MemberMouse GPL is Here! Get Under The Hood of Our Huge 3.0 Release

MemberMouse 3.0 is one of our biggest-ever updates and huge news for any MemberMouse business with a developer on their team. Stay tuned to find out more about our gear shift to GPL and what this means for your business.

MemberMouse is now distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL)! For developers, the implications of this transition are already familiar to you. You know exactly why we're so excited to share this news.

Not a developer? We've got you covered! The 10,000-foot view is this: MemberMouse's transition to GPL opens up a world of customization and collaboration opportunities.

If you already work with a developer for your membership site, you can begin exploring these opportunities right away.

But if you don't currently have access to a developer, don't worry. It won't take long for you to notice second-hand the positive impacts on your site's functionality, user experience, and the broader ecosystem of extensions and integrations that become available.

In this blog, we'll get into the specifics of our shift to GPL. We'll explore how these changes enhance the technical capabilities of your membership site and give you, the site owner, more ownership and authority.

From unlocking new levels of customization to ensuring a more secure and adaptable platform, we'll walk you through the exciting new features and opportunities this update brings to your business.

Plus, we'll take a look at some of the other major changes brought to you by MemberMouse 3.0.

GPL Explained

The GNU General Public License (GPL) is a free software license, which guarantees users the freedom to run, study, modify, and share the software licensed under it.

It was created by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) to protect the rights of software users and to promote the idea of software freedom.

The GPL is a “copyleft” license, which means that any derivative work must be distributed under the same or equivalent license, ensuring that the freedoms associated with the original work are preserved through any modifications or distributions.

The principles of the GPL resonate deeply with our core values at MemberMouse. Embracing this license reaffirms our commitment to fostering an environment of transparency, collaboration, and freedom.

We believe in empowering our users and developers to not just use our software but to become active participants in its evolution.

Adopting the GPL is a natural step in our journey to create software that’s not only powerful and flexible but also truly community-driven.

What Does MemberMouse GPL Mean for You?

Inspect the Engine

Under the GPL, the inner workings of MemberMouse are open for inspection, allowing users unprecedented access to examine and understand the code that powers their membership sites. 

This transparency is foundational to building trust within our community. 

By knowing precisely how the system manages memberships, processes payments, and handles data, you have the full assurance that MemberMouse complies with various regulations, and can make informed decisions about your use of our plugin.

Customization Tools in Your Trunk

The GPL removes any legal barriers to modifying the MemberMouse code, putting powerful customization tools directly in the hands of your developers. 

This flexibility is invaluable for membership sites, which often require bespoke solutions to meet unique demands, from intricate membership structures to specialized content access controls. 

While we strive to make MemberMouse as flexible as possible, now it's truly limitless.

With the GPL, developers can now tailor MemberMouse to fit the exact specifications of their project without any constraints, driving innovation and personalization.

---

Note: Our normal support policy still applies with 3.0+ and the GPL, but any custom developments or modifications to the code would need to be addressed by the developer who makes the modifications.

To ensure the same high-quality coding standards MemberMouse uses, make sure to collaborate with a skilled developer who can efficiently manage necessary fixes and updates required for those additions.

This approach will help you maintain the integrity of your membership site while enabling you to customize the platform to meet your specific needs.

---

Drive Innovation with Extensions

With MemberMouse embracing the GPL, the door to the extension garage swings wide open, inviting both developers and users to explore the full potential of customization.

This new era empowers developers to craft and share extensions that juice up the MemberMouse engine.

Introduce new functionalities, streamline operations, or enhance the user experience – under the GPL, developers have the green light to create extensions for everything from custom analytics tools to unique member engagement widgets, your creativity is the limit.

For site owners, this growing library of extensions will increasingly offer you easier and more varied ways to fine-tune your platform. It's a gift that keeps on giving.

Take MemberMouse To The Workshop

The shift to GPL also means that users and developers can help refine MemberMouse through community collaboration by:

• Reporting bugs, 
• Suggesting improvements, and 
• Contributing fixes

This communal effort accelerates the development of new features and the resolution of issues. It also significantly enhances the plugin’s overall quality and reliability.

In Convoy with WordPress

Given that WordPress itself is GPL-licensed, our adherence to the same license is another assurance that it can easily integrate and operate within the WordPress ecosystem. 

You can be safe in the knowledge that you can easily add powerful membership capabilities to your site without compatibility concerns.

Road-tested Reliability

Adopting the GPL also ensures that MemberMouse remains a high-performance machine for the long haul. 

By empowering a community of users and developers to contribute, we're tapping into a collective pool of innovation, diligence, and support that can only lead to a more sustainable, robust, and reliable platform. 

This collaborative approach enhances the plugin's current capabilities and paves the way for a future where MemberMouse continues to meet the evolving needs of membership site owners.

Full Ownership: Holding the Keys to Your Membership Site

Embracing GPL for MemberMouse is akin to handing the keys over to you, the site owner, granting you full ownership and control over your membership platform. 

This paradigm shift gives you more freedom to steer your membership site in any direction you choose. 

With GPL, the boundaries of what you can achieve with MemberMouse are limited only by your imagination and the needs of your community.

Ownership under GPL means you have the authority to mold and shape the software to fit the unique contours of your business. And as your business evolves, you are free to modify the code as your business grows and changes over time.

Full ownership also fosters a deeper connection between you and your membership platform. It's time to roll up your sleeves and get more hands-on with building and managing your online community. 

So, break free from the constraints of proprietary software and embrace the freedom to innovate, customize, and ultimately, thrive!

More MemberMouse 3.0 Enhancements

Our transition to GPL is just one of the updates in our MemberMouse 3.0 release. Here’s a look at some of the other exciting new advancements that further empower site owners and enhance user experience:

Take The Wheel with Local Billing

With MemberMouse 3.0, we're introducing Local Billing, a significant update that puts billing management directly in your hands. 

This feature offers you greater autonomy and control, allowing for more customized and streamlined billing operations.

Local Billing empowers site owners with the ability to manage and control the billing process entirely from within the plugin. 

This means more direct oversight over subscription management and payment processing.

View and Manage Upcoming Payments

Alongside Local Billing comes the Upcoming Payments Module, designed to give site owners a clear view of the billing schedule. 

This tool aids in forecasting, maintenance and troubleshooting by providing you with direct insights into the billing cycles and payment statuses for the onsite payment processor integrated on your site. 

From there you can also modify and delete scheduled rebills.

This feature gives you the flexibility to address billing issues proactively, adjust billing cycles for individual users, and accommodate special requests, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Fallback Protection Features

To ensure a smoother member experience and minimize billing disruptions, Local Billing includes new fallback protection features. 

Now, MemberMouse routinely monitors for issues that might lead to unwanted billing. If a potential issue is identified, rebilling is automatically paused and you will be notified. 

MemberMouse 3.0 also enables you to manually pause local billing in the plugin settings. 

These safeguards are designed to help monitor current payments, identify common billing problems, and ensure you can customize billings with peace of mind. 

With these enhancements in MemberMouse 3.0, you get more control and flexibility over your membership and staging sites to ensure you can provide the best possible experience to your members while also streamlining and enhancing administrative tasks.

12 Bug Fixes and 20 Feature Improvements

As with all MemberMouse updates, MM 3.0 has addressed several dozen bug fixes and feature improvements.

We’re constantly working behind the scenes to enhance our core product and bring you the most reliable, user-friendly, and powerful membership management tool available. 

This latest release includes 12 bug fixes for smoother operation and greater stability, and  20 feature improvements, to enhance existing functionalities and introduce new capabilities. 

It’s all part of our commitment to respond to our community's feedback and evolving needs.

Making The Switch to MemberMouse 3.0

MemberMouse 3.0 is a big deal, and we want to ensure a smooth and uninterrupted service for our existing users as they make the transition.

That's why (as per our end-of-life policy) we're extending our commitment to bug fixes and support for the MemberMouse 2.x branch through July 16,2024, with security updates continuing until October 16, 2024.

During that time, you can make all the necessary preparations to make the switch as seamless as possible.

It's important to note that MemberMouse 3.0 and above includes significant changes that affect many different aspects of the plugin and many of them cannot be rolled back after you've upgraded.

That's why we strongly advise you take the following precautions during the upgrade process:

Preparation is Key

Before starting the update process, perform a full backup of your site and database. This is your safety net, ensuring you can restore your site to its previous state if necessary.

Use a Staging Environment

Test the waters and make sure everything runs perfectly on a staging site before you commit to going live. To get started, you'll need to request a complimentary staging license by following the steps outlined in this knowledge doc.

Guided Assistance

For more information and guidance on making the switch, read our Important Changes for MemberMouse 3.0 doc below. And remember, our customer success team is on hand to help you through the process and answer any questions you might have.

Important Changes for MemberMouse 3.0 – READ THIS FIRST

Wrapping Up

So now you're up to speed with our evolution to GPL and what it means for the MemberMouse community, you can understand just why we are so excited to break the news. 

MemberMouse 3.0 marks a gear shift and a new era for our users. It's a milestone moment in our ongoing effort to offer a more powerful, reliable, flexible and community-focused membership plugin. 

The move to GPL opens up new vistas of transparency and customization, while features like Local Billing empower site owners with unprecedented control over their platforms.

The road ahead is bright with the promise of continued innovation, collaboration, and growth and now we're inviting you to be an active participant in MemberMouse's evolution.

---

• Share