43 replies to this topic

[Abomination]

Hello. First post.

I apologize in advance if some of these questions are too basic. I did try to search for the information.



Hosted Community packages questions:

• IP.Blog, IP.Gallery, IP.Content are available, what is the additional cost for the addons? Do those come pre-installed if they are desired?
• Roughly how long does it take to make that active once ordered and paid for?
• It is my understanding that some Community Resources could be installed, is the thread preview application listed in this post one of them?

Thread Preview.
Is it possible this product may give the vb thread preview functionality? When a mouse is placed over thread, the first few lines of the first post is shown? http://community.inv...-hover-preview/


Thread marking systems.
It appears that IP.Board leaves threads marked as 'unread' until the threads are 'read', which is nice, the vb equivalent of "Database (automatic forum marking)". Is there a timeout on that? Will those threads be marked as read in 2 months if they were not read?


Converter questions - the downloadable conversion program.

• How long will vb3.8 be supported? The rest of 2010?
• Are the older versions of the converter available if vb3.8 support is dropped in the future?

24 hour demo
Can 2 Admin accounts/logins be enabled for the 24 hour demo?


IP General questions

• Are add on products such as IP.Blog, owned forever like IP.Board?
• If they are not currently active, but the IP.Board is, is access to the IP.Blog support forums removed as well as downloading newer IP.Blog versions? Or do all purchased add ons need to be up to date to have any support access?
• If IP.Board is purchased, are the PHP files visible? I understand the "Hosted Community packages" are not viewable.

community.invsionpower.com forums
Can 2 people have access to the support forums? I have a software person that would need access.
Community Resources:

• is there a link anywhere that describes how that works?
• How to upload? What to upload? guidelines?
• What is involved in deciding if something submitted should be listed? Any testing involved?

Re-selling the license questions - Not all of my ideas for forums have been successful.

• My understanding that selling individual licenses is not possible, but the entire account could be sold. Does that mean if several licenses are purchased then the only way to sell them would be to sell all of them together?
• How do you track accounts? email address?

Server questions
Is this the proper place to discuss things like nginx, Lighttpd, xcache? http://community.inv...ign-and-coding/

.

[Mark]

Hosted Community packages questions:
1. Anything above "Plus 40" includes them free. Below that, you can get them all for $7.49 per month. See: http://www.invisionp...ect_package.php
2. Once your payment clears, it'll be a few working hours to approve it and get you installed.
3. I'm not sure off hand - I'd drop the author of that mod a PM to see if it has any file edits.


Thread Preview.
I remember Matt (one of the developers) talking about this a little while ago... it wasn't added but it's probably just been overlooked. I'll ask him about it tomorrow.


Thread marking systems.
No, they will be unread until they are read


Converter questions - the downloadable conversion program.
a. I normally say we only support the latest version, but since vB are charging you for the "privilege" of upgrading to vB4, we will continue to support the vB 3.8 converter for the forseeable future.
b. The current policy is if someone asks for an older converter, they can have it, but if it goes wrong the answer will be to use the latest.


24 hour demo
Sure. Just create another one in the Admin CP.


IP General questions
1. Yes. They are subject to bi-annually renewals for support / upgrades of course.
2. No - all products are treated separately. If your IP.Blog license is active, you will have access to all privileges that entails regardless of your IP.Board license status.
3. Yes.


community.invsionpower.com forums
You can add what we call "alternate contacts".

Community Resources:
Not sure what you mean by this... the community resources section is open for anyone to submit mods/skins/articles to.
The resources team check them to make sure they work and do what they say they should, of course.


Re-selling the license questions
That is the policy at this time.
If you sell your account we can change all information on it.


Server questions
http://community.inv...s-optimization/

[bfarber]

Welcome to the forums here.

Hello. First post.

I apologize in advance if some of these questions are too basic. I did try to search for the information.



Hosted Community packages questions:

• IP.Blog, IP.Gallery, IP.Content are available, what is the additional cost for the addons? Do those come pre-installed if they are desired?
• Roughly how long does it take to make that active once ordered and paid for?
• It is my understanding that some Community Resources could be installed, is the thread preview application listed in this post one of them?

Unfortunately, I don't know much about our hosting packages or prices, so I'll skip #1. I do know some of the packages have a "suite" addon which adds blog and gallery (but not IP.Content), but I don't know which packages, the cost, etc.

We will perform the installation for you, yes. All orders are approved manually, and generally take less than a day. At that point, your installation request would be forwarded to our installation department, so you might figure 2 days from the point you purchase until IPB is installed and ready for you to use, depending on when exactly you submit your ticket. Usually it wouldn't take quite that long, but I prefer to estimate on the high side.

As for community resources, you can install any that don't require file modifications. When you use our community hosting packages, some of the files are encoded (and only work on our hosting), so you aren't able to edit those files. As such, any resources that require file edits you would not be able to install. As of IPB 3, however, most customizations can be accomplished through the new applications and hooks systems, so less and less resources require actual file edits.

The thread preview application you linked to is listed as an application, and shouldn't require file edits, but you might need to check with the author of the modification to be certain. As it's a paid application, I have no way to look at the code to tell you this, unfortunately.

Thread Preview.
Is it possible this product may give the vb thread preview functionality? When a mouse is placed over thread, the first few lines of the first post is shown? http://community.inv...-hover-preview/

Yes, that's how I understand the application to work. There's a screenshot here if it helps

http://community.inv...ord=8070&full=1

Thread marking systems.
It appears that IP.Board leaves threads marked as 'unread' until the threads are 'read', which is nice, the vb equivalent of "Database (automatic forum marking)". Is there a timeout on that? Will those threads be marked as read in 2 months if they were not read?

Threads are not automatically marked as read, no. A user can manually mark a forum (or the entire board) as read if they wish, however.

Converter questions - the downloadable conversion program.

• How long will vb3.8 be supported? The rest of 2010?
• Are the older versions of the converter available if vb3.8 support is dropped in the future?

1) I would venture a guess that as long as there is interest from converting users, we'll maintain this version of the converter. I would imagine this will be the case throughout 2010, yes.

2) Not generally, however our conversion specialist of course has older versions available. We also do custom conversions, if needed.

24 hour demo
Can 2 Admin accounts/logins be enabled for the 24 hour demo?

Yes - the demo is virtually a complete vanilla installation of IPB. You should be able to visit the members area and create a secondary admin account if you want.

IP General questions

• Are add on products such as IP.Blog, owned forever like IP.Board?
• If they are not currently active, but the IP.Board is, is access to the IP.Blog support forums removed as well as downloading newer IP.Blog versions? Or do all purchased add ons need to be up to date to have any support access?
• If IP.Board is purchased, are the PHP files visible? I understand the "Hosted Community packages" are not viewable.

1) Yes, any addon applications are "perpetual" licenses in that you can run them for as long as you want. Support and updates require the license to be active, however we do not require the license to be active for you to use the software itself.

2) If you have IP.Board license active, but not IP.Blog, you would have access to download IP.Board updates, but not IP.Blog updates, and you would have access to any IP.Board forums, but not any IP.Blog support forums.

3) Yes, our source code is viewable if you purchase a full license.

community.invsionpower.com forums
Can 2 people have access to the support forums? I have a software person that would need access.
Community Resources:

• is there a link anywhere that describes how that works?
• How to upload? What to upload? guidelines?
• What is involved in deciding if something submitted should be listed? Any testing involved?

You can add alternate contacts to your account in your client area upon purchasing a license, and allow alternate contacts to access the support forums. They won't be placed into the Active Customers group, but will have access to the peer to peer forums and resource areas.

1) How what works exactly? The resources area encompasses articles, links to third party sites, an error code database, phpdocs, files (such as modifications and skins) and more. It's probably hard to visualize without access (which requires a license purchase) so if you can clarify what you're after I can explain it a bit more.

2) The download manager installation here is used to share resources such as hooks, applications and skins. Graphic packs and php script tools (that don't necessarily require IPB to function) are also allowed. Once you have a license, you'll have access to upload resources to the areas you have a license for.

3) We do not test third party submissions, no. We DO, however, quickly test paid submissions (or rather, AndyF does the majority of this for us). We do NOT thoroughly test and debug such submissions, but make an attempt to ensure that what is being sold is what is advertised, and that no malicious code is included in such paid addons (and that they function to a reasonable extent). Ultimately we cannot be responsible for third party addons, but make every effort to ensure your experience as a user here is a pleasant one. If there are files that need attention, you can report them to us from the download manager pages directly.

Re-selling the license questions - Not all of my ideas for forums have been successful.

• My understanding that selling individual licenses is not possible, but the entire account could be sold. Does that mean if several licenses are purchased then the only way to sell them would be to sell all of them together?
• How do you track accounts? email address?

1) Yes, this is correct.
2) Primarily, yes.

Server questions
Is this the proper place to discuss things like nginx, Lighttpd, xcache? http://community.inv...ign-and-coding/

.

Personally, I would recommend to customers to use http://community.inv...s-optimization/

However, if you have general questions not related to IPB, you can use the forum you linked to, yes.

[bfarber]

Guess Mark and I crossed in our replies.

[Alex K.]

Heh, I was a few seconds from submitting mine too.

[Collin1000]

I wrote mine like 30 min ago, but it never got posted

[bfarber]

I would have approved it, but I didn't see it Collin. Wasn't anything personal I assure you.

The interwebz ate your reply.

[Collin1000]

I would have approved it, but I didn't see it Collin. Wasn't anything personal I assure you.

The interwebz ate your reply.

No offense taken, I just get grumpy when I research a presales topic and it doesnt get posted.

[Charles]

Abomination is going to get a big head with all these people rushing to reply

[Abomination]

I am overjoyed at the response! I do not wish to say anything negative about anyone or any company, but I will say this is a far different experience than what I have been accustomed to.

Community Resources:
Not sure what you mean by this... the community resources section is open for anyone to submit mods/skins/articles to.
The resources team check them to make sure they work and do what they say they should, of course.

I'm trying to ascertain the level of testing for the mods submitted. In addition I was curious if there were any guidelines for the people writing the mods, such as

• Work in these browsers (if it is a skin)
• work on these example databases (a few databases of various sizes, and table types)
• Minimum support schedule (if the person that wrote the mod disappears for 6 months, will the mod still be listed or removed?)

I just read Brandon's reply and it appears that the unpaid mods are not tested, and the paid mods get a quick test.

Do any internal black box/white box "test cases" exist? For example:

• click on new thread, insert various characters, attach certain file size, and not corrupt the database? or
• when doing a search for "testword" is should be able to find 33 instances in a particular test database? or
• possibly performance testing? A mod, or even the next version of IP.Board, should not degenerate the performance more than 10% using a standardized test?

Forgive me if my questions are out of line.

.

[Abomination]

Welcome to the forums here.



You can add alternate contacts to your account in your client area upon purchasing a license, and allow alternate contacts to access the support forums. They won't be placed into the Active Customers group, but will have access to the peer to peer forums and resource areas.

Thank you very very much for the welcome

What is a Active Customers group? What can that group do that the alternate contacts can not? I would imagine downloading the software, anything else?

...we ... make every effort to ensure your experience as a user here is a pleasant one.

Wow. You have *no* idea how much I appreciate that sentence! Thank you!

.

[bfarber]

Let's hope Mark isn't secretly writing his reply to this topic to sneak it in before I hit the submit button again...

I'm trying to ascertain the level of testing for the mods submitted. In addition I was curious if there were any guidelines for the people writing the mods, such as

• Work in these browsers (if it is a skin)
• work on these example databases (a few databases of various sizes, and table types)
• Minimum support schedule (if the person that wrote the mod disappears for 6 months, will the mod still be listed or removed?)

The amount of testing the volunteers do is somewhat minimal, but probably more than most do. AndyF tends to handle the majority of the resource site submissions himself, and we don't really ask him to check each and every modification line by line. Some modders have a reputation already, so once we know you generally submit good work, we're not going to go over your submissions very thoroughly.

The paid submissions get more scrutiny simply to mitigate problems as much as possible before they arise. However, we also don't deny submissions if they are encoded (for example). AndyF primarily tries to run down a typical installation and ensure the software seems to work as described. At the end of the day, the resource author is responsible for bug fixes and support.

There really aren't "guidelines" so to speak for third party resources. We have considered writing some unofficially (as in, it would be nice if they were adhered to, but we won't require you to) but have not yet. As for support, again we don't have requirements. Generally though if a modification is broken, you can report it as broken in the resources area, and if we can't get in touch with the author to find what the deal is it will get removed.

I just read Brandon's reply and it appears that the unpaid mods are not tested, and the paid mods get a quick test.

Do any internal black box/white box "test cases" exist? For example:

• click on new thread, insert various characters, attach certain file size, and not corrupt the database? or
• when doing a search for "testword" is should be able to find 33 instances in a particular test database? or
• possibly performance testing? A mod, or even the next version of IP.Board, should not degenerate the performance more than 10% using a standardized test?

AndyF quite frequently runs through installations of unpaid mods as well, though he's not require to. At the end of the day, all third party resources are not approved, sanctioned or supported by IPS, and we cannot be responsible for any problems with them. It is up to you to decide if you want to install resources from third parties, and if so, it is up to those third parties to support those addons.

There is no performance guidelines or testing for third party resources, no functionality unit tests, etc.

What is a Active Customers group? What can that group do that the alternate contacts can not? I would imagine downloading the software, anything else?

When you purchase the software, you will be moved from the members group to the "Active Customers" group. This gives you greater access on the board. The primary difference between your account, and any alternate contact that you might add, would be that you can access the customer lounge, in addition to the peer to peer support forums. Additionally, some forums or areas might be restricted to the customer group, though most are based on the product permissions instead.

[ΑndyF]

community.invsionpower.com forums
Can 2 people have access to the support forums? I have a software person that would need access.
Community Resources:

• is there a link anywhere that describes how that works?
• How to upload? What to upload? guidelines?
• What is involved in deciding if something submitted should be listed? Any testing involved?

Yes you can add an alternative contact to your account, they will then be able to access the peer to peer support area(s) for the products to allow them access to.

The Resources can be found here , I also have some links in my signature to specific sections. You will be able to browse the Downloads section and read (although obviously not download)

Uploading is a very simple matter of simply filling in a form with the Resource title / description and the file, possibly uploading a screenshot too along with some optional information (for example you have external link to a demo of the Resource), the upload screen is not really that different to the posting screen in the forum apart from having a few more box's near the top. Say if you would like a screenshot.

We do perform some tests on submitted resources before they are approved for download, without going into too many specifics the testing involves checking they are safe and they are what they are described as.

[Abomination]

Thank you for the answers! Much appreciated!

The Resources can be found here

I have been reading that page non-stop since I found it, incredibly well set up. How was that page created? IP.Content? custom? another product?

I am quite interested in having a similar page with different content relating to what our forums topic. I'd like to sign up for a Hosted Community for evaluation purposes and want to what I should order.

Also, I am having trouble using this forum (community.invisionpower.com)

• I can 'watch' threads, but am unclear how to keep track of watched threads. vb uses subscribed threads and userCP
• Searching for members. With so many references to AndyF, I viewed the members list and tried to do a search. I found 'filters', and did find an andyf with 0 posts, but no AndyF. It could be a permission issue, but I can see AndyF's profile.

My question is this: can a non-IPB person owner ask those types of questions (and where), or is there a guide for vb people? I found this LINK but I am interested in more basic information.

Alternatively, when I sign up for a Hosted Community, will I be able to ask those questions? If so where?

Hopefully those will be my last questions in this thread.

?

[Charles]

The resource section is using IP.Content to run with IP.Downloads for the files.

You can managed any watched topics here: http://community.inv...&area=topicsubs

It might be that AndyF is not in the normal members group so perhaps you were filtering him out? You can always just click his name for profile info.

Feel free to ask any questions here before you purchase. After purchasing you can post in the peer-to-peer support forums or just open a support ticket with questions

[SkimPappa]

Click on the drop down menu on the top right by your name, chose my settings. Click the forum tab, then on the left is the manage subsciptions/watched content.

[SkimPappa]

The average user can get help, by clicking help under their name at the top right. It has documentation to assist people with using your forums.
http://community.inv...ore&module=help

I set up a re-direct forum called help pointing to that. It helped out my members.

[bfarber]

Thank you for the answers! Much appreciated!





I have been reading that page non-stop since I found it, incredibly well set up. How was that page created? IP.Content? custom? another product?

I am quite interested in having a similar page with different content relating to what our forums topic. I'd like to sign up for a Hosted Community for evaluation purposes and want to what I should order.

That page was created using IP.Content.

Also, I am having trouble using this forum (community.invisionpower.com)

• I can 'watch' threads, but am unclear how to keep track of watched threads. vb uses subscribed threads and userCP
• Searching for members. With so many references to AndyF, I viewed the members list and tried to do a search. I found 'filters', and did find an andyf with 0 posts, but no AndyF. It could be a permission issue, but I can see AndyF's profile.

When you watch a thread, it's added to a subscription panel. You can view your watched threads on the board index in the watched threads sidebar plugin, and from your usercp.

http://community.inv...&area=topicsubs

Based on your notification preference when you watched the thread, you'll get an email for updates made to the thread as well.

For #2, that's not your fault, so don't sweat it. The "A" in "AndyF" isn't a latin "A". He used a unicode letter that appears like an "a" but isn't really. So searching for him is quite...difficult (unless you copy and paste his name into the member list).

My question is this: can a non-IPB person owner ask those types of questions (and where), or is there a guide for vb people? I found this LINK but I am interested in more basic information.

Yes, alternate contacts can use the peer to peer support forums all they need.

Alternatively, when I sign up for a Hosted Community, will I be able to ask those questions? If so where?

Hopefully those will be my last questions in this thread.

?

We have a client area where we provide official support. Yourself and your alternate contacts can use this method to communicate with us directly for support and assistance. Alternatively, peer to peer support can be obtained in our resource forums (to which you won't have full access presently).

http://community.inv...-ips-resources/

[Abomination]

Awesome!

That page was created using IP.Content.

Then IP.Content would be of great interest to me. This page:
http://www.invisionp...ect_package.php

Lists Blog/Gallery/Downloads as available, but does not list IP.Content as being available. Is that page out of date? Can I order IP.Content with a Hosted Community package?

I could call your incredibly helpful 800 number again, but the answer may be of interest to others if they find this thread.

[Charles]

Yes, you can get IP.Content on the community hosting. It's included in the bundle (sorry the isn't up to date on that).