Invision Power is killing all perpetual licenses

[Knocks]

It's official. No upgrade to 4.0.

From the horses mouth:


06 June 2014

We take pride in the fact that we've honored our commitment to legacy license holders/supporters for a decade now -- something that is relatively unheard of. With that said, our direction with v4 of the software suite is changing and "IPB" as you purchased will not exist in the capacity in which you originally purchased it. Naturally, we recognize and appreciate your past business and are committed to doing the right thing. Rather than sunset the license entirely, we are offering a conversion to the new structure with a free renewal. Legacy licenses will, at some point in the near future, be discontinued however. We can complete that change for you now, or you are certainly free until the change is formalized and officially announced.
Thank you for your understanding and please let us know if you have any further questions.

Regards,

Lindy Throgmartin
Management Team
Invision Power Services, Inc.

 

[s.molinari]

Hmmm.....me go looking for post.

Scott

 

[s.molinari]

Couldn't find it. Where did you get that post/message from? An Email? It makes all but no sense to me.

Scott

 

[TrixieTang]

Was this from a support ticket or a post?

 

[Knocks]

This was from a support ticket. I was holding out for 4.0 but now have no reason to. Converting to XenForo by the end of the month.

 

[Alex.]

Disappointing, but understandable given they stopped offering such licenses eons ago. Doesn't make it perpetual now, does it?

 

[TheRaj]

Bad idea to dump those legacy licenses, not a smart move for gaining sales

 

[CarlosX360]

Bad idea to dump those legacy licenses, not a smart move for gaining sales

Not surprising, either, tho. They're following the vBulletin route.

About 6 months (to a year) ago, they changed wording when it comes to licenses. They planted the seeds for this change already.

 

[AdamD]

Wonderful, I have one of these licenses.
I guess I won't be using IPS anymore, if they can't honour their side of the license agreement.

 

[s.molinari]

Which licenses are we talking about? Can someone clarify the whole situation? It makes no sense to me currently at all. Sorry for my ignorance. But this could look worse from a PR perspective, than it really is, possibly?

Scott

 

[CarlosX360]

Wonderful, I have one of these licenses.
I guess I won't be using IPS anymore, if they can't honour their side of the license agreement.

You'll upgrade to a new license structure. I don't see what's the big deal is. They're just "re-naming" the actual license to "IP4" license.

It's the same thing what vBulletin sort-of did with their license structure, the only difference is that you can still download the vB3 files.

Which licenses are we talking about? Can someone clarify the whole situation? It makes no sense to me currently at all. Sorry for my ignorance. But this could look worse from a PR perspective, than it really is, possibly.

It reads like this:

The current license structure is going away. As in, you won't be able to use your previous, existing license - the IPBoard Suite.

 

[AdamD]

If it's true, it's the rarer licenses which IPB offered ages back, which gives you unlimited access to all releases of IPB, without the need for renewal.
It doesn't entitle you to unlimited support though, that part at least, requires renewal.
If they convert all perpetual licenses to standard ones, we'll have to pay the renewals each 6? months to download IPB.

 

[AdamD]

You'll upgrade to a new license structure. I don't see what's the big deal is. They're just "re-naming" the actual license to "IP4" license.

It's the same thing what vBulletin sort-of did with their license structure, the only difference is that you can still download the vB3 files.

Not quite
Perpetual licenses gave you access to all versions of IPB, past and present, without the need for renewal.
That's why they were sought after and more expensive, as you only had to pay for the support element (if needed) and not the biannual renewal to download.

 

[TrixieTang]

If it's true, it's the rarer licenses which IPB offered ages back, which gives you unlimited access to all releases of IPB, without the need for renewal.
It doesn't entitle you to unlimited support though, that part at least, requires renewal.
If they convert all perpetual licenses to standard ones, we'll have to pay the renewals each 6? months to download IPB.

Well, the quote from Lindy does mention a free renewal, but I'm not sure whether he means a single free renewal or what.

"Rather than sunset the license entirely, we are offering a conversion to the new structure with a free renewal."

 

[s.molinari]

Ok, I am getting a better understanding. So there were licenses you could pay more for, which allowed you to get any new version of IPB for life and these are now not being honored? So if IPB 5 comes out or even with IPB4.1 or 4.2, certain newer versions might come with an extra price tag? Oops. I'd definitely not be happy with that change. An agreement is an agreement.

Scott

 

[TheRaj]

more sales for xf in future from IPB as well

 

[LeadCrow]

That's one way to shake people off from perpetual licences...
I'm surprised it was even honored for this long, all they had to do is give it an expiration limit of no more than 2 years or offer some store credit that could only be used to renew or purchase IPS services.

 

[s.molinari]

That just doesn't work though. The agreement was, as I understand it, "new versions for life". Any kind of retribution or weaseling out of that agreement is going to be a worse offer than the agreement itself. The only other possible offer is those customers with such licenses getting their money back in full and even then, that doesn't cover the potential losses. It was a stupid idea to begin with to offer such a license. I guess IPB will just have to swallow hard and take the PR hit for reneging on their agreement....

......and again, I am only guessing, as I am still not sure of the whole true story.

Scott

 

[Andrew B.]

Perpetual license is not supposed to expire, and should be honored forever. That's why people pay more. Otherwise it would simply be a long term license.

 

[doubt]

Well, the quote from Lindy does mention a free renewal, but I'm not sure whether he means a single free renewal or what.

"Rather than sunset the license entirely, we are offering a conversion to the new structure with a free renewal."

A renewal is for 6 months with IPS.
Renew it today and you can get support for 6 months with it.