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Is there any approximate release date for version v5 yet?

Is there any approximate release date for version v5 yet?

Welcome to Invision Community 5!
Over the coming weeks, we'll be exploring a bunch of new features and improvements coming to our user interface including our brand new theme editor, a new mobile UI, dark mode and performance improvements thanks to a reduction in both JavaScript and CSS. To kick off this series, let’s take a closer look at the new sidebar layout and new view modes for the forum index and topic pages.
Sidebar Layout
Traditionally, Invision Community has shipped with a horizontal header and navigation bar at the top of the page, which is still available in version 5. We're introducing a brand new (and optional) sidebar layout, which can be enabled or disabled easily from within your theme settings. The sidebar not only provides convenient access to your applications, activity streams and search bar, but you can now add links to nodes for even easier access to popular or commonly used areas of your community. For example - a category from your forum, an album from the Gallery, or a product group from Commerce.
Sidebar-zoom.mp4
Forum Index: Feed view
One of our goals for version 5 was to re-imagine new ways for your visitors to consume content, and the sidebar layout is just one of our solutions. Table view has been the typical way of displaying forums, providing visitors with a simple summary of the most recently active topic. Grid mode introduced cover photos to forums and is a great way to make your page more visually engaging, while fluid view allows visitors to filter through a list of topics to easily focus on multiple areas of the community.
Joining these view modes in version 5 is our new Feed view. Optional cover photos and featured forum colours allow you to personalise each forum, and a list of recently active topics with snippets of the most recent reply allow you to easily see what each forum is focusing on at a glance. The topic list drops below the cover photo and converts to a scrollable list on small devices. It's our fresh take on content display, and we can’t wait to hear your feedback!

 
Topic pages: Compact view
In addition, Invision Community 5 also introduces a new, compact layout option for topics. We wanted to create a layout which placed focus on your content while still keeping all of the authors profile information easily accessible within a mini profile. Stats, rank, badges, reputation points and more can be found by tapping the icon at the top of every post. The mini profile strip has also been added to other areas of the software too, such as comments and reviews in applications like Gallery and Blogs, and will appear on the mobile layout when the traditional "table view" is used in topics.
Switching between the new compact view and the author sidebar view takes just seconds giving you complete control over your community.
Mini profile.mp4
 
As part of this view, you also have the choice to feature/pin the original post to the top of every page, making it a breeze for your visitors to easily understand the context of replies without navigating back to page 1. Pinned posts have a slightly larger font-size to distinguish them from replies, and we've thoughtfully truncated them on pages beyond the first to keep scrolling to a minimum.

 
The new sidebar layout and view modes offer a fresh and innovative approach to navigating and interacting with your community. We’re really keen to hear your thoughts on these new views and whether you’ll be unleashing them on your own sites! We appreciate that no two sites are the same, and those who are a fan of the classic header look will benefit from quick styling tools and a visual way to re-arrange the header elements which we’ll cover in a later blog.
We’re looking forward to showcasing a whole bunch of new features over the coming weeks - so stay tuned, and we’ll see you then!
 

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Hi! It would be nice if the V5 version supported the graphic format - SVG everywhere. It's a vector format that looks good virtually anywhere and doesn't lose quality! Currently, it is missing from logos, custom forum icons, favicon and many other places. It's about handling .svg graphics as well as svg code.

Hi! It would be nice if the V5 version supported the graphic format - SVG everywhere. It's a vector format that looks good virtually anywhere and doesn't lose quality! Currently, it is missing from logos, custom forum icons, favicon and many other places. It's about handling .svg graphics as well as svg code.

So, to me, this is absolutely bonkers. 

IPS' team has noticed that their plugin community is a fraction of what it used to be, thinks this is because everyone has switched to bespoke work (You sure it's not the other way around? People using bespoke work /because/ the plugin community has a fraction of the size it did back when there was a free version and before IPS was trying to be everything for every person by default?). 

So they /murder/ pre-made plugins. No, we're not going to see thriving new marketplaces. Excited devs will start some, none of these will be as active as the current one, most if not all of these efforts will peter out quickly. Not having the marketplace in the panel, not having them vetted by IPS, not having people browse over them prior to purchasing IPS (and plan out a setup with plugins), not having their plugins listed on IPS' websites are all small cuts that together, cut deep. IPS' website was never a limiter on other marketplaces (they've always existed for themes and some plugins), but free advertisement to those who did have those. You're merely taking away an option and your stamp of approval. 

And you do this brilliant move in the middle of a version, announcing it to your costumers roughly a month up-front. 

Definitely not obvious you're springing it this way to ensure customers don't either, mass-hug a former major version to keep their plugins, or start planning migrations away from IPS between the time of announcement and release. 

Now, months after it happened, I google 'Invisionpower plugins marketplace' and find nothing on the first page. 

Sincerely, as someone who was a fan once of IPS, you people suck.

Bring your community to life with the latest live community features coming to Invision Community 5.
Last year we introduced new features that immediately showed who was currently reading a topic and who was replying. This feature leveraged new technologies to connect members with each other instantly.
In this blog post, we'll delve into the latest live community features for Invision Community 5 and explore how they enhance our sense of togetherness within our communities. We'll examine how these features instantly notify us about new events, updates, or interactions and how they contribute to a shared sense of presence.
These features go beyond the static posts and comments we've grown accustomed to and introduce a real-time element. Whether you're part of a support community, a gaming forum, or a professional network, these features will have you feeling like you're interacting with other community members simultaneously, fostering a strong sense of shared experiences. 
 
 
Posting
We've all been involved in a busy topic where you're keen to see what replies your latest post has. Select packages on Invision Community 4 can see who is active on a topic and who is typing, but you have to hit refresh to see the new posts added to the topic. If you're anything like me, then you hammer refresh until something new appears.
With Invision Community 5, this is no longer a problem. As you interact with a topic, new replies are automatically added to the topic without needing to refresh. This one feature brings the conversation to life, and you get a real sense of other members interacting with the topic at the same time as you.
 

 
Reactions
Did you drop a razor-sharp GIF or post something applause-worthy? Watch as others react to your content in real time with Invision Community 5. There's no need to refresh or return to the topic later to see who enjoyed what you wrote.
Getting rewarded for your content is gratifying and encourages you to post more and show your appreciation for other's content via reactions.
Notifications
Notifications have long been a valuable way to be notified when anything important happens in your community. It may be that someone has quoted your content, tagged you in a post or started a new topic in a forum you're following.
With Invision Community 5, you can watch the notification count rack up in real time, alerting you to new events that you may otherwise miss as they happen.
 

 
We hope that you've enjoyed reading about these new features and look forward to them coming to select packages for Invision Community 5. They provide a sense of togetherness and immediacy, making it feel like we're interacting with fellow community members simultaneously. 
We're keen to hear what you think, please leave a comment below.
The features discussed in this announcement will not be available for Invision Community Classic. Click here to learn more about switching to our platform to get this and other benefits.
 

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Hi @MythonPonty
There's already a feature for adding a counter badge. 👍

I am also stumped why the marketplace or at least a directory of available plugins and apps is no longer available. Not like the older days when it was easy to find a solution to certain things within minutes.

wish you luck in the future Martin!

I've been using IPB since 2006 with the MSSQL driver.   I was always attracted to the flexibility of the platform with minimal programming.
Recently tech support has become more difficult.  It's harder to find code examples and removing the marketplace killed a creativity source for me.   I had a stroke a few years ago, so my development skills are retarded, but still I believe this is one of the poorer organized forms in regards to technical documentation.
A wiki, kept up to date by your community, would really help in development IMHO.
Good luck all!
Martin

This looks soooo good! 
I can't wait to get my hands on this! 

Next generation software. At first I was skeptical about IC5 but with more and more announcements, I think it looks very good. Many improvements and facilities for people without experience in creating a theme or plugins.
Personally, I am happy with the new sidebar and clickable panels. The mobile menu is also cool, it fulfills its function because I have such a menu in my community and it makes navigation much easier.
Very good work so far, looking forward to more announcements 🤜🤛

Mobile:

Fair if you use all apps. If only from the forum, it's not fair.

No punishment at all! In fact, there is no "catch up" on annual renewals. If you let an annual renewal expire for example for 6 months, you can just pay the normal annual fee 6 months later.
There is only a catch up on the monthly because it's kind of like a finance plan for the annual. If that makes sense 🙂 

I can see how you might look at it that way in terms of saving money. But we spent a lot of time, resources, and money in development of those 3 years of features and other clients have an expectation from us.
The only way to make self-hosted viable for the future is to ensure people are paying for the effort put into developing it. Otherwise we really should just get rid of it. If you are not willing to do that, there are cheap or low cost alternatives out there but you don't get the owners of the company replying to you and you most certainly do not get monthly updates and constant improvements. Look at literally any other community platform and you will see many are at worst dead and at best barely supported.
It is also very, very common. I'm not sure where you have been living in 30+ years of the software world. It's very normal for software to require a subscription fee or to require a re-purchase at major versions. I get emails all the time from software I own that says "new version pay up!"
We are not requiring people to re-purchase for v5 as other platforms would. The "catch up" renewals only apply to the monthly option as it is basically a finance version of the annual fee. You may wish to review the new terms in the client area as you seem incorrect here.
We are growing and, if you are actually serious about your community, a few more dollars a year to get a platform that is actually alive must be worth it. If having something that is actively developed is not worth it to you, then your community will probably suffer with another platform.
But, as has been said a lot already in this topic, you don't have to do anything. You can stick right where you are on your current terms.
 
TL;DR: We are committed to our clients using Classic, self-hosted who are committed to their communities being a success. It is a joint venture.
 
And to your examples:
1. Insurance companies actually do charge you more if you have a huge gap in coverage. They see you as a greater risk. Same idea here.
2. Microsoft does not do upgrade fees they just make you buy the new version outright. If you would prefer that, I would be HAPPY to do that as it would make our software cost way more.

This "then getting 3 years worth of new software" is a non-sequitur. They weren't using and the benefitting from the new features during those three years, so no "abuse" exists except in the management team's minds. 
Imagine someone someone who left their car uninsured for 3 years, and decided to re-insure being told they must pay the 3 years back insurance because new policies have additional features. Or Microsoft making everyone upgrading to a newer Windows version pay the upgrade fees for all the versions between.
Retroactive update charging frankly, comes across as petty. It is one of the most restrictive licensing terms I've run across in 30+ years of working in the software world.
I hope this post doesn't disappear as other critical posts about the new licensing model have.

We did an analysis of all our customers to work out the average renewal cost and buying habits. We made sure that the renewal price point was as close to the average as possible (we actually went under).
We discussed the pricing at length and shared it with a handful of customers in a focus group to get thoughts and feedback, and tweaked accordingly.
We have been as fair as we possibly can throughout this process. Undoubtably some may need to pay a bit more to unlock all that new functionality, but most will pay a bit less. We've found a pricing model that ensures the self-hosting version is viable for years to come.
Invision Community v5 is the start of the next evolution for our community platform bringing in many features to help publish content, monetise the community and more. Just selling a forum app is a market in a serious decline.
But you do not have to do anything. You can stick with your v4 license for as long as you wish. This is not a choice you need to make now, or even this year. Wait until v5 is out and then decide what is right for you. If it's not right for you, then be assured that v4 will remain supported for years to come.

Thanks, Charles. This is a serious change that should be described on a blog or in a dedicated topic.
For me and for many clients it is breaking news 😬

Hello,
https://invisioncommunity.com/buy/self-hosted/

 
I don't need all these applications, how can I buy it with my choosen apps only as it was before?
 

But if I have a forum license, why do you have to FORCE me to pay more (from 110 to 199 per year), giving me applications like Pages, Commerce and Blog which honestly are garbage since you can get better results using other software?
In my project I use Forum and Gallery and honestly, Gallery is so poorly structured and neglected by your development that it is not worth buying. You should offer a light package, only forum.
I also have another project, an Italian support forum, invisionita, which is 13 years old. With these prices, it is becoming unsustainable for me to continue maintaining the project, translating the platform into Italian and helping with guides, etc. I cannot afford to pay $199 for unofficial Italian support.

Why does it seem like IPS just tries to sneak in a new pricing structure? This happened last time as well. Why can't you guys just make a blog post stating "hey are pricing structure is changing", why does it always have to be so secretive? It's only when a member notices it and brings it to light.
Well looks like this will be the end of IPS for me and will be switching back to Xenforo then. I always assumed V5 was just an update, not a whole new force to cloud. 

want v5, click the button. Don't want v5, and want to stay on v4, don't click the button.

Maybe for you, and for people who have all the apps. But if customer X has only 'Forums', he will pay an additional $80 more for applications he will not use.