Discover Forumotion Packages: the new way to evolve your forums

[The Godfather]

First topic message reminder :

New: Forumotion Packages

Dear users, As we told you in this topic, we are pleased to announce the arrival of Forumotion packages. A new way to enrich your forum and customize your members' experience through a redesign of paid features management. Presentation of Forumotion packages Forumotion packages allow you to enrich your forum with additional features. As you know, Forumotion offers for many years the possibility to create a free forum, with a rich diversity of features. If, by default, our forums offer most of the tools necessary for the proper use and development of your forum, some paid options can enhance it with new features, and improve your members' experience (ads deletion, SSL certificate, custom domain name, etc.). Until now, these paid options were dispersed in the administration panel. Today, and thanks to the arrival of Forumotion packages, the purchase of a package will allow you to access a set of additional features, while leaving you free to activate or not, step by step, each of these options. These packages are primarily a response to technical issues that disrupt the proper use of the service, particularly because of the international nature of Forumotion. But they are also the manifestation of an evolution of the web, and the world of forums. These have evolved a lot in nearly 10 years, and Forumotion must evolve in the same direction in order to adopt an operating model to guarantee the quality, viability, and continuity of our service. What are the different offered packages ? Forumotion forums offer three packages: Free, Advanced and Premium. Here is a non-exhaustive presentation: - Free package: this is the default package for all Forumotion forums, which continues to offer features that allow relevant use of your forum. These features include access to advanced permissions, image hosting, optimization of your forum for SEO, unlimited number of topics, members and messages, etc. - Advanced package: in addition to the features offered by the free package, the advanced package offers, among other things, more storage space, a higher newsletter limit, the possibility to activate an SSL certificate or to acquire a domain name, etc. - Premium package: it is the most complete package, offering the most functionalities, such as the monetization of the forum, the suppression of copyrights, an improved search which extends to the content of messages, the personalization of the"Popular content" newsletter, etc. You will find a more complete presentation of each package in your administration panel, in the Misc tab. Example: How can I subscribe a Forumotion package? The subscription to a package can be done with two methods of payment: Either via an annual payment: In this case, you pay your package in a single payment, for a validity period of one year. Or via a monthly payment: With no due date and no commitment, it allows you to access Forumotion packages by paying very accessible monthly fees and to spread the payment of your package. Note that the annualized subscription includes 2 months free. Forumotion packages use credits, the virtual currency specific to Forumotion forums. Subscribing to a package on an annualized basis requires therefore to have a sufficient balance of credits on the forum. Nothing changes, the purchase of credits remains made in the same way as in the past, via Allopass, Paypal, Hipay or Skrill. The monthly subscription is only possible via Paypal (the use of a PayPal account linked to a valid card or bank account is mandatory), the only means of payment to set up a satisfactory monthly payment given the technical constraints we know. To subscribe to a package, go to your: Administration panel > Misc > Credit Management - Forumotion Packages We hope that these innovations will bring you full satisfaction. Forumotion team

A Forumotion Important Announcement

[SLGray]

Please.do not answer questions if you're not staff.

Who are you referring to?

[Chellizard]

Please.do not answer questions if you're not staff.

Who are you referring to?

Neptune-

[Walt]

So if I buy the premium package now but don't use all the credits, will those remaining credits carry over to the second year or do I lose them?

Of course, and it's always worked that way. The credits on the forum are never lost if they are not spent, they have no expiration date.

I paid for 1000 credits in USD, and then purchased the premium package and it did not use my credits. It charged me 9.60 USD instead of using my credits. I would like a refund or something. I was under the impression it would use my credits before charging me.

You can remove the monthly payment, but you won't be refund for the current month. By the way, you just had to read the information... :

See the image:

Please.do not answer questions if you're not staff.

As far as I know, it is possible to give relevant information without being a staff member.

Regards,
Walt

[Chellizard]

I figured out why my credits were refunded. And I plan on buying the premium for a year soon anyway. So, I apologize for any unintended hostility. Thank you everyone for your help, and may everyone's community continue to grow!

[BlackScorpion]

I've just clicked on Premium Package and it does rather look as though I'm being refunded for my recent purchases so only have to make up the difference to buy the package:

Hmm, i just purchased the premium package and it did not crdeit me for the domain name i have already purchased? Did i do something wrong?

I figured out why my credits were refunded. And I plan on buying the premium for a year soon anyway. So, I apologize for any unintended hostility. Thank you everyone for your help, and may everyone's community continue to grow!

It's ok we all get testy, when new changes come our way, i was like you a little flustered with the changes..

[CDDIVA]

I am very disheartened by this...
I am on disability and live on next to nothing, and just spent well over 50 American dollars I can not afford, because I have used this platform for years, and wanted the new website I created to be fully secure with it's own name, no ads, and it's own copyrights. The reason is because i put a lot in to this, and wanted the membership to be as pro as possible.

Now I find out that all that is for nothing, and in order to keep what I started I have to pay out 3 times the amount in US dollars. That is at least twice as much as most hosting providers. I want to cry!!!!

[skouliki]

My personal opinion is that the ssl certificate must be on the free package

[BlackScorpion]

Unfortunately, this is the future for Forumotion, a lot of us don't like or want changes, but we must move forward in order to improve this platform. Who know maybe in the future, they may become less expensive once everyone is on board?

[CDDIVA]

I don't understand why they are removing the ability to buy the important stuff they always offered separatly, I based my whole website(s) on that.
All of them are really, but there is no way I can continue like this, I simply will not be able to eat if I tried to pay for this, based on what I had already budgeted into my disability checks.
I can get an entire hosting package and install as much as I like in to it, including full blown stores for 80 us a year, which is still hard for a senior citizen to do. Why in the world would I want to be pay more than that when I can't install software.

Dpn't get me wrong, I love forumotion and have had a dozen forums running here for a very long time. I have used the paid services also, but as, and for what I needed it for. I think this is a mistake on the platforms part. Offering packages is one thing, but cutting out the affordable extras, and essentially also the "little guy", is not a wise decision imo.

[Neptune-]

@Chellizard

If i gave some answers, it's just because i knew the answers.
And when i have any doubt, i write it like : I believe / I think / Needs to be confirmed, as i wrote in some answers where i had a little doubt on my own answer, or even a previous answer given by a staff member.

And as @BlackScorpion said, it's new for all of us (even for staff members).

Hmm, i just purchased the premium package and it did not crdeit me for the domain name i have already purchased? Did i do something wrong?

Domain name still have the same expiration date (and it can't be modified since a domain name is always sold or offered for 1 year). So it doesn't need to be refunded.
Domain name is the only thing who wont expire the same date, but paying package is necessary to order/renew internal domains or to link an external domain (for external domains already setup, no need of any package till the domain is not expired (or removed from the admin panel)

Refunded features included for sure :
- SSL certificate
- Ads removing
- Copyright removing

For storage time and space, i don't know how it works, but i think there is a refund too. Needs to be confirmed to be sure.

[Lady Galaxia]

I don't understand why they are removing the ability to buy the important stuff they always offered separatly, I based my whole website(s) on that.
All of them are really, but there is no way I can continue like this, I simply will not be able to eat if I tried to pay for this, based on what I had already budgeted into my disability checks.
I can get an entire hosting package and install as much as I like in to it, including full blown stores for 80 us a year, which is still hard for a senior citizen to do. Why in the world would I want to be pay more than that when I can't install software.

Don't get me wrong, I love forumotion and have had a dozen forums running here for a very long time. I have used the paid services also, but as, and for what I needed it for. I think this is a mistake on the platforms part. Offering packages is one thing, but cutting out the affordable extras, and essentially also the "little guy", is not a wise decision imo.

I agree with this.

Being told to "suck it up because this is the future" when I'm literally always paying for things, and now being asked to pay more than double my costs more than I was before doesn't seem like a good future to me. I've yet to see any good reason or explanation on why all of a sudden the few things I want are now outrageously priced. Answers such as "we're unique" and "this is just how the internet is now a days" doesn't answer how you computer such a drastic price increase at all. if I went from paying 33 to say 45, yeah I'd be a bit peeved, but I would be way more reasonable. Quite frankly I am incredibly close to scrapping my 1960+ members, 40,000+ messages, and leaving a service that doesn't care for anything but money because they think that they have an monopoly on "easy to use forums". Makes me regret the money I've given then non stop over the past 7 years.

[Neptune-]

I can get an entire hosting package and install as much as I like in to it, including full blown stores for 80 us a year, which is still hard for a senior citizen to do. Why in the world would I want to be pay more than that when I can't install software.

I calculated that one year ago (when SSL feature was added)
You can even find cheaper but when you choose Forumotion to host your board you also have :

- Bug fixes without anything to do yourself.
- Development and improving of the service without your help. You have a crew of developers since 2004 which need a salary each month even if the support board is running mainly with volunteer staff.
- You can change your graphic design easily without any knowledge.
- If hoster stops to support old releases of PHP or MySQL, your forum still works. Forumotion does all necessary updates and fixes (Forumotion is hosted by a larger company as of us being hosted by Forumotion)

All of this in the free package of course !

Now if you choose to host yourself your board :

- Bugs, since youy created yourself the bugs, you will fix them yourself (But you need to know how to).
- Development and improving : you need to do the job yourself. Hundreds of hours just to try to add what you got on Forumotion and that you have not on phpBB (or any other software). For example good luck to enable HTML on a phpBB board. Even the official support board will be useless for that. Maybe you will choose Invision Power Suite ? Which offers no support at all if you do not pay annually for it. On Forumotion you have unlimited support included, even if you're running on free package.
- If you want your own design, you will need to edit all your templates, when on FM you just need to fill a form to install all your design.
- If your hoster stops to support old releases of software, your board might become buggy or worse, and it's up to you to do all the upgrade and fix stuff (But you need to know how to)

You cannot really compare a ready-to-use feature with a self-hosted board when you need to do all the boring business.
Now if you have some problems, you can still say to your users that it's Forumotion fault, it will be fixed in a few hours.
Tomorrow if you have the same problems, maybe you would be forced to say "Yeah, i know. I'm a crap admin, but i promise it will be fixed in a few weeks"

[CDDIVA]

Neptune,
only part of what you said even applies...
I host 3 stores, a website, and a business directory all on the same host.
I pay 80ish a year, includes SSL and everything I could possibly want.
If I have a problem, they fix it, I can install a plethora of software to my liking, including WP.
The only reason I used Forumotion for so long, is 1, because I have been loyal to it, and 2, because they gave me what I needed to run a community for around 30 a year.

But my host can also provide me with the software I need to install for same type of community (joomla, drupal, and tons of others including buddy press, and wordpress) so I once again repeat, if someone can do that for a whole lot less money, why would they limit themselves to a platform that can not support the install of this type of software, nor has PHP, or MySQL, etc..

I have been around a LONG time... I have been a member or owner of many a site in many platforms, including ning, and a ton of other group systems like this one that made these kinds of changes, and have failed miserably, either losing most of their clientel, even paying ones, and are struggling to hang on like ning and spruz do, or have ceased to exist all together. I have been watching these trends since before 1995, when the internet was made up of less than 5000 websites....

When it hurts the mass base of users, it is never good for a company. Period.
BTW, anyone been a member of Polyvore, wonder if Ssense expected the investment they just made to take a dive so quickly. Usually what happens when the majority is affected in a bad way.

Like I said, I have been loyal to this platform since Forumotion was still called forummotion... but I can't keep being loyal if it means eating less than I do already. Here in America, we have a recently self appointed Zsar who thinks people don't need money to live here, and beleives if your sick or poor, you don't deserve anything anyway, so when a company you work with for a decade or more suddenly goes overboard on pricing, it is a very big blow to the poor folk like me who are just trying to survive. My websites are my salvation, because I don't have the ability to leave my home, and making this inaccessible, is a realy depressing thing!

I will shut up now, as I feel like crying..... and April sucks!

[Neptune-]

But my host can also provide me with the software I need to install for same type of community (joomla, drupal, and tons of others including buddy press, and wordpress) so I once again repeat, if someone can do that for a whole lot less money, why would they limit themselves to a platform that can not support the install of this type of software, nor has PHP, or MySQL, etc..

I do not doubt any second that you can install anything you want. I have myself an host running with cPanel/Softaculous as back end. I can install several hundreds of softwares, but most Forumaction users wont be able to install or run anything even with a software installer. For some of them it's just very difficult to discover how to change colors or size for usernames.

For most users, what can provides an hoster is not enough, they would need their personal developer and very few of them can afford that.
But if they choose a ready-to-use feature like Forumotion, their dreams can partially become true.

[The Godfather]

Hello,

Please.do not answer questions if you're not staff.

Who are you referring to?

Neptune-

Both @Neptune- and @Walt know what they are talking about, you can trust what they tell you

Also, and this message is addressed to everyone, i want to clarify a very important detail who seems to have escaped you !

In our annoucement we wrote this :

...Forumotion must evolve in the same direction in order to adopt an operating model to guarantee the quality, viability, and continuity of our service.

It is not to fill in the lines or make pretty, but it is a clear message for you. And in case you haven't understood it correctly, here are some explanations. This change was not made out of pleasure or to impose constraints or to force you to pay more. This is a total change in our company's business model. Either we do it like that, or we close the Forumotion service, no choice.

These words are certainly hard but it is the truth that you must hear and understand. The free model no longer pays on the Internet, many competing services have closed their doors and in order to guarantee you a stable and qualitative service that it can continue in time, we have set up these packages which are in no way an obligation because a forum with the free package will work as well as before. But, those wishing to support us and in addition to having additional features to evolve their forums, those if they can acquire payed packages to support us it will be with great pleasure but it is by no means an obligation.

For over 10 years we have offered you the best of the forums world and we want to continue to do so. we have offered you free domain names that are paying for us, some of you have even been offered a domain name for free for 10 years now without ever paying anything all these years, you can imagine that this domain names are not free for us! if we take an average of 9 euros per domain, if you multiply that by several tens of thousands of forums which benefit each year from these commercial gestures since more than 10 years you will see that we never calculate or resign on the means to please you, and there I speak only of the domain name a tiny part of what we offered you...

Now that the financial situation no longer allows it we continue to offer you quality service and free domains for the deserving but we must also, as a company, think about our survival. So we must stick together and show solidarity, hence the implementation of the packages. You don't like it? Know that we are not happy about this either and we are the first to do without it if we could, but the economic reality is there and reminds us that it is the only way to continue.

I hope it is clear to everyone, I understand your inconvenience, I understand your questions, I understand that having free elements for years and having to pay them now can make people grumble but it is not for pleasure but by obligation to protect what you have built during all this time and prevent that our work like yours disappears forever.

This marks the area of the collaborative community and we hope to count on you to succeed in this transition.

Thank you for your understanding

[CDDIVA]

.

I hope it is clear to everyone, I understand your inconvenience, I understand your questions, I understand that having free elements for years and having to pay them now can make people grumble but it is not for pleasure but by obligation to protect what you have built during all this time and prevent that our work like yours disappears forever.

This marks the area of the collaborative community and we hope to count on you to succeed in this transition.

Thank you for your understanding

This is part of the problem for me and some others....
I (we) HAVE been paying for the extra elements we want for years,
and they were not free.
But now, in order to keep buying them, we have to buy an entire high
priced package to get them, which contains many things some of do not need,
nor care about.

I am no idiot, I understand completely why a company needs to change it's outline etc...
but when it hurts loyal customers, this is wrong in so many ways.
There is no reason on GGE that the little extras like the ads, copyrights, SSL, and domain name
can't not stay the same while you offer these larger packages. I don't want you to fail, no one with
a brain would, but I do hope you see the error of removing these long standing features from your
grandfathered and loyal users and clients. I guarentee you will see a financial shift you did not expect or anticipate.

[kiriakos]

I want to pay for 3 months or 6 months but now i see only every month or one year. This is bad.
I want I want to disable (ONLY) ads or copyright for three or six months and now must select a packet?
This is crazy I am very disappointed !!!!!!

[Asciugamano]

I read between the lines and I knew why there would be introduced packages that would make everything more pricey. That was something I already warned some people about, so it didn't escape me. I just hoped it wouldn't get too high...

However, I am stuck with no choice when it comes to ads and domain: I either pay this (ridiculous high for what we get) amount of money for what I want or I have to deal with it, since you won't even allow me to migrate myself.

[...] to protect what you have built during all this time and prevent that our work like yours disappears forever.

With no database access and the scare-off post about migrating you're (actually not you, it's not the Support Team's fault that there are these policies) not really helping to protect our content. In fact, if forumotion really fails, everything will be lost.
We would (maybe) help protect forumotion. But do I really want to protect a company that treats paying customers like this?

In fact, I am quite sure, everybody who is stuck like me will not create anymore any forumotion forum and this whole situation will also not be really good advertisement for forumotion, since this change affects mostly the until now loyal customers (in my case 9 years).

[Chellizard]

...since this change affects mostly the until now loyal customers (in my case 9 years).

My forum is about to celebrate it's 10 year anniversary! It really is disheartening that the prices are so much higher than before. If there were more features, or better access to certain parts of the board or coding, I could be happier paying these prices.

You know what? Honestly, forumotion offers the EASIEST way to manage a forum, and an even easier way to manage a community. There's a few tools missing for me personally, but because of the price per month vs running it alone with no easy-to-use administration panel... I'd pick Forumotion any day.

Howeverrr... I do wish we could have those missing tools. Been waiting patiently for about 5 years for this one:

PS, can we get multiple moderators per usergroups added as a premium package upgrade? That would make this worth for me.

[SLGray]

For suggestions, please post in the suggestions (for forums) section.

[Chellizard]

For suggestions, please post in the suggestions (for forums) section.

I have.

[Liesbeth*]

See that one can send 2 newsletters per month with a free package.



I can not send any more and that is strange the last newsletter was of March 31.
And that is very strange since no one was sent in April.

[Neptune-]

Hello Liesbeth*


One month = 30 (or 31 days)

No matter how much newsletters you sent in april. The important is how much you sent in the last 30 days.

[Liesbeth*]

I tend to disagree. Rules are now being set and then I would not be able to do anything for a whole year. Because there were sent in March 17. It is true that if there are rules or in this case paid and unpaid forum you have to leave the old one behind. And then on April 1 with a clean slate can begin.

[Neptune-]

Sent in march 2018 (not 2017)

But since the last one is at the end of march you're still stuck about 20 days in free

And as you sent 9 newsletters last 30 days, you would still be stuck with an advanced or premium package since the highest limit (premium) is 8 newsletter / month

[jkh]

Have I got this right?

The only items I have bought for my forum so far is enough credits for the SSL and ads removal but now for me to continue buying them I would need to buy the premium package which is 7660 credits - so I would need to buy 5000 credits, and then another 3000 credits to cover it all so that is 89.80 EUR which is £78




So even if I bought the Advanced package and had enough credits left over I still wouldn't be able to buy the ads disabling feature because I'd only bought the Advanced package and not the Premium package?

Why can't Ads disabling be in the Advanced package?

Surely these features (below) are for the advanced forum owners, but why are Ads disabling in the Premium package when most forum owners would happily pay for them to be removed anyway?



Or it because Ads disabling is one of the most popular features to buy and this is a way to make us upgrade to the most expensive package, leaving us with little choice?

I've been contemplating not bothering with the SSL certificate anyway (even Forumotion hasn't got it) so that just leaves me with the need for Ads disabling - but to do that I've now got to spend £78 per year.

Failing all that, I'll have to go back to the free version with no SSL certificate and lot of adverts which doesn't give me a professional looking forum

Don't get me wrong, I've had no problem with paying for the Ads disabling because I know that's how Forumotion makes their money to stay in business and it was a trade-off, but I do feel a bit upset about having no choice but to upgrade to the most expensive package which gives me many additional features I would never use.

[jkh]

I still think there should be options to buy each feature individually, even if Forumotion increases the cost a bit.

[Walt]

I'm not sure to understand, @jkh... Of course you are able to remove ads in the advanced package:



My screen is in French but as you can see, the menu is available in the advanced package column too ?

[Neptune-]

Have I got this right?

The only items I have bought for my forum so far is enough credits for the SSL and ads removal but now for me to continue buying them I would need to buy the premium package which is 7660 credits - so I would need to buy 5000 credits, and then another 3000 credits to cover it all so that is 89.80 EUR which is £78




So even if I bought the Advanced package and had enough credits left over I still wouldn't be able to buy the ads disabling feature because I'd only bought the Advanced package and not the Premium package?

Why can't Ads disabling be in the Advanced package?

Why paying twice and pay 8000 credits if you just need 7660 ?

Sorry, french screen (but "forgot" to say cheese when taking it so it doesn't stink)


Screen from Hipay feature, right to the dropdown list you can choose your custom amount, then press the green button on the right.
One purchase, and a purchase which exactly fits your need

But that's not all, if you take one year, it will refund you for ads and SSL already paid but not used yet.
Just click the button "Switch to package xxx" to know how it works and how it will really costs you the first year.

Yes, you can disable ads within advanced package, but you need to disable then when you buy the package. If you buy a package without buying ads disabling, you cannot disable later before the end of the pack. Unless you upgrade from advanced to premium. In that case price of unused time of advanced package will be refunded when you upgrade.

Surely these features (below) are for the advanced forum owners, but why are Ads disabling in the Premium package when most forum owners would happily pay for them to be removed anyway?

Except copyright removal, these features are new and a tutorial should be published soon (The Godfather told it elsewhere, but don't know if i can trust him hihi)

Or it because Ads disabling is one of the most popular features to buy and this is a way to make us upgrade to the most expensive package, leaving us with little choice?

No, definitely no, most popular features (disabling ads, domain name, SSL certificate all available inside advanced package. No need for premium if you need only some of those 3 popular features.

I've been contemplating not bothering with the SSL certificate anyway (even Forumotion hasn't got it) so that just leaves me with the need for Ads disabling - but to do that I've now got to spend £78 per year.

Definitely no, annual advanced pack with ads disabled (members+guests) and SSL included = 5260 credits
On Hipay it's 59,80 EUR, so about 52 GBP

[jkh]

Thank you both for clarifying.

So according to my admin panel I don't even need to purchase the Advanced package until next March, is that right?