rbiss

Shigure, on 10 May 2012 - 09:12 AM, said:

Not even close

I'll tell you the problem with agreeing to disagree on this case, and that's the fact that Invision themselves are refusing to consider making a small change so that all of their customers can at least have a choice as to whether they want their communities to be accessed via these new generic apps.

Their public reason for this (as repeated time and time again) is that they 'don't understand why anyone would want to block the app'. That's a weak argument, I don't understand why some options exist in the ACP now, I go onto forums and don't understand why some things are set up as they are, I come on here and wonder why certain staff members talk to their customers as they do, but that's their choice and doesn't mean I'm right in my view. The point is each Invision customer should have the right to decide how their forum works and how people access it, it's as simple as that.

I personally don't think it's much to ask, and if that option were available then I'd be satisfied even if I have serious misgivings about both the way this app has been implemented and the reasoning behind it.

The long and short is that brand Invision is not the reason people visit communities, the reason is the content and the work of the various brands who license their product. IPB need to recognise that fact and allow their customers to maintain control of their own brands/communities. Some people don't want to become resellers for IPB, they don't want to create a mess by having one app and replacing it with another later and they don't want to have something forced upon them without an opt-out.

I don't think it's much to ask, a simple ACP option to disallow access to the app and it's job done, why the issue?

The main reason for me is branding. I intend to buy the white label app so that I can have my own icon on peoples' phones. I do not want the instructions to access CheersandGears.com via iPad to be "Click the Invision Power app."   I don't want people using this app in the meantime before I'm able to roll out the whitelabel one.

CheersnGears, on 09 May 2012 - 03:10 PM, said:

Agreed.

Aiwa, on 09 May 2012 - 04:06 PM, said:

But I really wish that InvisionPower would ​listen to their customers on this​

so just a quick questions to all of those clients defending a company for free. Do you guys defend your government when they increase your taxes? Do you defend your landlord decision to raise up your rent?

I just don't get it. Person X says this app should be free. Person Y, who is also a client, call it ********?

We actually have very good sources of revenue that provides free access to everyone.  Free is key to us.  Something, as essential as an app, should be free to everyone.  I don't want to have to use a white label version.  I want to minimize the amount of administering to keep our community active while I focus primarily on content.  I've been relying on Invison to keep up their end of it to provide robust solutions.  In my humble opinion, this solution adds a barrier and it just doesn't make sense to me.

Please don't tell me again that if I don't want to use or pay for the app, then don't.  I have no problem personally paying for an app. I appreciate the effort it takes to design and develop applications.  I am speaking for my visitors and members whom I don't believe should have to pay for direct access to my forums via an app.

Just like "video killed the radio star" so has the App (and tablet) killed the web and browser as we know it.  I suggested in the other thread that I'm sure many of you have followed about Forums and Invision being toast in 5 years, that it isn't because of Facebook, rather it's because of the App that our forums will be dead in 5 years.  I believe a robust, freely accessible App (not just a mobile skin) is essential and we should ALL be pushing it on our forum members and visitors as quickly as possible in order to keep our forums competitive and active.

I am the publisher of 14 apps for the iPhone, iPad, Android and Kindle Fire which have been extremely sucessful. iBird was featured in an Apple "we have an app for that commerical" in 2009 which turned it into an inccredible succssful brand overnight

I think I know a lot about the app market and I can tell you that charging $2 for this app is a huge mistake. Since the IPS forum already works fine in Safari there is no compelling argument for anyone to spend $2 for this app. But even more important the app could serve as a way to promote the IPS forum products. You should use ti to show off every feature of he forum, including chat, the gallery and so on.

If you do the math imagine you sold 10 board subscriptins a month (with support options) by offering the app as a way for potential customers to sample the features of the forum softwre. That will make you far more money than you will ever get frm app sales. There are so many powerful free apps out there that offer tons of functionallity, so I just don't see the reasoing for putting a $2 road block in the way.

PS a factoid - each review of an app represents between 50 to 100 copies sold.

A cost associated with it?  I Can't ask my users to actually buy an app for mobile access.

.Brian, on 03 May 2012 - 12:57 PM, said:

So it's end users responsibility to know which forum version every site is running?

I chimed in on a pre-existing thread, but I think it's worthwhile feedback, from a new adopter viewpoint.

From our perspective, the new app could be the best app since angry birds or (to use a far more USEFUL example) omnifocus, but with any price tag associated with it for casual members, it's totally irrelevant.

That said, it's GREAT to see solid effort going into what already is a huge market share (mobile) that will continue to increase for the foreseeable future.   We'll be waiting (as patiently as possible!) for the "White Label" version so that our members and our site can benefit from the effort IPS has put in.  Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the backlash from the membership if we were to roll out the $1.99 version would be very counter-productive for our community building efforts.

I totally understand that IPS needs to recoup the costs of the app creation and maintenance, but I'll be interested to see how the sales of the $1.99 app vs the sales of the White Label free for members version compare in the long run.  

Kudos to Charles and all the IPS staff involved in the production of the new app, and we very much look forward to being able to use it!

James

There has been a sidebar poll addon for IP.Board 3.1. I am wondering if there is a new sidebar poll for the current IP.Board version. I know that xenforo has a sidebar poll addon which really looks good to me. It would be great if something like this would be available for IP.Board.

Enkidu, on 15 April 2012 - 05:41 PM, said:

I'm not sure I completely understand your point. Sure, many communities have "gone" -- many more have come. I've seen many leave Facebook as well. Many more have joined.

Once again, forum based communities and social media such as Facebook serve two very different purposes, as I see it. Communities have never been more popular, actually. Large companies are flocking to communities for support communities, fan-based communities, etc. Clubs such as auto enthusiasts, medical-based, etc. are creating communities to share information with the community and unite users with common interests. The list goes on and on. The communities that used to consist of 20,000 "lolz"-esque posts are struggling due to lack of subject matter. It's easy to blame that on declining popularity of communities or SEO -- the reality of the matter, however, is people are taking random thoughts and ramblings to social media.

If you have a community with content, you can actually leverage Facebook et al to your advantage by letting your users "spread the word" and in a few clicks, your users' friends can become members as well.

When I click on status updates from the panel I get to see all the recent status updates. What I expect next is that if I click on the status update that I can see the comments for that status.

I know it has been mentioned before but I have to say it again. I'd give about anything to have global sidebars on my forum. Right now I've got the sidebar active on the portal and forum index, but it would be VERY useful to have it on every page. (forum view, topic view, ect). I just moved a site from vB to IPB and this is the only problem I've ran into. Thanks for taking the time to read my suggestion.