Invision Community's innovative list of tactics for engagement. One of them was so innovative, it's like not engaging at all!!

[Danloona]

Honestly, I lately feel like IPS have some sort of stall in development on their self-hosted solution.
For example nowadays SEO is little worse on Their soft, anyone noticed it?

Maybe that's why they promote such "innovative" ways of promotion.

 

[FTL]

Honestly, I lately feel like IPS have some sort of stall in development on their self-hosted solution.
For example nowadays SEO is little worse on Their soft, anyone noticed it?

Maybe that's why they promote such "innovative" ways of promotion.

Well, they're still releasing monthly updates for it with lots of bug fixes, plus new features, so I wouldn't call it stalled.

The release of cloud-only features is a bad sign though, clearly indicating the direction that they want to go in as it's much more expensive.

 

[zappaDPJ]

Most of the major forum companies are now focusing on cloud based services. At some point you can be sure they will drop self-hosting options because it makes little sense financially or from a support perspective.

It's happening everywhere, not just with forum software. Just as software in a box became history, the same will happen to downloaded, self-hosted products. We'll get used to it in the end, just as we did when we finally emptied our shelves of boxed software.

 

[we_are_borg]

IPS is focussing on companies you can see that in the prices they have. But that said even they need to evolve the forum software and everything around it. Companies are harder when it comes to cost vs gain, for me as my hobby cost like 300 dollars a year so be it. But if a company needs to pay x amount a month they might say the return of invest is to low and we will stop. Think about this i rather have 5 non companies bring in the same amount of cash then one company. If the company quits i need to spend time looking to make up the cash you lose, while if one of the five quits i only lose 20% of the cash flow. Is it more work yes but that should have been calculated into the price.

 

[mysiteguy]

Most of the major forum companies are now focusing on cloud based services. At some point you can be sure they will drop self-hosting options because it makes little sense financially or from a support perspective.

I'll likely make a mint migrating them to other solutions, such as WordPress based forums. But I'd rather not do migrations because people feel they are being cast aside!

It's happening everywhere, not just with forum software. Just as software in a box became history, the same will happening to downloaded, self-hosted products. We'll get used to it in the end, just as we did when we finally emptied our shelves of boxed software.

Those who value their data security, privacy, ownership and portability, and the ability to work offline should not choose SAAS over on-premise or self-hosted software. If Invision shut down, you're screwed. Anyone who thinks it can't happen, the fact is SAAS shutdowns with little to no warning have happened before and will happen again.

There's an example so huge it broke large portions of the Internet. Though it was 5 years ago, its effects are still felt in forums more than other online sectors. And while technically it wasn't a shut down, their sudden massive pricing model increase was effectively the same thing: Photobucket.

On the corporate side, I see many IT staff choose SAAS because they are lazy or incompetent, or some software they are given no choice. Not because it has better security, portability and certainly not because it has lower cost of ownership.

 

[Danloona]

On the corporate side, I see many IT staff choose SAAS because they are lazy or incompetent, or some software they are given no choice. Not because it has better security, portability and certainly not because it has lower cost of ownership.

The exact point of existence of SAAS services, tbh.
But leaving such thing, it's likely more about control data, which on cloud they could do anything what they want cause you technically not own the data.

The release of cloud-only features is a bad sign though, clearly indicating the direction that they want to go in as it's much more expensive.

This is something what I forgot to mention, they make clear wrap of things which are focused on cloud service, they even tried push self-hosted customers to migrate to their SAAS service by adding a small button in IPS ACP saying "Upgrade to Cloud".

Suddenly it seems that it disappeared in 4.7.x line, but in 4.6.x it's still visible.
Something what really kicked me, last time is "Live Community" is cloud exclusive service, like what is a problem to share that node.js service to run at own hardware and give that option to self-hosted customer?

It's more like that they are focused on short-term idea and then, we added? yes we did. Okay that cool, but still lacks of polish in such features.
I remember that bug in saving comments in people statuses on user profiles has been reported to them many times, that bug was exist from circa 4.2.x and still is ain't fixed even in latest release.

I've truly miss time of old IPS 3.x.x when IPS was liked hobbyists and not was focused only on biggest ones.
XF seems to manage both of customer bases, same as WoltLab.

Most of the major forum companies are now focusing on cloud based services. At some point you can be sure they will drop self-hosting options because it makes little sense financially or from a support perspective.

Biggest move which I observed lately was Atlassian with their Server product line.
But many people still think that was such irresponsible decision...
Also seems kinda nowadays is Privacy fashion again, so maybe there will be chance to leap, that which move on-premises back to the place.
Sadly there is only guessing, and gossips, rather real facts...

 

[Hakuna Matata]

There are some genuinely powerful and useful strategies from fields like organizational management, psychology of groups and belonging, behavioral economics, and so much more that are grounded in the social sciences that community managers can learn so much from. Teaching us to "start a topic" adds no value to your clients.

Joel, what those genuinely powerful and useful strategies? Can you give some hints?

 

[Stojan Tim]

instead of a "What are you listening to" one?

This is the scourge of new forums. You see it a lot in the showcases with new sites and I cannot see what value it adds at all to a community. Worse, when people look for post exchanges, you just know the content posted is going to be low quality. Let's add "What did you last eat?" to that list. You might as well let a spammer in and post stuff.

With lower traffic forums, having the same person post topic after topic with 0 replies smacks of desperation and only highlights lack of activity. This is why I believe people who say, have active readers/community/customers first (say if you sell things or have a blog or YouTube channel) before starting a forum, as it works better than just randomly creating a forum and hoping people will come. Which, in 2022 is less likely if there's a Facebook group for that.

Of the smaller forums, a good case-study of an admin doing well to create significant new content is FTL - we're not friends obviously but that aside, it shows what's possible with determination.

 

[we_are_borg]

I admin two sort of sites one is science based (neglected really need to restart this one) and the other i posted in https://www.theadminzone.com/showcase/league-of-reason.446/ its science vs creationism. Both are hard and IPS was the good choice for the science based on and the other runs on Xenforo. IPS is really expensive to renew and we miss important features in Gallery and Downloads while it should be easy to implement in gallery we want custom fields that would solve 99,99% of our issues. Custom fields is something that should have been there from day one.

 

[we_are_borg]

albeit his managerial skills for his site needs a great deal of attention.
The issue is when you get a generic "political" or generic discussion site compared to one more technical in nature. It takes a lot more thought to reply to a "What equatorial mount is better" compared to a "was Trump a sucky president" topic. The latter is open to the inanities of posters... the former usually requires a more factual basis... And if I want inanities then I'll go hit the National Enquirer site. They are generally more amusing and you don't have to worry about the admin pestering you because you "aren't posting enough".

The first topic is also what is on the market and what price point and user preference, so responding to something like that would take more time than even asking i'm in the Netherlands and i want to see the moon.

 

[zappaDPJ]

Those who value their data security, privacy, ownership and portability, and the ability to work offline should not choose SAAS over on-premise or self-hosted software. If Invision shut down, you're screwed. Anyone who thinks it can't happen, the fact is SAAS shutdowns with little to no warning have happened before and will happen again.

There's an example so huge it broke large portions of the Internet. Though it was 5 years ago, its effects are still felt in forums more than other online sectors. And while technically it wasn't a shut down, their sudden massive pricing model increase was effectively the same thing: Photobucket.

On the corporate side, I see many IT staff choose SAAS because they are lazy or incompetent, or some software they are given no choice. Not because it has better security, portability and certainly not because it has lower cost of ownership.

Having recently moved house and finally disposed of that shelf of boxed software I've been keeping (got to move with the times), I can only agree.

I dislike SaaS solutions for all the reasons you've detailed and one you haven't, the ability to tweak the software, something I imagine most software developers will be glad to see the back of. That's one major reason why I prefer to use open source products like SMF.

I'll likely make a mint migrating them to other solutions, such as WordPress based forums. But I'd rather not do migrations because people feel they are being cast aside!

Every cloud etc...

 

[Nev_Dull]

This is the scourge of new forums. You see it a lot in the showcases with new sites and I cannot see what value it adds at all to a community. Worse, when people look for post exchanges, you just know the content posted is going to be low quality. Let's add "What did you last eat?" to that list. You might as well let a spammer in and post stuff.

I've said this many, many times. The key is knowledge. You absolutely have to know and understand your topic area and your audience, then ensure your forum is designed to speak to that audience. On my forum (also a somewhat technical one) while we do have an Off Topic section for general chatter about anything, it is the least used section of the site. My audience comes for the primary topic of the forum because that is what interests them. They don't care what movie I may have watched last week.

 

[we_are_borg]

Custom fields are REALLY handy. I'm using them in my Link directory for campgrounds (gathering data that an astrophotographer that uses automation will usually need when doing captures) and in a few other of the add-ons.
It REALLY helps to enhance the base product.View attachment 55985

Custom field would solve issues that we would have other wise. But IPS product is inconsistent if you have feature x in gallery you do not have the same feature in downloads (when it makes sence). Also it looks like there not learning from add-ons, if you see that people use add-on x a lot why is this. The CMS is well nice but there not expanding it what about automatic altering layout and items.

 

[mysiteguy]

Having recently moved house and finally disposed of that shelf of boxed software I've been keeping (got to move with the times), I can only agree.

I dislike SaaS solutions for all the reasons you've detailed and one you haven't, the ability to tweak the software, something I imagine most software developers will be glad to see the back of. That's one major reason why I prefer to use open source products like SMF.

Every cloud etc...

I haven't purchased a "box" in probably 20 years but that doesn't mean abandoning locally installed software. I buy online, and download the installer.

 

[mysiteguy]

When it comes to being abandoned by SAAS, I give you exhibit A:

Threadloom Search / Newsletter to be retired

As we all thought when it was acquired by VerticalScope the company is now shuttering its services Over the past 7 years, Threadloom has provided enterprise-grade Search and Newsletter services to over 2,000 forums. Threadloom Search was the first forum search engine with threaded results...

www.theadminzone.com

 

[zappaDPJ]

I haven't purchased a "box" in probably 20 years but that doesn't mean abandoning locally installed software. I buy online, and download the installer.

I agree but I think there's a certain inevitability SaaS and cloud computing in general is going to rule the day. I don't like it but it provides an easy mode for providers and users alike.

 

[Bionic Rooster]

I agree but I think there's a certain inevitability SaaS and cloud computing in general is going to rule the day. I don't like it but it provides an easy mode for providers and users alike.

For that to happen I think the price will have to be more affordable to everyday forum owners.

 

[zappaDPJ]

For that to happen I think the price will have to be more affordable to everyday forum owners.

Personally I don't see that happening but I guess it raises the question how many forum owners still fall into that category. The abundance of 'forums are dead' threads suggests perhaps not as many as there used to be.

But who knows, it's largely conjecture on my part, only the developers know the full picture.

 

[Stojan Tim]

The abundance of 'forums are dead' threads suggests perhaps not as many as there used to be.

If there's one silver lining to all this, none of my disgruntled ex-members are rushing to start competing forums any more. Unless they are "silently installing" new forums

 

[we_are_borg]

Really nice image. To bad i’m in the middle of the city there is so much light pollution that you do not see much.