Even the Longest Ropes Have Ends - Inching Closer to Mine

[Troy D. Bertrand]

They are few and far between and I'm probably one of the more patient and understanding NC here. Maybe it's because I haven't been with Ning that long or maybe it's because I realize that no platform is perfect. I should no because I'm coming from Social Go and encountered the same if not worst issues with greater frequency on that platform. These issues have the potential to damage a network beyond repair - Members leave and never return. A member doesn't have to cancel their account to call it quit. 

I left Social Go because I was frustrated with the constant letdowns and fed up with the lame excuses. I'd hate to think that the brains behind the scenes of Ning has a panacea that would solve all technical issues but chose to let the platform be plagued by constant letdowns. I doubt that's the case.

I know the problems are serious and beyond Ning's control whenever Creators.Ning.Com goes off line. Ning tries its best to keep everyone updated by posting frequently to the "Ning Status" section but herein lies the problem. If "Creators" is down, how are we supposed to know what's going on? I suggest you guys take the advice of a fellow NC who said there should be email alerts sent out in times where there are platform-wide issues affecting multiple networks. I thought that would have been a given. I held Ning to higher standards. 

Word of advice for Ning: Never Take Your Customers For Granted. Please Don't. The last thing you want is a mass migration from the platform. That along with some bad press in an age where things go viral could really do some damage. 

It's a lot easier to retain current customers than to lose them and win them back. Just ask Social Go. They've been trying to get me back ever since I left. I vowed never to go back.  Not even the great improvements they've made will change my mind.

Starting over is a thought I always screw my face at. I did it once and sincerely hope that I don't have to do it again.

Regards

TDB

[doone]

There is twitter Ning  which helped me at least  https://twitter.com/Ning

[Eric Suesz]

We definitely won't take you for granted. I appreciate your candor, and I will make sure it is heard. 

I have been thinking about hooking up the status blog to email for those who want to know every issue as it happens in near real-time. Is that something you would subscribe to? Or would every update become an annoyance? 

[Troy D. Bertrand]

If we have the option to subscribe / unsubscribe it can't be an annoyance. If a NC feels it will be beneficial then he / she will subscribe. If he / she feels that the updates are becoming somewhat annoying then the option is there to unsubscribe. 

They way I see it: You guys don't post garbage to the status updates. You post informative material on the status of our networks. If there's something wrong NCs will prefer to get a heads up so that they can sugarcoat it and inform their members. A lot of  NCs only become aware of an ongoing issue after it has been reported by a member. 

Please...go ahead and give us the option to subscribe. Whoever subscribe will be doing so by choice. It's not being forced on us. 

Regards

TDB

[Eric Suesz]

Troy: We're going to go forward and hook up email to the Ning Status blog. We're redoing its design now and should be able to add that with no problems in the next week or two. Really appreciate your feedback. If these kind of instant updates help even a small number of people, it would certainly be worth it. Thanks again. 

[Troy D. Bertrand]

Thanks Eric! I just subscribed.

I'm sure a lot of NC's will take advantage of this subscription. 

Regards

TDB

  

[Damien Hannah]

I would subscribe Eric! (Just in case I'm shopping!)

I'm going to export my email list for my members, and have the ability to let em know manually, but having this would allow for me to set everything up to allow for a quick message to all my members via my iphone, as soon as I am emailed about Ning Status.

The Ning status is a lifeline really, I would totally subscribe!

(Hey Eric, sorry I've been grumpy and complaining as of late. I'm over it, you guys do what you gotta do. Thanks for being a great moderator!)

[Eric Suesz]

I certainly don't blame you for being grumpy. I will work on setting that up since a number of people have asked for something like it. 

[Eric Suesz]

Oh, and I meant to say that the Ning Status blog is hosted on a different server so it can be up even when Creators is down. It's one fail-safe thing that always works, but I can understand if that's not apparent. 

[lorianne]

unplanned shut downs are of particular concern to me since over 300 of my members are orphans from another site that was/is plagued with errors; so they are very sensitive and slightly paranoid about error messages.

one thing that has helped me is that not only do i keep an eye on the Ning Status Blog during these times, but i have exported my memberships info & set up a database of all my members emails which allows me to just drop them a note reflecting whatever is being explained on the Ning Status Blog.

Members have told me over and over how much they appreciate the short note letting them know what was going on.

[Damien Hannah]

Thanks for your post here, I am going to create my own member email list, so that I may quickly notify as you have stated you do. :)

[Damien Hannah]

I will completely second every word in this post.

I too, migrated from SocialGO, and definitely held Ning in higher standard.

An email notification would be absolutely STELLAR, as well as obviously essential. In this day and age, this shouldn't be a difficult thing to do. On top of this, what about our members? I had members online in the middle of things, when all of a sudden, nothing. I have no way to mass email them all, because first of all, I haven't gotten email notification, so I'm grocery shopping, I have NO IDEA my network is down. Secondly, because of NING ISSUES, my users can not access the site, and in order to pacify any of my members worries before they panic, and loose faith in the network, I need to be able to have a way to tell them it will be ok, and I didn't just go out of business.

Ning, you know how you gave us all a "maintenance page" during today's "blackout?"

If you have a way to show us THAT while you fix what ever it was that broke, what if you had a similar "splash page" for us creators, with all our members, and an input box to place an email message. You could then click send, and BAM, all members are immediately notified of the problem, and lets them know that the owner is on top of the problem.

EXCELLENT POST, don't you all agree?

[Writer Chick {Diane}]

Although an email would be nice, sometimes common sense needs to be used.

I was at a ballgame last night, and a member sent me a text letting me know the network was "under maintenance." So...the first thing I did was go to Creators.  When I saw that Creator's was also down, I knew this was a serious issue that was out of ours and THEIR control at that moment.  It's wasted energy to get all grumpy about it.  I knew with a certainty that Ning was on the job and diligently trying to find out what was wrong.  I posted a status on our FB page to let people know this was an unexpected issue and it was being dealt with as quickly as possible.  I've been using this platform for three years, and I realize that's not a lot of time compared to some people, but outages like this are RARE. They're being very transparent and will let us know what happened today in a post.

And if someone quits my network citing too many outages as the reason, then I'll stand at the door and wave goodbye to them.  This platform isn't perfect, but it's the best out there for the price.