[Darth-Apple]

There has been a lot of discussion about IP.Board 4 on the official developmental blog for IPS services. They haven't release too many details, but generally people are expecting a release in early 2014.

So far, they are saying that a considerable amount of their codebase will be completely rewritten, and they will completely overhaul the entire file structure, plugin system, etc... Personally, I've always liked IP.Board as it is now, but there are evidently a few things that could be done more efficiently, and to hear that they are working to deal with some of those issues in the new version will be nice.

IP.Board has also promised a more modern look with their new software, which will be intersting to see, and the software suite will now be called "social suite." Honestly, I'm not too much of a fan of the new naming and branding, but IP.Board seems to be pretty confident that it will be a good change.

Anyway, so far, IP.Board 4 looks like it will be a very interesting release. What are your thoughts?

[Damian B.]

Looking forward to seeing this. It definitely sounds interesting.

[simlink]

IIRC, one of the majour differences for IPB4 Social Suite is you don't need to buy the IP.BOARD software to buy other licenses anymore. Ie you will now be able to buy IP.content, IP.nexus, IP.blog without IP.board - not sure if they still intend to do this but it is a very good idea IMO.

[Darth-Apple]

Is IP.Content going to be useful without IP.Board?

[simlink]

Well I don't see why not, isn't that essentially the page builder/CMS? If so, static pages are essential for some websites. Take for example an online store using nexus, they can use IP.content for things like their pages outlining accepted payment methods, returns policy, etc.

[Darth-Apple]

I just set up my five day trial for IP.Board, and the core product is actually quite nice out of the box. Certain ACP related features are a bit confusing, but I've used both SMF and phpbb, so I can deal with that.

IP.Content is a bit confusing, however. I'd almost rather just use drupal, and that's saying something. It still seems like a great product once you get the hang of it though. I have 3 1/2 days left on my trial, so I shall see what I end up figuring out by the end of the trial period.

[yourbezzie]

I'm really looking forward to IPS 4! Have any of you used the official dev board?

Heres a link : http://zend.ipsdevserver.com/ips4

[Darth-Apple]

Yeah I've been checking out the dev site, and it doesn't look bad. Certain things still don't look right to me (such as the forum stats section of the footer, etc.) but overall it looks great. They've definitely revamped it a good bit.

[CapTon]

It looks nice and modern, but it seems a bit too simple for me. A bit more sophistication would do it for me .

[simlink]

The support forums (http://community.invisionpower.com) were upgraded to one of the beta versions of IPS4.0 today. It's geting closerrr....

[Darth-Apple]

I actually somewhat like the theme now. I'm so glad they worked on that. The one on the zend server was absolutely horrible.

[Electric2Shock]

d***. They have a forum that actually looks a forum now.

[Darth-Apple]

d***. They have a forum that actually looks a forum now.

It's way better than it was when I last saw it. I wasn't feeling too good about its direction, but especially after logging in, I'm thoroughly impressed. It still needs work, but in general, it seems to be coming together. Definitely feels more integrated and modern than the old IPB 3.x series. 

I'm almost tempted to use it again.

[Harry K.]

I'm loving the new design of IPB 4, gives me a few ideas.