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Legionaire

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I have been an IPS customer for a number of years now (15+) and over the years it has become increasingly harder to justify the costs of running a forum.  Is it IPS trying to force out the small players and only focus on Big businesses ?  Not sure, but it is becoming rather costly to keep an IPS forum up-to-date when the recurring costs keep mounting upwards.  With that being said, I would like to know two things

  1. What are your feelings about IPS and
  2. What is your second (or maybe at this point your first) choice of forum/arcade software ?

 

I have done a lot of looking around and there are some fairly good choices out there, but none that make me want to switch as I believe the arcade here is much better than most I have seen

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I can't give any good suggestions. IPS is great software, but that is as far as it goes. I have been with them since before 2008. I have seen the switch from forum communities, to business ventures. However, I think they are going to fall flat on their faces before long. The giant WordPress blog is taking over the business sector from IPS. They upgrade too much, nearly each upgrade breaks things, which has led developers to realizing there is a cash cow in charging high prices for mods that were once free, and then tacking on 6 month renewals for upgrade support for the mods. You can't find free themes hardly.

 

This arcade is the best I have seen. The ONLY reason I use IPS, is to host my own community, so I don't have to deal with ads, and have total control over a reliable self downloadable database and my complete backups of the forum structure.

 

There is no way to thank you, and tubesock for the work and resources to bring the arcade to those that want to have one.

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I have had the best gambling den with the forum software WBB 2.3.6.
The gambling den was from a German coder HopfenSchlodel.
When creating the gambling den, the developer planned years in advance, he has integrated HTML5 for years, but unfortunately never expanded it.
The gambling den had so many options and could do it all.
Unfortunately the forum software WBB 2.3.6 will not be further developed, otherwise I would still be there and have a great arcade.
Then I wanted to be on phpbb 3's and was the last of the garbage.
VB5 didn't have a nice arcade.

I will continue to consider whether I should continue upgrading IPS.
The plugins are slowly becoming very expensive.
The problem is that you want to offer something, but nobody uses it.

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Thank you Marco for your feedback, it is much appreciated.  VBulletin is considered the #1 choice for forum software but, as you said, there is currently no Arcade software for VB5 and VB4 arcade is no longer being developed by dragonbyte but Stangger still has a functional VB4 arcade that is pretty good and is available to download from the vbulletin.org website although to get the most up-to-date arcade for VB4 you would have to get the addons that stangger has incorporated from him and I do believe there is a cost involved.  I will let Stangger comment more on that.

 

PHBB has a good arcade but the one who codes it has a bad attitude and because of that I have not followed that software in a few years now

 

SMF has a pretty good arcade and I am sure that the developer will adjust his software if what you are seeking makes sense to add it in his script.  Very nice coder who will listen to your comments.  The SMF software is FREE and so is the download of the arcade, I believe there are some PAID and FREE addons for the arcade as well

 

I am a believer in tubesock and THANK him for all of the current work he has put in and will stay here to see what that future brings.  I am not leaving IPS and the arcade we have built, just trying to get a feeling on how everyone else feels about IPS and their marketing techniques base on other forum software that is available and how our members feel about the arcade tubesock has built here (please keep in mind this was a complete rebuild from 3.4 to 4.x)

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I have been with IPS since around 2007. I have always liked and enjoyed IPS, we use to have access to quite a few free mod.'s now applications and plugins. But during the last few years IPS in getting to big for there britches, the applications and plugins are outrages with there costs. I just put out way over a hundred dollars, CND to USD, for Commerce and it comes direct from IPS and they do not even install it for you. I am not good at using the FTP so I had to hire it done. Seems like all we do is pay and pay, like every 6 months and whole pocket full of my money goes out. With the hosting I am going broke, I am a senior on a limited pension. I do this for the enjoyment I see others having.

 

I have used and still do use SMF, I am friends with quite a few of the people who run SMF. I have been a Beta Tester for SMF 2.0.18 and SMF 2.1RC3. Yes most I'd say 99% of SMF is free  to download, including plugins or mod.'s and theme skins, there are some coders on there own who develope  mod.'s and sell them, but far and far you can get a free one to do the same. I am also good friends with Chen who is the developer for SMF Arcade, I also do Beta Testing for the SMF Arcade 2.6.5 RC-6 upgrades as they come, these are not released to the public, but I do have two other SMF forums using this arcade. I have worked with Chen, and had him add HTML5 games, he has also added Ruffle to the arcade.

 

It is a good arcade, plays all the same type of games we use and enjoy on our arcade forums. I have been bugging Chen to add features to the arcade so he can have some competition. I have asked him to add features like Game of the day, Game of the week, Game of the month, Challenges. His arcade does have a feature called the Arena, where you can challenge others. He says someday he try to do this..

 

SMF Arcade is a good arcade, but no where near as good as the ipsProArcade is. This is by far the best arcade I have seen and used. phpBB has an arcade but the guy who holds it is a nasty guy, and you must be invited to join his forum.

 

So in my opinion, due to Legionaire and tubesock we have one hell of an Arcade going, could it be better, of course but with time it'll get even better. It's just that how many of us can hold on the IPS much longer.

 

My 2 cents

Ron.

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I'll be honest, the arcade here is great.
There is nothing like it at the moment.
The admins here are great too.
You are doing a great job.
The arcade has potential and there is still room for improvement.
You can add a lot, which of course takes time.
Develops add-ons that cost a little, they want to buy them too.
E.g. subcategories, bounty hunting, tournament announcement for the forum index etc. ...

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All I can say is 'Ditto' to what everyone has said so far. Ipsproarcade is the best of them all, it's purely down to the cost of hosting these sites, donations are far and few these days especially with what is going on around the world in general.

I would sooner pay for the arcade we have now than have a free one that doesn't meet the standard we have now.

 

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The only reason why i ma still on IPS is your arcade. IPS become money hungry and problem is that you must have all sofware and apps and plugins latest versions - you can not download your (our) paid files and not at all some versions before. Should recommend @tubesock and @Legionaireto try make arcade for vb5 (all mods and very useful plugins are free) and you can download them.

 

Already made vb5 site to make some tests and soon will move (with arcade) :biga:

Maybe also downgrade to 4.4.10 (worked fine and have all plugins and apps on harddisk!

Edited by bosss
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1 hour ago, Legionaire said:

IF you had one thing you wanted more than anything else added to the arcade, what would that be ?

To make own tournaments in arcade.

 

Before we made so and was very popular!

 

Made one usergroup (arcade players)

Made one category with 10 games and only players who will play tournament could see games in that category.

Made tables with players name - games name and places (with points) for players

 

Player who win tournament - got some diplom (picture) with his/her name and datum and what tournamet was!

 

 

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Just to be clear, I am not planning on switching to any other software.  I was only trying to get a feel on what everyone else thought and it appears they have the same conclusions that I do about IPS moving slowly but surely to become a business software provider which, in the long run, puts the pressure on us smaller forums as to who can afford or not, their ever increasing prices for mods and addons and their every 6 month renewals.  For me though I keep my costs down by not bloating the forums here with a lot of the addons that I personally do not feel are needed

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Same Here LG I put it to a members poll to see which addons they wanted or used and a lot of the members weren't even aware they were installed. So like yourself we have saved money on not renewing and just leaving until they no longer work at which point they will be un-installed.

One thing I would like is at present we can integrate the Chatbox for notifications i.e. game installs the problem being is if you are installing say 50 games you don't really want it to take over the chatbox with 50 notification, remedy is to switch off game installs. how about a system where it counts the number of new installs but instead of it doing the full 50 new games if it sees more than say 5 games it simply notifies that 'New games have been installed'

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On 3/29/2021 at 5:08 AM, marco2306 said:

I know the VB5, I tried to get the arcade to work with stangger5, unfortunately without success.
There was no support, or he was too lazy.
But he wanted money for the premium version.
If even the light version doesn't work, what should I do with the premium.

 

That kind of sounds, like your calling me lazy.

 

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8 hours ago, marco2306 said:

No stangger, you did a great job.
I meant the coder who programmed the arcade.

 

it would depend on which arcade you were trying, Dragonbyte Tech made one that never seemed to work correctly and then the other one is one that I do believe stangger coded

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On 4/5/2021 at 10:47 PM, marco2306 said:

No stangger, you did a great job.
I meant the coder who programmed the arcade.

Thanks marco, I thought,that is what you meant.

 

I dont know if I really wont to work on dragonbyte-tech arcade.

 

If I get everything working, it will benefit dragonbyte-tech.

He charges $50 for a non working pro version..:wacko:

Edited by stangger5
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  • 4 weeks later...
Am 28.3.2021 um 14:25 schrieb Legionaire:

Not sure, but it is becoming rather costly to keep an IPS forum

I don't think so, for example XenForo (which I used for about 8 years is much more expensive on long term.

Am 28.3.2021 um 19:24 schrieb Ronald:

Seems like all we do is pay and pay, like every 6 months

Isn't a renewing term of 6 month with a small amount much better than paying every 12 month with a big amount? You don't have to renew every time, you can take a break for a couple of month when there is nothing new.

Am 28.3.2021 um 16:02 schrieb Windwalker:

developers to realizing there is a cash cow in charging high prices for mods that were once free, and then tacking on 6 month renewals for upgrade support for the mods.

That's the same everywhere. Just don't buy every plugin or application you don't essentially need.

Am 6.4.2021 um 13:11 schrieb Legionaire:

and then the other one is one that I do believe stangger coded

ibProArcade for vB4 was developed by MrZeropage in 2005. As far as I remember he became a little bit inactive because of family reasons. In 16 years much can happen and the arcade was always a free addon (and still is).

Am 29.3.2021 um 11:08 schrieb marco2306:

I know the VB5

As an old vB4 user I've taken a look at vB5 too, several times over the years and it was a code catastrophe every time.

Am 28.3.2021 um 16:02 schrieb Windwalker:

You can't find free themes hardly.

https://invisioncommunity.com/profile/592432-v0rt3x666/content/?type=downloads_file&change_section=1 ;)

 

Best regards

 

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