joncanning87@gmail.com

It's very sad that a free alternative (Word Press) is leading the way.

Now I do not expect Invision to be exactly like Word Press, but it would be very encouraging if they used it as a general idea of where they should go & actually think of them as competition. The only downside to Word Press is it's not typically made for a community.  This may all soon change as there is growing development in that general idea.

It seems as though everything has been re-written or at least has that general feel in The 3.2 Preview & yet there was no preview or hint to any improvement of Invision Blogs.

I would not like to see & would be very disappointed if Invision followed the footstep of vBulletin and allow their blogging package to their community suite, to become so near being (if not already) obsolete & something not worth investing into.

A further example is that, vBulletin / Internet Brands made the promise that they would improve their blogging system after the release of vBulletin 4 and now 2 years later and with the development of vBulletin 5 in the works, this promise has not been fulfilled and seems more like it was a simple (false) sales pitch to their customers.

I worry about Invision Power Services following the same path and would like to see an overall improvement with the release of their blogging package with the release of Invision Power 3.2

Haku2, on 11 December 2010 - 07:53 AM, said:

Billing Team Pop In Some Times So You Mite Be Lucky

The mobile market for communities has exploded and we have responded by offering a great, new mobile skin for IP.Board and its applications. There are inherent limitations in a mobile skin that are difficult to work around such as image uploading, logging in, and more that are either impossible or just tedious on a mobile device.


IPS is happy to introduce a new iPhone app to solve these issues and add new options!


Easy Login to all your IP.Board Communities



You can add a list of all the IP.Board-powered communities you visit and save your username/password to those communities in the app. You now have one-tap access to all the communities you visit. No need to tap out your login each time you wish to visit the community of your choice and easily switch between all the communities you visit!

Uses Standard Mobile Skin



When you visit the community, you will see that it uses the standard IP.Board mobile skin available standard in the platform. We considered creating a native interface within the iPhone app but there are several advantages to using the built-in mobile skin:

• Common user experience - regardless of a user visiting through the iPhone app, normal browser, or any other mobile device they will have a similar browsing experience on your community
  
  
• Design control - As the owner of your community, you want complete control of the look, feel, and branding of your community. If we were to create a native, standardized interface then IPS would be in control of that look: not you. We obviously never wish to get between you and your visitors so using the mobile skin allows for you to have complete control of the look of your community.
  
  
• Advertising Control - Much as above with the look and feel: IPS does not want to get between you and your advertising revenue. By using the standard mobile skin, you are free to place your own advertising and sponsorships. Tap into the mobile market without worry about a third-party getting in the way!
  
  
• Native Interface Option - If you did want a native iPhone interface, there are great skins available from third-party skinners in our community that will make your community look like it's running right on the iPhone while still maintaining the three advantages above.

Member Status Updates



Your members can update their IP.Board profile status right within the app without having to navigate to any other page. Even better, if you use IP.Board's built-in Twitter and Facebook integrations, your members can even update the status on your community, their Facebook, and their Twitter all in one click! This allows your community to become the center of their online social experience.

IP.Gallery Integration



If your community has our IP.Gallery image gallery software installed: your members will be able to upload images, videos, and camera shots directly from their iPhone to your community! Members can select their source, write a caption, description, and even choose from the albums they have created on your community to upload their media.

Sharing



Two simple but easy sharing functions are available: open in Safari and email. Found a great topic on a community you visit and want to share it? Just click email and send it to a friend. You can also open the community in Safari to bookmark a page or perform other functions available in the OS browser.



Pricing and Availability

It's already done! Please note that the app will require IP.Board 3.1 is installed to communicate with your community. Also please note that this is not an application which is supported via the Ticket System. For all assistance with it, feel free to use the Peer to Peer Support section that was created for it, here:  http://community.inv...ne-app-support/

We are happy to say that the IP.Board iPhone app will be available totally free to all! There are no ads from IPS in the app or anything intrusive that will distract from your community.

Future Ideas

This is the very first version of the iPhone app and we have tons of great ideas to improve it and will continue to do so over time.

Yes: we will be creating an Android platform app as well. (highlighting since many have been asking and didn't notice this line)

We will also be creating an option, for a small fee, to create a private-label version of the app for anyone who wants one that can only be used on your community. Information on the private-label service will come after the app has gone through a few maintenance updates.

Other fun features like mobile access to the Community Directory and Push Notifications for new activity on your community are already in progress! Stay tuned!




Important Notes

Because of Apple's approval process, the version of the app available in the App Store is now a couple weeks out of date. It therefore has a few known issues that have already been addressed. We have submitted an update to the app for approval to Apple that will fix these issues and are waiting for its approval. The update will show in iTunes like any other app.

As of this moment, you can use the app here on the IPS Community. We will be releasing an update to IP.Board 3.1 Beta 3 (and included in final version, of course) to support the app.

If you find issues, please post in our bug tracker and if you have suggestions we would love to hear them in our feedback forum.

Sure can.

Log into your ACP, and go to Report Center  >  Overview  >  Plugin Manager (left hand side of the first page)

Edit the downloads plugin to set the usergroups.

We have identified an issue with the Calendar application present in IP.Board 2.3.6 and 3.0.5. This issue can allow a visitor to delete events in the Calendar even if the user does not have the proper permissions to do so. Other than the ability to delete events without permission there are no other security risks with this issue.

Please apply this patch if you are using IP.Board version 2.3.6 or 3.0.5 and you are using the Calendar application. If you do not use the Calendar application then there is no need to be concerned with this update.

Patch files are attached to this topic. The main downloads for IP.Board 2.3.6 and 3.0.5 have been updated.

IP.Board 3 was released on June 25, 2009 and through the various update cycles is now a stable, mature product with a version 3.1 release forthcoming.

So that we can focus all of our development, support, and service efforts on our new version 3 platform, we are announcing the end of support (sometimes called end of life or EOL) for the following IPS software versions (and earlier versions than those listed):

• IP.Board 2.3.6
  
• IP.Blog 1.4.2
  
• IP.Gallery 2.2.4
  
• IP.Downloads 1.2.2

Technical support, installations, and related services will end for these products on July 1, 2010. On that date all technical or service requests will be advised to simply upgrade to the most recent versions of the products. We will not force upgrades but will also not be able to diagnose issues or answer questions relating to the older software. Also, on that date, IPS will no longer address any new issues or bugs reported in the older software versions.

Security Updates

In the event an issue is discovered impacting the security of these older versions of the software, IPS will provide a patch posted in our announcements forum. We will continue to provide security updates until January 1, 2011.

We are pleased to announce IP.Content 1.1.2 has been released.

This is a maintenance release for IP.Content, our community content system, to fix issues reported from the 1.1.1 release. The following major changes in IP.Content have been introduced in the 1.1.2 version:

• Stability and performance enhancements
• Better MSSQL support
• Database feed plugin added
• Relational field plugin added
• Option to control truncate length of fields in listing
• Member lookup field plugin added

Please review this blog entry for more details.


Downloading

You can download IP.Content 1.1.2 if you have an active license in the client area. As always, make a backup of your community before proceeding.

We are pleased to announce Invision Power Board 3.0.5 has been released.

This is a maintenance release for IP.Board 3 and addresses various bugs, security enhancements, and performance improvements.

Major Changes Since 3.0.4

Among many dozens of smaller bugs fixed and performance improvements, the following security enhancements were made:

• SQL and local file include issue fixed. Note: Due to protection within the SQL driver classes, it is very difficult to effectively exploit IP.Board using this attack. Also you need moderator permissions to perform any exploit. We've hardened this code regardless. Also, due to the input cleaning functions IP.Board uses, the local file include is limited to PHP files on the file system as the usual 'null byte' trick is ineffective.
  
• Internet Explorer XSS Issue due to incorrect attachment handling fixed.

Downloading

You can download IP.Board 3.0.5 and any applications you have an active license for in the client area. As always, make a backup of your community before proceeding.


IP.Board 2.3.6 Security Update
Below is a zip containing the patched files for 2.3.6.
 ipb236-dec-patch.zip   14.09K   1216 downloads

Hello all,
I have seen IPB's SEO is poorest SEO i have seen comparing to other Forums especially when compared to vBulletin, IPB is far away.
I think IPB should work a lot on it. Even on google's first page out of 10 are 5-6 vBulletin Forums, & IPB's 1-2 Forums.
Hope to see IPS improves it.

We are pleased to announce that IP.Gallery 3.1.0 is now in the beta testing stage, and has been installed on this board for public testing! This update brings many refinements, performance optimizations, and new features, including:

Friendly URLs
IP.Gallery now makes full use of the IP.Board FURL system. Categories, albums, images and more now have the friendly URL structure you're familiar with.

Image notes
Image owners are now able to add notes to sections of their images, positioning and resizing them to suit. Other members will be able to see the notes when hovering over the image. (An example)

Image rotation
Images can now be rotated in 90° increments, to compensate for those photos taken in landscape or portrait, but saved in the wrong orientation.

New slideshow
We have completely rewritten the slideshow feature! It is now a unified interface, loading images on demand as necessary. Users can play or pause the slideshow at will, or jump to specific photos using the thumbnail bar.

Profile picture album
You can now create a new kind of album, a 'Profile Picture' Album. After this album has been created, any images that you upload to it will be displayed on the change picture page in your User CP, making them easy to select as your profile image.

Sub albums
Albums now support unlimited sub albums, which work exactly like gallery sub categories.

Category & album covers
It is now possible to specify one of the images in a category or album to be the cover of that category or album. If a cover image is specified, it will always be displayed for that category or album, instead of the last image thumbnail.

Friends-only albums
When creating an album, users can now choose to restrict viewing to only those users who are on their friends list.

Reputation support in comments
We have added support for IP.Board's reputation feature in comments posted within IP.Gallery.

Interface tweaks
We have updated the style of categories so that larger versions of the image are used, to give more impact. The image listing has also been updated, and will now show as many images on a row as the users browser can fit. This should improve the display of IP.Gallery for users who have higher screen resolutions. The image view screen has also been improved, including support for those features mentioned above.


Look around the Gallery we have installed here on the IPS community and let us know any bugs or issues you come across in the Tracker. We hope you enjoy using the new features in this update!

View the full article

Over the past couple weeks we have announced and offered several special pricing promotions. The response has been overwhelming to say that least. IPS staff would like to take this time to publicly thank all of our customers who have helped us answer questions from those considering our software and shown, not only how powerful our software is, but how welcoming our customer-community can be.


This announcement reviews all current offers and gives everyone one last chance to take advantage of these historically low prices in IPS products. All offers end November 2, 2009 when our new "the more you buy the more you save" pricing is launched.

If you have ever considered IP.Board for your community, now is the time!


The special offer referenced below has expired.

Community Suite Promotion

The current Community Suite package offered for sale on our web site has been available for quite some time and features a bundled deal to purchase IP.Board, IP.Gallery, and IP.Blog all at once. It has been a great way for customers to purchase those products at once for a discount. However, the package was introduced before we had other products like IP.Downloads, IP.Content, and more.

The downside is that some clients want to mix-and-match from our various product line yet the Community Suite is the three products listed with no other options. It also becomes difficult as IPS adds more to our product line.

Therefore, starting November 2, 2009, we will be discontinuing the Community Suite purchase option. On that date it will be replaced with a discount option based on the simple premise of the more products you purchase at once then the greater your package discount grows. It's only fair to offer a greater discount based on your purchase volume while still offering you flexibility to choose which products you want. We will have information about this on our web site when available in November.

Last Chance to Purchase Community Suite

If you are interested in our Community Suite be sure to order before November 2 to lock in the price and the renewal offers.

Pricing Benefits

Ordering products (Board/Blog/Gallery) separately: $264.97 up front plus $100 per year for support/services/upgrades
Ordering products through Community Suite: $249.99 up front plus $50 per year for support/services/upgrades

Special IPS Product Line Offer

Until November 2, we are also offering a special for those wishing to purchase the entire IPS product line. If you are interested in all that's offered under the Community Suite (Board/Blog/Gallery) plus IP.Downloads and IP.Content you can purchase all of these products for just an additional $50 (total of $299.99 for all) on top of the Community Suite price. That's a savings of $50 compared to buying separately. Standard renewal terms apply. Purchase special offer... it is only available by reading this announcement - not mentioned anywhere on our web site!


Special Switch to IPS Offer

From now until November 2, anyone looking to switch their community to our powerful line of software can do so for a reduced price on the Standard licenses. We are lowering the price on the Standard license from $149.99 to $124.99 for just 4 days. Take advantage of this very low price if you have ever considered giving our software a try! (No coupon code required. So as not to exclude anyone: existing IPS customers can purchase at this price as well.)


Volume Pricing

Note that volume pricing is a new, permanent pricing feature and will remain in place beyond November 2.

It has been requested and we are now happy to announce volume pricing for customers wishing to purchase multiple IP.Board licenses. If you have at least two full-price, active licenses for IP.Board then you will now be able to purchase discounted Standard licenses for just $99.00. Renewal fees will remain the normal price. For customers who purchase more than 25 licenses, their price drops to $49.00.

As with any great deal there are terms and conditions. To qualify for purchasing additional licenses at a discounted price: you must have two full-price licenses (Standard, Business, or Community Suite licenses qualify) with their support and service renewal ($25/6 month) paid plus any existing discounted licenses must also have their support and service renewal paid as well. Applications will also be offered at discounted prices if they are associated with a discounted IP.Board license. Discount pricing for applications will be available in the client area and will range from $30 - $50 depending on the application.

We are pleased to announce Invision Power Board 3.0.4 has been released.

This is a maintenance release for IP.Board 3 and addresses various bugs and adds in some enhancements to existing features along with performance improvements. Also, IP.Blog, IP.Gallery, and IP.Downloads have received a maintenance update.

Major Changes Since 3.0.3

Among many dozens of smaller bugs fixed, the following large changes and fixes have been made in the 3.0.4 release:

• IP.Board: RTE support in Safari and Chrome
  
• IP.Downloads: Option to not check filetype for linked files

Downloading

You can download IP.Board 3.0.4 and any applications you have an active license for in the client area. As always, make a backup of your community before proceeding.

We are pleased to announce Subscriptions Manager and MSSQL Database Drivers are now available.

The first supported versions of the the Subscriptions Manager application and MSSQL database drivers for IP.Board 3 are now available to license holders in the client area.

IP.Subscriptions 1.0.0

IP.Subscriptions is an application that allows you to set up purchasable subscriptions for your community.

If you are upgrading from IP.Board 2.3.6 then you will enjoy the new features:

• Numerous bug fixes
  
• Ability to set 'Protected Groups' for member groups that are protected from the change of primary member group when promoting and demoting
  
• Ability to set a secondary group instead of updating the primary group
  
• Ability for members to cancel a recurring payment without losing their current subscription
  
• Enhanced interface for members
  
• Sidebar hook to show current subscription and when the next payment is due
  
• And much more...

IP.Subscriptions is available to all IP.Board active license holders and IPS community hosting customers at no charge.


MS-SQL Database Driver

The MSSQL driver will enable you to install a fresh copy of IP.Board 3 or perform an upgrade from 2.3.x on Microsoft SQL Server 2005+ or SQL Express. Full text searching is also available. Unlike previous releases, all the files for all applications are contained in the one ZIP file for ease of use.

Hello,

I searched in my admin panel, but couldn't find this feature; I was wondering if you can add the option to disallow potential members to signup using the same password as their username (username=password)? This is a big security issue with forums at the moment as you could just extract the member names and bruteforce the forum. The current "login security system" does not block this even if you dont use proxy servers, due to the fact that you are targeting seperate member accounts instead of the same member account.

I know that it is plain stupid to use the same username as your password, but there are just many people out there who still prefer to do that to remember their password easily.

Looking forward to your reply.

Thank you.

Cem

How about an addition to this, on the registration screen let the user, choose a RANDOM generated password (based on what they want) - than have it e-mailed to them (incase they ever forget).