Now Live: An Improved Member Management Interface

Note: This change is now live. It won't affect anything your members see, but you might want to let your admins know about this change so they will know where to find all of the member-specific information whenever they need it.

I wanted to let you know about some upcoming improvements to your Ning Network's dashboard, the back-end area of your network where you and your admins do all of your moderating. We're making some user interface changes that will simplify the way you perform member management.

First, we're merging the Members > Management and Members > Moderation sections into a single interface. The Members > Moderation section has always been the place where you've approved pending members and looked up members whenever you needed to see who was suspended, who had left, or who was who. The Members > Management section has traditionally been devoted to setting up Roles like Forum Moderator, Admin, or custom roles for your specific needs. Pulling this all into one interface will allow you to do more moderation in one place -- and with less clicks.

What's different?

Previously, you had separate tabs for Members, Admins, Pending, Invited, etc. These have all been replaced with a drop-down filter that allows you to take contextual actions. This should save you some time and allow you to filter content more easily. You'll be able to choose multiple members and simply apply an action to those members. You'll also now see a prominent way to administer Roles, which we've renamed "Administrative Roles" while giving it a full tab position.

We've made a few other minor changes that should improve the experience of working in this area. When viewing your list of Suspended members for example, it makes more sense to have that list be sorted by the date they were suspended — and not the day they joined your network. And in the Invited list we've added a new column so that you can see what kind of invitation (Network, Group or Event) someone has received.

To what end?

This is the initial phase of a larger project: Member Categories. Member Categories will let you create different member types and assign your members to them. We think it's going to be a great feature for every network, and we'll provide more details on it in the days ahead.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jordon McGee (Jords) on January 30, 2012 at 10:52am

Woo!! So awesome!! Ning is firing up for 2012!

NC for HirePermalink Reply by SweetPotato on January 30, 2012 at 11:08am

mmmmmmm, with different categories chargeable via paid access I wonder?

Permalink Reply by Jordon McGee (Jords) on January 30, 2012 at 11:10am

I bet it will lean that way.

Permalink Reply by Eric Suesz on January 30, 2012 at 11:17am

I don't think the first version of member categories will have that, SweetPotato. I know that is something many people will want to see, though.

Permalink Reply by Vincent Wright on February 2, 2012 at 5:51am

Eric,

On a subordinate note: Since several members have already posted comments here which I like and which I find helpful/insightful, have you given consideration to letting us "Like" or "Favorite" member comments? (I'm mindful of the programming challenge it could present but, it could provide an additional level of engagement - especially for those who may not find time to comment but, would like to acknowledge that they've read something good from other Creators...)

Keep STRONG, Eric!

Permalink Reply by Eric Suesz on February 3, 2012 at 2:07pm

We have considered that. We actually have had a lot of requests for it, and we edged closer to it late last year. But, for now it has sunk back down as a priority.

Permalink Reply by James Higginson on February 22, 2012 at 9:49am

I get that request quite frequently from our members. Member categories is much more important though. Looking forward to seeing that. Thanks Eric

Permalink Reply by Aanu Bello on February 3, 2012 at 1:34pm

When are going to be free with a new mobile site........ this world is going on mobile devise

Permalink Reply by Tony Craig on February 14, 2012 at 3:19pm

Absolutely we want that. That has been at the forefront of our development for both of our networks.

Permalink Reply by Quan Yin on January 30, 2012 at 11:12am

This will definitely help with efficiency, thanks! And looking forward to hearing more about member categories, sounds interesting.

Permalink Reply by NingStar on January 30, 2012 at 11:41am

This is good news I like the Member Categories feature well done Ning team although it appears this new update has broken a code on my network main page.

Permalink Reply by Patrick Chappelle on January 30, 2012 at 11:44am

I'm pleased to hear of these changes, as I have often wondered why there were two separate member controls. The categories sound like a fantastic idea, and one I know nc's have been clamoring for. I'm looking forward to this development, since now I can categorize my members as either bands or fans.

Thanks for the good news, Phil!