Member who send network invitations to other members: how is it possible?

[Toni]

Hello,

 

I just saw in the list of the people invited that one of my network members sent yesterday invitations to 15 people who are his friends on my network! 

 

Of course it is stupid to send them an invitation (they are already members!) but how is it even technically possible to do that?

As a member, you can send a simple message to all your friends on the network, but you cannot invite them through the invitations page!

 

Bug?

[Writer Chick {Diane}]

I posted a discussion once about this. I was trying to figure out why in the world a member would even INVITE someone whom they knew was already a member.  Here's my theory:

 

Members misunderstand the "invite" function

 

It would seem logical that Ning would have some sort of filter that immediately recognize that the person is already a member and shoot out a pop-up:  "So and so is already a member of [insert network name here]".

[Manuel France]

Let's say that you create an event... you can invite all your Ning friends to participate... in that case the invitation function is accurate ;-)

[Noble Empress Kazz Haneef El Bey]

they're probably using the import contacts' feature, & are importing all the contacts. it may just need some tweaking. i received a ning invite to a network, over a year ago, that i was already a member of. like i said, it's probably just some tweaking that needs to be done.

[AnitaC]

This is the issue: The Invite allows you to use your email address to INVITE PEOPLE. So you use it and then you see, for example, what you saw... 15 people receiving an invite that are already friends on the network.  Two things are happening with Invite that Ning has not addressed and separated:

1) If the person uses the INVITE button and uses his/her email, they could already be friends with a member of the site - OFFSITE. That is, I could have invited 5 of my friends last month and they joined. If I repeat the process, you will then see that the 5 are being invited AGAIN but they are already members. The other thing is, I may know the same person that 3 other people know. We may ALL invite that person. So if you and I had the same friend and you invited him last month and he/she joined.... then I invite them this month... it will show up that a person who is already a member has been invited. Does that make sense?

2) The second issue is this - when you SHARE information on the site, such as a blog or discussion with your friends - that blog or discussion being shared shows up as an INVITE in the INVITE LIST but you cannot see that part. You just see a bunch of members being invited by another member. When that happens, 9 times out of 10, the person shared something on the site.

Ning needs to separate the INVITES and the SHARES from that one tab on the site. Invitations are just that... an invitation to join the site. Sharing something is just sharing something. Shared items should NOT show up in the Invite list.

This has been an issue since I started in 2008. Hope that helps you.

[Rev. O.M. Bastet]

Also I believe what is happening is that invites by Group Creators using the function which shows up immediately after they create the group, shows up to the Network Creator as invites TO THE NETWORK but they are not. They are invites to a group. Don't know why Ning's software is set up this way. I have noticed this and discussed it with the inviters who tell me -- several of them -- that they only invited people to their new group. 

Hope this helps.

[Antonio Flagg]

I'll tell you how!  Create a group on your network, and when you get to the invite page, it allows you to invite your friends within the network.

[Toni]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for your answers :)

 

@ Kathleen, Noble, Anita:

In my case, I know that the friends of this member on my network are not REAL friends (he just added some members for a contest I organised), so he doesn't know their email adresses... and he cannot invite them this way :)

 

@ Diane, Manuel, Anita, Rev, Antonio:

so you say that if I am a simple member and that I share some content with some members or invite other members to a group or event, these persons would appear in the "invited people" list ???

Wow, I never noticed it actually... but if it's the case, it's definitely a BUG since the invited people list is (or should be) only for new people to join the network, that's a evidence!

It would be good to have somebody from Ning to clarify this question.