the one thing I hate about IPB

I agree, I remember upgrading AdminBB from XenForo beta to RC when it was released months ago (XenForo is at a stable version now), it broke a few mods. Doesn't happen often but it does happen.

 

That's why no matter what. I always upgrade on my dev box first. Too much to lose.

 

Yea people should have a demo forum, or a local installation to test new upgrades. Thats what I do, I always test it before upgrading.

 

I just hate the 6 months license cycle.
I'll move to IPB with full feature if they provide lifetime license.

 

They used to offer lifetime licenses and I know a few friends that have old ones from when they did.

 

What?

It is 6 month renewal for support and new versions.

Your license is good forever. Having renewed support, it allows you to have access to all the new software without having to pay again full price.... unlike VB.

You buy VB3.... when 4 comes out, you are SOL. You have to pay again full price.

With IPB, if you have 3.4.x.... when 4.0 comes out, you get that for free, or if your support/renewal was not active, you can pay $25 and you get full access to the new version.

We have yet to see if XenForo will let you do that.

Otherwise, no one is forcing you to pay the renewal fee.

I think IPB's licensing program is by far the best out there. If you do not pay for the active support, they will not deactivate your software.

 

They are lifetime licenses.... as all the new ones are. The guy just does not wt heck he is talking about.

I do get it, it is tough to understand.

The renewal fee entitles you to all the major updates, as well as the ongoing anti spam protection and free support.

The renewal fee is not to keep your software going.

 

what about the minor update?
do I had to pay $25 for the minor update too?

 

Security updates are free.
Forum license comes with 6 months included of support and updates. After 6 months, if you want access to updates, yes, you must pay $25.

Now... lets say you bought 3.2.3 3 years ago, or whenever, and have not updated or renewed since.... and you wanted to update now, you just pay $25 and you have access to the newest 3.4.5. Same thing for 4.0 when it comes out.

There are other things when you have multiple licenses, but not letting that one out of the bag.

The thing is though, an IPB update.... even the minor ones are quite extensive and add features... not just fix bugs.

Security updates are always free for the past few major versions... ie... currently on 3.4.x, they support all the way back to 3.2.x

If you are a licensed customer, you would realize the IPB licensing program, is by far.... the best bang for your buck.

I gladly pay my $125 or so renewal every 6 months for all the add ons and licensing for 4 licenses.

Then again, you cant look at it simply as "too much".... ask yourself... for the money you invest in renewals and any software, will you get your money back? For me... a resounding YES!. The IPB software has generated a good enough annual salary.

I really tried to look hard at XenForo.... but... by stepping down to XenForo from IPB... yes, my licensing fees would be lower.... but I would lose thousands of dollars a year because XenForo does not support the functions and programs IPB is running and generating me cashflow.

 

I used to have one of the "life-time" licenses, but I gladly gave that up for the spam protection. I do understand how it can be expensive for a lot of people, but I will pay it to have a good product.

 

I had to get my forum's custom layout redone or upgraded quite a few times already. It looks pretty different than it originally did while my Wordpress remains the same. Now with IPB4 it'll require another new remake.

I'm all for innovation, but I've grown tired the lack of backwards compatibility with at least the themes. All they do is add gimmick piss to gain new costumers.

With that and the editor aside, IPB is amazing.

 

To be fair, most forum software changes the basic theme in every version. Perhaps not WordPress (although that's debatable itself), but stuff like web browsers, operating systems, video game systems, etc change their entire design in every iteration and require you to reset any form of customisation as a result.

And I'm not really sure how IPB could work round that. How could they make it so already existing themes are compatible with any new features/massive structural changes made between versions?

 

I still haven't figured out IPB's plugin system. I need what should be a relatively simple mod, but I haven't made heads nor tails of the documentation yet. I might even have to hire somebody to do it.

 

Wordpress adds new theme related stuff, but there's backwards compatibility.