Member leaves and takes group with him

[Robert]

I just had a member leave my network and when he left the group he created, which was a very active group was also deleted. Is there a way to get this back ..? 

When members left in the past the groups they made stayed on my network ..When was this change made.?

[o.d. brooks]

We had the same problem and I think it is the members choice. Since they created the group, when they leave they can elect to delete it. This could mean that the member was mad when they left or just didn't want to leave their work for others to enjoy. We have decided to do a back up of the website so at least we can have a copy of the groups and creat a replacement for when this happens. you could just store copies of large active groups to use as a backup, for things like this.

[Jeff]

How do you 'backup' your site when we have no access to the data?

[The PL Team (d&e)]

Uhhhhh, and how exactly are you making backups of the website and large groups o.d. ?

[Garfield Creator]

One strategy I took was taking requests for groups and creating them myself. As owner I can assign admins. I then started to realize that having my profile as the owner of all groups seemed a little oppressive and would probably raise questions. So I created a generic admin account whose profile pic was the logo for the site. I then had that become the account that created all groups so it did not seem dictatorial. And it seems to work fine. Whoever wants to create a group becomes the group leader. All groups have a consistency in appearance and it seems like just how it was supposed to be. No cult of personality but simply site groups with members willing to take the initiative to request them and run them.

[Robert]

there is some CSS that can hide group creators... I think .. I will have to see if I can find it for you.. Maybe someone will chime in with it... But Great Idea

[AnitaC]

Hiding a group creator will not prevent the group creator from deleting a group. By default, Ning should have a setting that once the group has been set up that only an NC can delete it just for the very reason of population and interaction. Now the person who set up the group, if it's not an active group or seems useless - then they'd contact the NC and say can you delete my group. Otherwise, only the NC can delete it.

[AnitaC]

Yep, you got it right Garfield. Limit the creation of your groups to NCs only. I learned that two years ago.

[Mrs. Peel]

I want to offer the flip side of this. I was once on many networks and had many groups on each. I put in the time and effort, invited people and built them and they were creatively mine. I had a falling out with the site owner and yes, when I left the site I took away my hard work. I was used and I didn't think it fair she took my ideas and credited herself with my projects. This is the downside of allowing other people to build on your site.

As far as my site..I and my administrators work as a team to come up with ideas we all want to see come to fruition in group. We all work together to build and maintain. So if you want control yes create them yourself and then appoint group administrators.

[Skye]

Thank you for that Mrs. Peel, I do think it is a two way street and these things will always happen unless you want total control as Garfield has suggested, which is another good suggestion. Many people have great ideas for groups, many which I or my administrators wouldn't of thought of, this is where the member comes in, this builds diversity and member participation.
Yet one never knows although I do like the idea of making the member an administrator, this handles everything quite nicely, not to mention the individual who makes the group is the only one that can make a necessary change within it as Ning changed our abilities in that regard.
Persephone

[Janettee McCrary]

Doesn't Garfield always have the best ideas? The only issue I'd have is that I already have a few I created under my username and I'd want to move them... But I can't without starting over:( I really wish we had the ability to transfer group ownership:(

[Michelle]

Me too! Ning, how do we transfer group ownership?

[KEVIN Jackson]

ning says that when a member leaves the network all they contributed goes with them...restart the group...