Only 'customer' accounts can post in IPS Company Blog

[Freeborne]

Yet another restriction imposed on all IPS members who are not logged in as their Primary Account.

As an example, you can see in this blog I posted a comment in the past, before they removed access:


I can no longer post in any of the IPS Company Blogs unless I log-in with my Primary Account. I do not encourage this behaviour as I think an 'IPS customer' should be an 'entity' (such as a company, or webmaster team) and not as a single 'individual'.

Teams/Companies/Groups do not share a single login-account unless they have no concern for security and accountability. Why can we not have "Alternate Contacts" that can post comments? Why did this have to change?

I'm already frustrated with having the silly green "Welcome to IPS?" on every single page (including this page as I type this post), now you guys seem to just be going overboard by removing access. How long until I can't even post in the Product Support forums? Maybe I'm over-reacting but I'm not going to be hanging around or contributing on these forums when I keep feeling little more than a visitor because I refuse to use the Primary Account on a daily-basis.

Perhaps you should treat your own staff like this, and they might get a feeling for what it's like. Display the "Welcome to IPS box" to all your admin staff, except your CEO. Tell them they can't post in IPS Company Blog unless they go buy themselves their own IP.Board license. It's not exact same scenario but maybe that helps give you some perspective? If I have 3 staff helping out should I tell them to buy their own IPS license if they want to provide feedback comments, or get rid of the "guest message" box on every screen, or do I just share the 'administrator' account with them all?

[Robulosity2]

Alternate contacts are just that, Alternate Contacts.. They are not the customer, so they shouldn't have the same privileges as the customer them selves... They are able to post in the Technical Areas where they have been authorized and open tickets for the products they have been authorized to do so with

[Lindy]

I'm perpetually baffled why this remains an issue for you. You own the primary account - if you would like the primary account holder benefits, simply login as the primary account holder, which you can easily do, but choose not to -- for whatever reason. You're logging in as an alternate contact (the only alternate contact on your account) of your own account, which again, is baffling to me. Nonetheless, it is an alternate contact not a pseudo-client. I do understand that's what you're after and you're committed to taking a stand on the issue. It's something we may consider for the future, but for now, the alternate contact infrastructure is based on allowing a client to have their technician or billing representative contact us on their behalf and does not support what you're asking for - reworking that system is not an immediate priority. :smile:

Thanks for your understanding and I hope we can put this issue to rest for now as there are no immediate changes planned.

[Freeborne]

This has changed very recently though, yes?

If I am a businessman, I will buy IPS products using the Primary Account. That seems fine.

However, if I hire (or get a volunteer) to be my Technician (alternate contact), why can he not provide feedback comments on your blog, using his own account? (which up until recently he could). All the businessman would do with Primary Account is manage billing, staff, etc while the Technician (in your words) would build the site and be most likely to need help/support on these forums (and therefore be the most active forum visitor of these two accounts).

I do not believe I'm asking IPS to re-work the system, just undo the changes made in the past week(s). I was happy with how it was before, and don't understand why these restrictions had to be added that force customers to manage their account here in the single business model that you guys have focused on. In my opinion it really only suits hobbyists and small businesses where one person looks after almost everything.

For me, it's hard to argue the case as I am both Primary Account owner and an Alternate Contact (I removed a previous Alternate Contact a few months ago, but expect to add new ones). How about an IPS customer like Bethesda? Why does IPS view Bethesda 'customer' as a single person, or expect them to share that single account with possibly several IT/Purchasing staff?

If they have 3-5 people that look after their site, and don't want them all having Full Access, then none of the other "Alternate Contacts" can post feedback comments. That's just one minor example, and the green welcome box another, but who knows what other restrictions I'm not aware of, or that IPS are going to add soon.

I'd said my peace now. I appreciate you giving me a chance to voice my opinion and hope you keep it in mind next time restrictions are added/removed for Alternate Contacts.

[AndyF]

I'm not sure if alternative contacts for business class licences have more abilities or not, I do recall mentioning this quite a while ago although it may of just been one of my quick suggestions simply as corporate clients are more likely to have several 'tech' people who need access compared to say a standard licence.

[Freeborne]

Okay, I was ready to let this rest, but as of today I see IPS you have gone and made further permission restrictions to your forums. Seriously who is making these decisions?


My alternate contact account (Freeborne) can no longer access any of the "Feedback" forums, or ANYTHING in the "IPS Client Services" category. That means I (Freeborne) cannot even access vast majority of my own posts made in Application Support forums (IP.Content, IP.Board, etc) unless I use this account.

What a joke!

Example, I made a post with my Freeborne account here, which I can no longer access:
http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/353500-url-rewrite/


I think I help others as much as I ask for help, and lets please ignore I am also the Primary Account holder, as I could just as easily be the Technical Support person for the website (which in reality I am, as I don't own the website I just do the upgrades). A technical support person needs access to these forums you have now denied. They should also be entitled to provide feedback, or at the very least help/respond to others who post in the Feedback forums (as many also ask questions or want opinions from other IPS customers).

Trying to visit these forums (or a post within) results in this in a nice red box:

[#103149] This forum is only available to those logged in with a client account.

If you are a current IPS client and are seeing this message, please log out and then log in with the same email and password that you use for the client area.

If you need assistance logging in as a client please submit a ticket and we will be happy to assist.

I'm starting to look at other forum software now (particularly XenForo) because I'm just getting sick of the direction you guys are going.

1. Get rid of the welcome box to everyone who is a 'registered member' on these forums. They really don't need to be reminded every page that they can get a free trial
2. Get rid of the "talk to sales staff" pop-up box that keeps coming up every so often for anyone who is visiting, or logged in that isn't a Primary Account holder.
3. Let everyone at least READ those forums and topics you've locked them out of. How can someone get an idea of what the IPS community is like, or your products when they can't see how everyone else is using, or benefiting from your software. When you buy software like IPS you do if for the community as well. With no community support it's a waste of our money as most people seem to turn to the community to help them with most of their problems/needs.

Is IPS really in such a bad position, you don't want potential customers to read the feedback forum and see negative comments from existing customers?

[Pereira]

It's not a big issue however I would prefer a more open forum as I really don't see what the issue would be. As a new comer, I would definitely be turned off at the idea I couldn't access certain forums, even to get a base knowledge on the software, as I am doing now with Xenforo.

I fully understand IPS reasoning of having it as a license benefit however I don't happen to agree with it as I think it decreases new members ability to learn more about the software.

[Charles]

IPS is focusing on our client feedback and support. Alternate contacts are not clients. They are simply authorized persons who can contact us on behalf of the client for support and billing questions.

Topics like this I think show that some put far too much weight on them. We also have issues with people adding alternate contacts to people so they get "free" access to our services.

When you combine reactive topics like this and abusive of the system it is clear that allowing alternate contacts full access is a distraction. It takes away time from our staff being able to react to our paying clients.

IPS has always been 100% focused on our clients. These changes allow us to remove layers of distraction so we can listen even more closely to client needs. That's something I am proud of and will not want to change.

[Freeborne]

Charles, you viewpoint (in my opinion) sounds like someone who has forgot what it's like to be a customer. Use the word 'customer' more often and not 'client' and you may realize why we disagree.


So long as you only focus on 'client's you are not thinking of the past and future 'customers'. A client is someone you currently do business with, but a customer could be past, present or future.


The more you treat members like 'customers' and not search engine bots or guests, the better you'll look to those people who might be 'potential' clients. Without access to the Support forums (majority of the Community topics) this place looks pretty quiet.


Anyway, I look forward to my next laugh when I realize I can't access the IPS Marketplace either. When's that getting denied? Tomorrow? Next week?