Why is Invision so popular?

[Trix.Neo]

Hi Just wondered why this board is so much more active than the phpBB2 forum, is it a lot better or is because you get more bugs :D ?

nEO

[cbosdell]

i'm not at all saying Invision Board is not a great peice of software and the best of its kind on the market today. However the quote of his i gave are just one of hundreds he made in the 1.x days of IPB and personally its kind of ironic he said IPB 2.0 will be free yet he made a liar out of himself.

If I had the money to spare I would use IPB for my web site ONLY because there is nothing better out there.

However, Matt Mecham Promised IPB would always be free and more specifically 2.0 and he lied. I don't like liars very much.

[Tomi]

You twisted my words. What I said was any major security holes that need fixing. Its only the right thing to do if you are going to for years say it'll ALWAYS be free but anyways thats not what happened so why dispute it?

Invision Board Through 1.2 I believe was completely free then with 1.3 they made it a free unlimited trial thing which was one step closer to paid. Then with 2.0 they spent months hyping its release and it was released and a few hours later the free unlimited trial download was taken down and it was announced they were going paid only and all the free people don't matter,

So Basically -- Matt Mecham and everyone at Invision Board are evil scum liars who try to cover up or ignore the fact that they are but -- Invision Board is simply the best product around. :no:

Edit: Oh yeah I Just found this little quote of his :D :

I didn't exactly twist your words; I meant that if the free version was still being updated with security patches [like you said] and it was prefectly useable, then why should people waste money when a perfectly useable forum software is right there infront of them. They can easily make up for the paid board's features with modifications.

Telemacus - Thank you. I just about lost faith in Neowin's members, because everyone was just focusing on the decision to make it paid, and calling him a liar because of that. They're failing to look beyond his mistake, and into his past, and see how great of a guy he is. And I'm not being biased either. Sure, I agree it was wrong to turn it paid, lieing to your users like that, but it had to be done, it's understandable [to me at least, dunno about the close-minded people].

[Dayu]

Thanks goodness there is SMF.

I don't have to go through all those difficulties & complexities covering IPB/S.

[»X«]

First of all, I'd like to invite all the people who have written negative comments about Matt Mecham to do a thourough research (using google) of his career so that you can get your own personal and unbiased opinion. Mine is not unbiased...

Personally, I don't trust people who make defamatory comments on someone simply because they had one bad experience.

I'm an IPS customer and I've followed up Matt's work for years, and I can honestly say that he is one hell of an outstanding individual.

I think Matt has made an incredible contribution to the internet comunity since the early days of "Ikonboard", which, I remind you, was a perl based forum that he created from scratch. This forum was completely free throughout its history and, at the time, it was one of the most robust perl based forum systems that you could find.

He spent thousands of hours developing his software and I can confirm that he spent incredible amounts of time on it: I'm not sure whether Matt actually slept more than 5 hours a day in those days... but I doubt it.

At the time Matt used to tell people that Ikonboard would always be free, and he kept his word. Hundreds of thousands of people all over the planet were able to use his software and thousands of webmasters were able to build communities where communication, what a great word, was possible.

(It's somewhat ironic that his the software that he created can also be used to put him down with allegations which are so completely unfair.)

When Ikonboard grew more than was originally expected, some "unethical businessmen" took advantage of Matt's lack of experience in the business world, and basically stole all his work with a contract which he signed, but whose contents I'm not sure if Matt understood correctly: he lost Ikonboard and never made a cent out of it. Read my lips, I repeat: He was exploited, they stole his work and he never made a cent out of it.

Perhaps this experience changed Matt's outlook of life... maybe it made him realize what a business was all about and how nasty things can get when you find some unethical people in your way.

Matt had to start from scratch. He could have given up and nobody would have blamed him, but no... he was a fighter and came back with invisionboard.

The early versions of Invision were free. It is true that in those days "always free" was still part of Invision's motto, and one day it did change...

The allegations that Matt lied to everyone are a bit absurd. Ok, perhaps "always" was an ill chosen term in their motto, but Matt had been giving us, the community of people who used his software, more than we could ever have expected. It is completely unreasonable and unfair to expect someone who had given so much to others, to abide by a statement he had made a long time ago. Matt had evolved as a person and from a professional stand point, he had given up his job and invision was... well... his whole creation and his whole life.

What happened with the release of version 2 has not been explained correctly, but to claim that it was a machination to get people hooked on it and then tell them that it wasn't gonna be free, well... it's quite silly. Invision made a business decission, it wasn't popular and some people felt disappointed, but there was a huge comunity of coders who created mods and gave support and this made the last free version of invision a perfectly viable alternative to version 2: those people could still use the software if they wanted to.

Today Invision board is, in my opinion, the most robust, dynamic, professional forum software you can possibly get. It has been coded with an amazing logic which only exists in Matt's mind, and that's part of of the software's success.

IPS is growing and hiring new programmers and workers every year. New products are currently being developed and will be released over the next few months and will make a webmaster's life a lot easier...

Of course they'll make mistakes... sometimes they'll let you down, others they will surprise you with their assistance or the release of a new product... you have to put everything in the scale and decide if it's worth it. In my case, it is definitely worth it and I'm not surprised that amongst others, Neowin, with over 5 million posts on its database, still uses it... [ I'm sure Neowin has had a lot of offers from other forum developers... ;) ]

Matt? That you?

[Leddy]

That long semi-rant sounded a lot like Matt himself writing in 3rd person.

[Nashy]

While people can say this is the best, there will always be people who believe in VB, and also the best free alternative out there, phpBB.

phpBB 3 (Olympus) is going to give the two big commercial guns a run.

[Mouldy Punk]

While people can say this is the best, there will always be people who believe in VB, and also the best free alternative out there, phpBB.

phpBB 3 (Olympus) is going to give the two big commercial guns a run.

If it's ever released :laugh:

[Cellocity]

Its secure, and its not free anymore.

[Michael_C]

IPB is a better software product, but a lot of their sales came to be because IPS(The company) released version 2 betas for free claiming that IPB will always be free, and then when it became final, they made it into a pay product and anyone that wanted to keep their board but didn't want to buy it was left with a buggy board with security holes that wouldn't be fixed unless they bought the final version of 2.0.

IPB is a great product, but don't trust IPS.

Actually they claimed it would always be free back at about v1.0.

[xpwhittyx]

I was under the impression that Vbulletin was the best message board software, what are the advantages/disadvantages of invision compated to vbulletin?

[cbosdell]

Actually they claimed it would always be free back at about v1.0.

indeed. from 1.0 to 1.2 it was always and forever completly free. Then 1.3 introduced the Unlimited Free Trial crap which we ALL knew was a step towards Paydom, then Matt posted that quote I gave insuring to everyone 2.0 would be free and then made it paid all of a sudden. :yes:

[Tomi]

While people can say this is the best, there will always be people who believe in VB, and also the best free alternative out there, phpBB.

phpBB 3 (Olympus) is going to give the two big commercial guns a run.

Just watch, phpBB will go paid too. :laugh:

[Mouldy Punk]

For those of you complaining about IPB not being free anymore, think of it this way;

Have you spent hours, weeks, months of your own time developing software for others to use for completely free? Have you had to get out security patches quickly? If not, shut up :p I don't blame the guy for charging for his products, if I was him, I'd do exactly the same. I don't know if he "promised" that he wouldn't charge for it, but hey, people change their minds. Maybe his financial situation changed, maybe he didn't have as much free time anymore and needed extra money so he could take time off work and develop the software or something. Who knows, fact is, you get what you pay for. I'm sure that IPB would not be up to the same standard if it were free and the devs did it entirely in their own time. I doubt new releases would come out as often. Look at phpbb, how long does it take them to bring out new releases?

[MindTooth]

The only reason I can find for making ppl angre because IPB costs money. Is because its an outstanding piece of software..

And for the ones who asked about IPB vs. vB? Look here: IPB Forum and vBulletin. You see a different? vB looks like hell! (And yes, I know you can download skins)

[NickTheGreek]

i have even found a skin that makes IPB look like the vbulletin site u posted... but way better !

anyway, it is common that in terms of ease IPB is superior to VB

[EddieF]

IPB is a great product and the best forum IMO.

HOWEVER, Matt and Charles both are to never be trusted. They promised a free product. IPB was founded on the princple of being free. It is why they left JEG (ikonboard)!!! Supposedly JEG wanted to start charging for Ikonboard, so Matt, Charles, and the rest of the team packed up and started IPB. Some time later... they start charging for IPB with no notice.

Literally overnight IPB became paid-only. Matt himself always said up to that point that IPB would ALWAYS be free (as was quoted already).

I was member of the orignal IPB team that migrated from the ikonboard team.

I don't deny that they have every right to profit from IPB. I do not trust their motives or business tatics!

[Hexter66]

i have even found a skin that makes IPB look like the vbulletin site u posted... but way better !

anyway, it is common that in terms of ease IPB is superior to VB

I completely agree with ya on that, I tried IPB and VB myself, vb has more features but the way the software was written the code didn't seem as clear as IPB, while IPB is much easier to use and the code much cleaner then VB.

As for phpBB, I like phpbb but they are just not as progressing as fast as IPB and VB :( , I been waiting for phpBB 3.0 so I just throught I give up and go for another board instead.

[forster]

IPB is nice, but Matt Mecham is an Ass....

For real.

[zeke009]

As far as all time biggest boards go phpBB has some much bigger ones than IPB. Go to www.big-boards.com and see for yourself. IPB is better because it has a dedicated staff to work on it. phpBB only has volunteers who work on it when they feel like it (which isn't very much IMO). I used to be a big fan of phpBB but after posting on their development board they've turned me off. The devs are quite rude and to be frank, it shouldn't take 5 years to release a new version...volunteer or not.

A group of people I game with are currently looking to convert from phpBB2.x to IPB. I've been loitering on these boards for a long time and have gotten pretty used to IPB. Some of the stories about the company are cause for alarm, but everyone seems to agree that IPB is the best board available. I understand that phpBB is a free community driven board, but we can't wait forever to get the new version.

I/we selected a "perpetual license" of IPB over vBulletin because This will give you a perpetual license to use Invision Power Board for one installation and access to all future versions. vBulletin charged $30 per year after the first year for updates.

[Michael_C]

The new version of MyTopix will be technically far superior to anything else out there at the moment, it's my pick for the best software around.

I was under the impression that Vbulletin was the best message board software

:rofl:

[Neil]

The new version of MyTopix will be technically far superior to anything else out there at the moment, it's my pick for the best software around.

:rofl:

Yeah shame about their host screwing up though, when is there new version coming out?

[Marc A.]

the issue is even if people depend on it a lot of people dont have the $60 or so a year to spare.

I mean no insult here, I've been broke (and practically still am), but sparing $60 per year is nothing. If a person can't gather $60 over the course of a year, there is something wrong.

[Neil]

I mean no insult here, I've been broke (and practically still am), but sparing $60 per year is nothing. If a person can't gather $60 over the course of a year, there is something wrong.

Even though I am a phpBB user I can agree with that, also if they can afford to pay hosting, they can afford a priced forum.

[WormTongue]

I was just recently in the market for a forum and i couldn't decide between IPB and VB. When i started looking deeper at the two companies, i found out a lot of the same things everybody is saying here. IPS has done some shifty things in the past and nobody really trusts them. I think a company's rep directly reflects the type of software and support you will recieve. With this knowledge, i bought VB.

Now, IPB may be easier to use and may look nicer, but if i have to send money to a company for a product, i want to be treated fairly. I was worried that i wouldn't get my updates or support when i need it. So far, VB has been awesome for me, the support is super fast and the software rocks.

[Reko]

Myself, I think IPB is the best forum software on the market, but IPS is a generally bad company.

Around the era of 1.0 to 1.1, Matt generally tended to state that IPB would always be free in some form or another. Around 1.2, I believe Matt very tentatively tried to introduce some license changes (involving the addition of the '(U)' to the copyright, I believe). I seem to recall a lot of people were annoyed by this. With 1.3.1, it changed to an 'unlimited trial' period, which many people were annoyed with the nonspecificness of, and others simply ignored due to it's vaugueness. 1.3 is seen as the last 'truly' free IPB.

I -think- 1.3.1 and 2.0final had the same license. About a week (maybe shorter) after 2.0final was released, of course, it went paid.

I don't have a problem with IPB being a paid product. I think IPB is the best product on the market, and if IPS had started their business to have IPB paid from the beginning, it'd all be fine. Heck, even if it was free and they made it paid later would be okay, if a little annoying.

The point is that Matt stated that it would always be free (in some form or another), and then broke his word. I don't have a problem with business decisions, but the pursuit of money seems to commonly erase peoples previous promises. I believe Matt was 'observed' (in the 'Who's online' section) editing 1.1 release posts in the announcement forum; the places he'd stated his words on how IPB would always be free and so forth. They also erased the General Discussion forums to purge any potential references to it.

I believe there are a few other reported incidents regarding IPS, customers being banned unjustly, etc. I don't have links to those, however.