Whilst I am looking forward to 3.2, I have a few concerns/questions the way the product is going.
IP.Subscriptions - Sorry to see this free app go and be replaced by a paid app @ $75 & $70 a year. If all a site wants is subscriptions buying Nexus is an expensive option, even if Nexus is great and offers so much more. We have moved on from Subscriptions, but it is a very useful app for sites just starting out to earn money from their sites and then be able to afford to upgrade to Nexus. Will the ability to show adverts in IP.Board remain as this is also within Nexus?
IP.Portal - a very useful and simple app to go and again being replaced by an app costing £50 and $30 per year. If all you want is a home page, buying IP.Content is an overkill. As far as I know one cannot create a simple home page and easily modify it daily as you can with Portal. Please if you can, show me how & prove me wrong.
IP.Calendar - this is being moved out of 3.2 into a separate app. Will this remain free and operate without the need to have support contract in place? The reason I ask is because it is mentioned alongside IP.Chat which is a free/paid app, but the free part is limited and requires a support contract.
Are any other apps being split off from the main IP.Board and if so will any of these cost money or require a support contract to operate?
Essentially depending upon the answer to the calendar, version 3.2 is going to cost at least $125 more and $100 a year more to run than 3.1.x - whilst I appreciate both these apps will be in the marketplace for a short time they are suddenly made EOL which means that there will be no update and no official support.
I am concerned that IPS is starting to go down the route that another forum company recently went down, i.e. seeing what else we can charge customers for that previously was free / included. And I honestly thought I would never think that.
The topic announcing items changing in 3.2 is being modified rather than being added to, therefore one cannot tell when it is changed and what is changed in it. Would it be possible for that post to be replied to with fresh changes, otherwise potentially large changes might be missed. What is large to one site, might be insignificant to another.
3.2 is already looking like an excellent product which will serve sites well and we have not yet got to the good bits being announced - however governments / companies are very good at hiding bad news alongside good news, so whilst the positives are great, it is the small negatives that concern me especially when they start costing a lot more money.
As we currently have 6 or 7 IPS forums, with more planned, I am concerned that we are looking at a large figure to do exactly the same as now. With some time before 3.2 we do not know if these costs will increase further. If there were no cost implications moving to 3.2 it would be excellent, but that is not the case.
