from Spain

My aim is to have an optional step on the upgrade where you can specify a conversion, but it will not be a requirement.

Mine is, showing it's age and I would not use it for any other means than having fun and letting off some steam.

I would love a drum set - I'm not a good drummer, but it's really fun when you need to let off some steam.

And... here I am with 2. But! I also have a drum set, an alto saxophone and a Bb clarinet. Maybe I should have contributed to this article.

I will have 20 once I pick this one up later this summer
Tony Iommi Signature SG