We're back online: Invision Byte 2.1!

After almost 4 days we are finally back online with IP.Board 3.1.4 and other big changes!


Originally I had planned on upgrading this site back in February but because of several issues and delays everything got moved until last weekend, so as a first thing let's take a look at the changes the site has undergone:

• IP.Board upgraded to 3.1 and all addons installed as well
  
• Everything related to paid modifications will now be handled with IP.Nexus
  
• Paid modifications now have 6 months of support/download access and require a renewal after that time
  
• Twitter, Facebook and OpenID login modules are now enabled
  
• Other minor changes/updates which most likely nobody wants to read

IP.Board 3.1 & Addons Upgrade

As you can see the board is now upgraded to 3.1, previously we were still running on 3.0.5 (or I should say 3.0.6 since I had back-ported several fixes from 3.1 ), and along with that, all the applications have been upgraded, IP.Nexus has been installed too. Furthermore I will now be able to take advantage of the new IP.Downloads features to add multiple files in the same record and save a changelog without having to manually include it in the description each time.



IP.Nexus & Paid Modifications Changes

Let's start with some history first: Originally when I started selling my modifications way back in July 2007 I had a really small customer base and support was an easy task but as I continued growing and selling more and more modifications the amount of customers and the time needed for supporting them is now a lot higher and takes up a huge amount of time. Therefore, unlimited/lifetime support is no longer an option anymore for me and I have decided to switch to an IPS-style business where after 6 months you will need to pay a small renewal fee to continue getting updates and support (currently renewals are $5 USD for each modification).

I have finally installed IP.Nexus and everything related to paid modifications will be handled with it from payments and custom requests to downloads and support. I was intending to implement this change a long time ago (February 2011) but as I mentioned earlier the site upgrade got delayed because of several different problems.

[warn]From now on those that have purchased modifications more than 6 months ago and their purchases have expired will still be able to download the old version available in the Old Client Area until 1^st August 2011 when I will then take it offline permanently. Every other customer that has purchased anything in the last 6 months will be able to download the new 3.2 version of the paid modification from the New IP.Nexus Client Area as they become available. The last few modifications for 3.2 to be completed are expected very shortly (I'm aiming to have them all complete for this weekend) but your patience is appreciated for any unforeseen delays.[/warn]

There are also other minor changes related to paid modifications support:

• The old "Customers Corner" forum has been renamed to "Customer Lounge" and will be used ONLY for peer-to-peer support between customers, for official support use the "Support" section in the new Client Area.
  
• Customers with all their purchases expired are automatically moved in the "Premium Members" group instead of the original regular member group. The Premium member group has some more benefits compared to a normal member account, and of course after a renewal or a new purchase your group is updated back to the "Customers" group.
  
• I will try my best to support my modifications on custom skins but please bear in mind that the modifications code is designed to work with and based on the default skin and there are a lot of custom skins around, I'm a modder not a skinner so my help on that will be limited and on a case-by-case basis. For skin related issues on a custom skin you should contact the skin's author as a first step and then if they have any questions on the mod templates/functions I'll be very happy to answer them.
  
• Thanks to the "Incoming Emails" option in IP.Nexus there are 3 new options:
  
  • Customers can now email "support [ AT ] invisionbyte [ DOT ] net" to create new tickets and get support, however please be sure to use the same email you used to register on Invision Byte to send it or it will not be associated with the proper account.
    
  • For any sales/billing related issues or questions you can email "sales [ AT ] invisionbyte [ DOT ] net"
    
  • For any custom requests you can instead email "custom [ AT ] invisionbyte [ DOT ] net"

Switching to IP.Nexus will also help speed up the support process which became slightly slower of late due partly to myself and also to an email issue which has now been completely rectified after the switch.


If you have any questions on the status of your paid modifications or indeed any other related questions to the changes please let me know and I'll reply to help clear any concerns. If you'd like to discuss privately and not post here in the topic just submit a ticket in the new Client Area NO PMs please, I get flooded with those and as I have already mentioned official support or related issues must be dealt with in tickets.

[warn]Another quick reminder: As I have already mentioned several months ago support for any IP.Board 2 modifications is not available anymore. IPS have dropped support for IP.Board 2 a long ago now so this is your last chance to get a copy of any IPB 2 mods you might have purchased before I take the old Client Area offline since I will not be converting those legacy purchases over to IP.Nexus![/warn]


Paid modifications for IP.Board 3.2

IPS has released IP.Board 3.2 today and as I mentioned above I am working on the upgrades and I hope to have them ready for this weekend in case you missed the paragraph.


Twitter, Facebook & OpenID login modules

I originally wanted to enable Facebook on the previous version but as usual FB decided to change (yet again) their API and I had to wait for the upgrade to IPB 3.1 to enable it, furthermore 3.1 comes with the Twitter login API and while I was at it I've decided to enable also OpenID too. I was intending to also enable the Live Login but I had some troubles with the MS application which I'm still sorting, hopefully I'll bring it online soon.



Thanks for reading and I hope that everyone enjoys the new version!
Terabyte