Invision Community just discontinued their marketplace

[PrettyPixels]

I was very surprised to see this.

Marketplace Closure

We would like to take this opportunity to inform you of an important decision we've made with regard to the Invision Community Marketplace. After careful evaluation and consideration, we have decided to discontinue the Invision Community Marketplace, effective October 30, 2023. Over the past seve...

invisioncommunity.com

 

[digitalpoint]

Doesn't surprise me that they would stop using on their own site to let third party developers sell things. You take on some liability for the things third parties are selling (like if someone tries to sell something that isn't theirs to sell/pirated code, and you are making a cut of that money, you are now a party that piracy), marketplaces open to third parties tend become rampant with fraud attempts.

What does surprise me is they are discontinuing it as a product to license though. But also understandable because developing marketplaces is no joke and from a business standpoint, it probably makes more sense to spend that development resources on something easier that more customers would have a need for. I have firsthand experience because I developed a vBulletin 4 marketplace, then one for XenForo 1 and also one for XenForo 2. It's a LOT of work that usually isn't worth the time/effort.

 

[MySiteGuy]

I'm not in the least bit surprised. For years, Invision has been on a trend of pushing out hobbyists while claiming they support them, censoring those who disagree and outright banning others. This can potentially confuse many people who have used and relied on the Marketplace facility inside the control panel to purchase addons.

 

[Davyc]

censoring those who disagree

Me! I wouldn't accept the puerile warning they issued me with so I can't post there not that I'm bothered lol. Seems like for an American based company they don't follow the concept of their own constitution with regards to freedom of speech. Disagree and get censured. I'm more than happy to have my three XF licenses and feel no need to comment on the product or the developers as the product is top notch already and the developers are super friendly @Chris D please check your messages inbox there is someone who wants to migrate to XF but has questions, with thanks

As for IPS pushing out hobbyists, I would say that's a given.

 

[digitalpoint]

Seems like for an American based company they don't follow the concept of their own constitution with regards to freedom of speech. Disagree and get censured.

Not to go off-topic, but the "freedom of speech" argument has no basis because they are not a government entity. If freedom of speech was applied to things like websites and businesses, it would be illegal to delete spam or moderate posts because doing so would be restricting the user's freedom of speech. Imagine the Internet where "freedom of speech" was a law on sites you host (you must continue to host any/everything that a user posts because not doing do is violating their freedom of speech.. spam, porn, whatever...)

Just like freedom of speech doesn't allow someone to write a message on your car that can't be removed, your website is also your property... you have control over if you want certain messages to be published.

No non-government website could possibly adhere to the principles of freedom of speech because then users can literally post whatever/wherever without any moderation whatsoever.

First Amendment and Censorship

First Amendment Resources | Statements & Core Documents | Publications & Guidelines “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to...

www.ala.org

The First Amendment only prevents government restrictions on speech. It does not prevent restrictions on speech imposed by private individuals or businesses. Facebook and other social media can regulate or restrict speech hosted on their platforms because they are private entities.

...That being said, I don't know anything about Invision or what they are moderating/deleting, but I do know that whatever it is is perfectly within their rights because they are not a government entity. And if people don't like whatever they are doing, they can vote with their money (it sounds like you did exactly that).

BTW, there's also no freedom of speech on this site either.

 

[Suzanne O]

That's probably a blessing in disguise.
Their agenda was to rip everyone off with their own products.
looks like that's what their aim is still.

Gee it will annoy some of their members.

 

[Davyc]

@digitalpoint hey I see you're based in San Diego - my mate lives not far from you in Sante, small world. I take your point regarding the constitution; I can only go by what my American friend tells me as I'm not American lol. On a personal note, I don't believe in any kind of censorship other than that which revolves around any kind of hate, but then that's me as I like a good juicy debate

 

[digitalpoint]

elieve in any kind of censorship other than that which revolves around any kind of hate

Yep, born in San Diego.

In principle, sure… but in practice it’s not realistic. Would you allow me to come to your site and post spam porn under the guise of freedom of speech as long as it’s not hateful? It also gets tricky even with “anything but hate” because hate is subjective.

Anyway, doesn’t have anything to do with the original topic, just saying freedom of speech is an absolute impossibility even in principle (if not a law for website owners).

Unfortunately I have far too much experience trying to get 1,000,000 Internet strangers to get along and dealing with the spam and whatever else that goes along with it. Then spammers crying I’m violating their freedom of speech by deleting their “helpful messages”.

 

[KensonPlays]

I was researching IPS (mostly due to the visual page builder they have) but with their insane pricing, which makes it not worth it at ALL for hobbyists, but this in addition? Likely never going to consider them again in the future.

 

[MySiteGuy]

I don't see it as a free speech issue as they are well within their rights, and free speech only applies to the public square, and public property. I see it as petty company founders and employees. Doing what they do, they've lost the debate regardless of merits of their views.

Lately they've been pushing out things which historically pleased the user base (like the marketplace) and helped keep people as customers longer term, in favor of short term income and expense reduction. I see classic signs of an exit strategy in action.

 

[TPerry]

As for IPS pushing out hobbyists, I would say that's a given.

They've slowly been doing this for a few years. They just can't afford to totally alienate them right now as they are still a noticeable income stream for them.
I have to wonder if their "Provider Directory" is going to be similar to XFRM, or if it's simply going to be a link directory add-on.

 

[dilbert]

I have to wonder if their "Provider Directory" is going to be similar to XFRM, or if it's simply going to be a link directory add-on.

Providers Directory

invisioncommunity.com

Also, one of the devs has offered to start a marketplace-like site.
I find this very troubling.
IPS has more of the features I wanted than xenForo, but they took a few away over the years. Now they took away the marketplace.
I'm not sure how long I'll stick with them; it would be nice to see some progress at xenForo.

 

[Muddy Boots]

I went from vB (some prehistoric version) to IPB many years back, 3 licenses, it was good back in the day, I could see it coming, they are not interested in the small customer, or the marketplace developers, some developers jumped ship a while back, I saw the writing on the wall a year or more ago and left for Xenforo - never regretted it - log back into IPB once every 3 months or so and see it just getting worse.......

 

[Muddy Boots]

censoring those who disagree and outright banning others

Yep, happened to me, was on cloud hosting after being on a dedicated server run by myself, I had a lot of issues, support was slow and buried there head in the sand, in the end I posted in their customer area and stated all the facts, basically showing their cloud hosting had many issues, deleted and I was warned and even got a PM from the hmmmmm the lead developer (cant remember his name) - didnt even read it - left after that..... The cloud hosting was swopped to XF and that was a ball ache getting a back up from them, but when we swopped, all the problems went away.....

 

[nodle]

I recently got censored over there a couple of weeks ago myself. They started to switch their licensing and pricing without telling anyone again over there until a member found out and brought it up. I brought it up asking for clarity on the new pricing and licensing. The next thing I know I get a warning that I am indefinitely moderated over there. It happened not just to me but to others as well. There is a thread here on The Admin Zone about it. So, I switched back to Xenforo and am enjoying it once again.

 

[Suzanne O]

Had this happen to me when on another then free site called forumer.
I chose my board and needed help with something and they banned me. I then went to proboards and actually got hacked and banned by someone over there.
Went to invision free and had people following me around from bigfooty.com
went to vbulletin had my first board for a year. Then they made us get a new upgraded board.
came over here because i wanted something different.
kept getting into strife so i took a break from here. Returned about 3 years later. Haven'ooked back.

 

[Forsaken]

Who would have ever thought that increased focus on enterprise and businesses would affect their third-party marketplace sales? It's almost like enterprise and businesses avoid using third-party software because it is a risk they usually cannot take.

Also not surprised to see that they're much the way they have always been, which is why I still won't touch their products.

 

[Suzanne O]

Who would have ever thought that increased focus on enterprise and businesses would affect their third-party marketplace sales? It's almost like enterprise and businesses avoid using third-party software because it is a risk they usually cannot take.

Also not surprised to see that they're much the way they have always been, which is why I still won't touch their products.

This.

They've always been a bunch of snobs when it comes to asking for help over there. Banning people and warning them. Kind of reminds me of some other forums i've been on.

 

[Forsaken]

This.

They've always been a bunch of snobs when it comes to asking for help over there. Banning people and warning them. Kind of reminds me of some other forums I've been on.

never been banned, and I think I have a total of 8 warnings on every site I have been on, most of which were soft verbal warnings.

 

[TPerry]

Also not surprised to see that they're much the way they have always been, which is why I still won't touch their products.

They have a decent product, a pretty (or was until they started paring back what their add-ons offered) well rounded suite of products.
IPS and XF have two totally different mind sets (as evidence by them offering a suite and trying to do more in core vs depending on outside developers to extend the base script like XF does).
Each script targets a different audience. I like their script.. it's other issues that keeps me from using their product unless it was a last resort.