Increase the Minimum Required Age of Your Members + All Ning Mentions in Terms of Service Now Removed

[Eric Suesz]

Hello, again, Network Creators. Seasons greetings!

We made a few changes today that I think most of you will be happy to hear about. You now have more choices about who can sign up for your network — specifically around the age of new members.

FIrst, you now have the choice to increase the minimum required age of your members. Is your network only meant for Baby Boomers who are over 60? You can now change the minimum age to reflect this. And your Terms of Service will be automatically changed to reflect your new age requirement.

Second, you can now do away altogether with asking for birth dates during sign up. Your new members will still be required to accept your Terms of Service (with a minimum age of 13), even if you turn off the birth date check.

You'll find these new options in the Members > Controls section of your management dashboard.

We also updated your network’s default Terms of Service to add our standard DMCA notice guidelines and to remove the last few mentions of “Ning.” There is no longer any mention of Ning in your default network Terms of Service.

I know that most of these have been requested in the past a number of times, so we’re happy to be giving you these new options.

Hope your holidays are looking bright!

[Toni]

Taking Ning out of the TOS is a good step for all NCs (like me) who are trying to hide that the website has been done with Ning :)

But it's gonna be definitely "huge" as said Thunder X when Ning will appear nowhere, even not in the source code ! ;-)

 

Some "simple" things could be done also in this objective:

• replace the "shorten link" service "ning.it" by "bit.ly" for example or at least give the possibility to NCs to disable it (that is why I didn't activate the "share on Twitter" feature for my members)
• give the possibility to NCs to disable the "see the original size" feature for the pictures uploaded

PS: Just one thing SUPER IMPORTANT Eric: please send a mail to all the NCs before putting live these kind of updates, at least one day before.

The "minimum required age" feature was enabled automatically and I just noticed today that because of it, new members could not sign up (even with their Facebook account for example)...

I even wrote a ticket to the help center to mention the BIG problem... before noticing that the problem disappeared when I disabled this feature...

[Patrick Mee]

Toni,

We did not change anything around sign up age on your network. There always was a limit, we just gave you the option to change it.

Patrick

[Chris]

Patrick - giving us the option to change it is a change, and changing it from a profile question to an option on the "controls" page is a change. This change apparently caused or was involved in an unexpected sign-up bug.

• ref:00D8cCLt.5004DXRvF:ref
• http://creators.ning.com/forum/topics/invalid-birthday-warning
• http://creators.ning.com/forum/topics/sign-up-issues-with-facebook

If we have sufficient notice of these changes then we can steel ourselves and our members for the inevitable bugs, and deal with them more effectively. Why change something unannounced, and then announce it after confusion and panic has spread? Surely it would have been better to fire off a quick broadcast email letting us know that you're changing (or tweaking, if you prefer) the age limit and sign-up procedure, with a link to a discussion with more info, and where we can keep relevant comments together, instead of in 6 different discussions so no-one really knows what's going on?

[Dave99]

Hey Eric, you have to remember I was a paying Ning NC back in the evil old days when Gina Bianchini would disingenuously tell paying NCs that paying to remove all Ning promotional mentions didn't really mean Ning would remove all Ning promotional mentions.

It's against that historical background that I remained suspicious of Ning's integrity, even under the new Jason Rosenthal regime. But I have seen Ning now do exactly what it said it would do in this matter. That's all I ever wanted. And now, apparently, I have it.

[Sukadev Bretz]

Hi Eric,

 

maybe this question does not belong here in this thread. One question to the Terms of Service which are in English below my own TOS:

 

How can we translate these TOS translated in English? If I can change the required age I don't understand why I can 't translate it in the lanaguge of my network. I provide German language networks and think it makes no sense to publish the AGB in English.

 

Thanks,

Sukadev

[Patrick Mee]

We will be doing translations soon. It takes time to get the translations back from the translators.

Thanks,

Patrck

[Sukadev Bretz]

Hi Patrick,

 

thanks for this information. Good to know that you have this on your list.

 

Best regards,

Sukadev

[Sukadev Bretz]

How long shall we are waiting for it. Two months are gone now and NING 's English version is still there. I don 't understand it why this basic homework is not be done. 

[Evan]

Hey Sukadev!

Sorry for the delay. What language are you looking for? We're only translating the Terms into our most popular languages, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese at this time.

/Evan

[Evan]

Hey Miles!

Just so you know, there's a line on the Profile Completion page that says (something like) "By signing up, I agree to the Terms of Service", with a link to the TOS.

/Evan

[Teriann Shrum]

Ahhh... okay. That's why some new people can't get in.... helps to make this a daily pit stop. LOL!!

 

Thanks!!!!

[Ken Mawbey]

Hi Eric

 

Had a report from someone trying to sign up and was reporting not accepting DOB.  Have just seen this announcement.  Like2Link averages about 4 new members a day and we haven't had any for the last 3.

 

Just looked at the terms of service and they were - NB O years.

 

The following Terms of Service apply to your use of this Network. You are solely responsible for your conduct and your content on the Network and compliance with these terms. By registering with us or using or browsing this Network, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these terms. This Network is not directed to children younger than 13 and is offered only to users 0 years of age or older. Any person who provides their personal information through this Network represents that they are 0 years of age or older.

 

I then went in and selected 13 years and the terms then updated to 13

 

I haven't turned off DOB yet as we don't want to lose that feature .

 

Please can someone look into this issue ASAP as we've just lost 3 days of new members!

 

Thanks, Ken