Invision Power Services
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Invision Power Services, Inc. (sometimes abbreviated IPS) is a software company established in February 2002, probably most well-known for Invision Power Board. Some other products include Invision Community Blog and Invision Gallery, both of which are implemented as plugins for Invision Power Board. IPS also provides Web and forum hosting.
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[edit] History
Invision Power Services was created when Matthew Mecham and Charles Warner left the company known then as Jarvis Entertainment Group (now Westlin Corporation). Mecham, the original author of IkonBoard alleged that JEG intended to charge for the software rather than maintain its free status. A large number of supporters from Ikonboard followed Matt and Charles to the new company.
Initially Invision Power Board was free, including user-provided support, and the company maintained the product would remain free. The license has since been changed incrementally, so that the free version became an unlimited free trial. On September 27, 2004, IPS announced in a press release that the free trial download was to be withdrawn from the Invision Power Services site, and the product moved to a paid-only model with a 15 day hosted trial. This move invoked much criticism, since there had been numerous bug fixes and suggestions incorporated into Invision Power Board from its user base who thought that the product would always remain free. This move disenfranchised many users, who for one reason or another, refused to pay for an IPB license. Eventually, the 15 day encrypted file trial was discontinued and replaced with a shorter trial available on IPS servers. Some have criticised this change as hypocritical as Invision Power Services was started in protest to JEG's desire to sell IkonBoard and is now selling its own product despite its assertions that the program would remain free.
On July 13, 2005 Invision Power Services announced that they would discontinue IP Top Site List and IP File Manager. [1]
On February 2, 2006 Invision Power Services announced that the new official resource site named IPSBeyond had completed its BETA phase. IPSBeyond was then opened to IPS Customers paying for Yearly Support. [2] With the opening of IPSBeyond, the Customer to Customer Support forums were closed.
On September 20, 2006 Invision Power Services announced to offer continued product and support enhancements they have implemented a change to their pricing and license structure for Invision Power Board. Gone are the Yearly and Perpetual license purchase options which caused much confusion as their differences were often not clear. The new license options are Standard License, Business License, and Enterprise License options. It was announced that all current licenses are still valid for their duration. Any renewals, etc. of current licenses will adopt the new license offerings. IPS also added their IP.Community Suite: a single purchase which encompasses their entire suite of community products - IP.Board, IP.Gallery, IP.Blog - for a significant discount off purchasing them separately. All of the changes brought much controversy. [3]
[edit] Current products
[edit] Invision Power Board
Main article: Invision Power Board
An Internet forum software package written in PHP, comparable to other bulletin boards, such as vBulletin, phpBB and others. It is a commercial product, but there are large communites dedicated making free modifications.
Invision Power Board is developed by Matthew Mecham and Brandon Farber.
[edit] Invision Community Blog
Invision Community Blog is a community blogging system that plugs straight into Invision Power Board.
Invision Community blog is developed by Remco Wilting (nicknamed "Wizzy" online).
[edit] Invision Download Manager
Invision Download Manager is a download system built to integrate with Invision Power Board. It is currently in use at IPSBeyond and can be obtained by clicking here.
Invision Download Manager is developed by Brandon Farber.
[edit] Invision Power Gallery
Invision Power Gallery is a picture gallery system that plugs into Invision Power Board. It is available for purchase from Invision Power Services
Invision Power Gallery was originally developed by Joshua Williams, but is now managed by Brandon Farber.
[edit] Products in development
[edit] Invision Power Dynamic
Dynamic is a commercial content management system still in development but a public beta is expected to come out later this year. Key features include member management, page permissions, subscriptions, page rollback, content blocks, content groups and file management tools. This product is now entering the beta stage and a release is expected next year.
Invision Power Dynamic is developed by Matthew Mecham.
[edit] Invision Power Vectura
Vectura is a webmail system designed to look and feel more like an actual desktop mail application.
Around the 25 February 2006, Invision Power Services seem to have removed the link to Vectura on its main site and the discussion for it on the community forum. Some users are speculating that it might go into public beta while others are thinking that they have so called "pulled the plug" on it.
A recent post by the developer assigned the Vectura project has mentioned that he has been assigned to other projects and that he will resume work once those projects are finished. The categories and links were removed only to make sure there was no confusion by visitors. There is no plan to "pull the plug".
Vectura is managed by Rikki Tissier.
[edit] Invision Power Nexus
Nexus is an online billing and support system for selling web-based products such as web hosting and software. Key features are client areas, a support system, a knowledge base, automated hosting tasks and customer management.
Invision Power Nexus is managed by Joshua Williams.
[edit] Invision Power Connect
Connect, when it was announced on October 21, 2005, was intented to be a product to help clients and businesses communicate through text chats. Its integration into Nexus would be key because it would share the same client database. Currently, the status of Connect is "unknown"; it was originally planned to be developed by Adam Kinder before he left the company. The official topic announcing this product has been deleted from the company forums.
[edit] Invision Power Converge
Converge is IPS's answer to merging multiple user databases together. It will allow "ready" applications like IPB, Dynamic and Nexus to plug into Converge and all share log-in details. Appllications don't have to be on the same server to connect, but they all must have access to a central database. Converge will also allow multiple versions of the same software, like IPB to "link up" and share login details. The product is currently in 'public beta' stage - and all IPS customers owning an IP. Board license can download this beta, and will be allowed to download the final version for free (providing you have access to IP. Board downloada) When Nexus and Dynamic are released, it is IPS' plan to release Converge to those users for free also. Converge cannot be purchased seperatly, as it is designed to only work when integrated with other IPS products, though there is developers documentation available to integrate your own applications.
Converge is co-developed by Joshua Williams, Matthew Mecham and Brandon Farber
[edit] Discontinued products
Invision Power Services has, in the past, released products and services which have since been discontinued.
[edit] Invision Power File Manager
Previously named "Aquonics File Manager", this was a multi-user web-based file management system. This is still available on the developer's website.
[edit] Invision Power Top Site List
A top site list featuring integration into Invision Power Board. Members have now gone on to create their own mod topsite for people to use on their boards. The link can be found in the different links below.
[edit] Invision Power Chat
A rebranded Java-based chat solution which was integrated into Invision Power Board.
[edit] Services
Invision Power Services has since diversified its offerings to include services such as web hosting and dedicated server hosting. Since all of Invision's customers must use web hosting in some capacity, this is probably a lucrative source of second income for the company.
[edit] Current Management
Lindy Throgmartin - Chief Executive Officer
Charles Warner - President
Matt Mecham - Chairman and Chief Software Architect
Debbie Ruff - Customer Accounts Manager
[edit] External links
Official
