Moving Discussion Topics Between Forum Categories and Groups

Over the weekend a member of my network posted a discussion topic in the main network forum that did not belong there. The topic more appropriately belonged in one of our network's group forums. I had to delete this topic from the main network forum, and then contact the member and request that they post it in the specific group forum instead. He sent me a message back asking why I didn't just move it there, and I had to explain to him that Ning has not yet given network admins the ability to move discussions between the main forum and group forums. I also had to tell him that I originally requested this back in 2009, but I'm still waiting. I find it odd and annoying that I keep seeing little improvements here and there, but one of the biggest issues of our network remains unresolved. Is it seriously taking Ning over a year to implement this option, or did they just shelve the request and will get to it *someday*? I guess the only thing I can do is to continue to request it. I would appreciate an honest, concrete timetable as to when this will be added, because I feel if I am paying $500/year for a network, I should be able to have better controls over our forum. With phpBB forums this sort of functionality is built right in. Why is it so hard for Ning to make it a function of their forums/groups?

Thanks,
Jeff Kopp
GaragePunk Hideout
http://garagepunk.ning.com

Tags: discussions, forum, groups, merging, moving, topics

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Permalink Reply by George Lewter on February 24, 2012 at 6:00pm

Are there better platforms than ning for interest centric social networking? I'm married to ning because I thought is was a perfect match for my potter's network. But love is blind, especially new love. Are there other fish in this particular sea? Where are they? What are their names?

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Permalink Reply by Charlie on January 13, 2012 at 2:00pm

Another valuable tool that us admins *need* as a *top priority*!!

For us to have the ability to move discussions that have been posted in the wrong place is a feature that really should come as standard, but as it doesn't, we would *very much appreciate* Ning now adding it.

We *need* the ability to manage our site content in a manner that doesn't upset our contributing members. It is imperative that we are able to move discussions around our site (group to group, forum to group, group to forum, blogging area to group, blogging area to forum, group to blogging area and forum to blogging area - did I cover everything?!). By giving us the ability to move content, we are able to actively manage our sites a lot better, thus improving our service to our members by making it as easy as possible for them to be able to find information on a given topic.

I had the arduous task of *manually* having to move (by copying and pasting!) countless discussions to and from various groups as part of a larger re-organisation of our site. Copying and pasting is tedious, time consuming and simply not practical. It also upsets members who post content, as they are no-longer the content provider (I tried to soothe members by adding to every discussion the member who had originally posted it and where it was originally posted. You can imagine how long that took!!)

I believe it is time for Ning to consider this issue a *priority*, and find a way to overcome the programming challenges of changing or moving url's, so that we have the ability to manage and move the content on our sites as and when we want to.

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Permalink Reply by kopper on January 13, 2012 at 4:49pm

Wow, I can't imagine trying to copy and paste entire discussions from one location to another. That must've been a nightmare.

And you're right, too, about this also being handy for blog posts. I've found a few discussion topics posted in our forum that would have made much more sense as a blog post, so that's an excellent point, and should be included in the planned roadmap for this upgrade.

So far the only problem that Ning has responded with about this is "What do we do if we move a discussion topic from a forum to a group where the poster(s) are not members?" To me, the answer to that is pretty simple: They should get a notification that they may JOIN that group once their content is moved, or have them be admitted to the group automatically, since it will now contain content they posted. I really don't see what the big deal would be of doing that. Ning acts as if adding network members to a group is some breach of ethics or something. There are several options to consider for solving that problem, but using that as one of the reasons why they haven't proceded with it is just making excuses, if you ask me.

But your point about this needing to be basic functionality on our networks is spot-on, and goes along with what I've been saying all along. The fact that I could easily manage this exact same kind of functionality on a phpBB message board TEN YEARS AGO should illustrate how it's so very rudimentary that it needs to be addressed NOW.

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Permalink Reply by Asil on January 14, 2012 at 6:16pm

I've manually moved content by recreating the threads in appropriate groups, but its a very blunt instrument and its upsets the originator because they loose their "ownership" of the content. Its also really frustrating because any comments that may have been made are then lost unless you manually copy them also.

In the end, we decided its just too disruptive to the community to use.

The only sane solution is for the platform to support admins being able to move content around as needed.

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Permalink Reply by Asil on January 19, 2012 at 12:16pm

Was chatting with some NING admins from another site and pointed them to this thread ...they aren't creators, so I guess that means they can't post here. Anyway, they want this functionality too.

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Permalink Reply by Charlie on March 15, 2012 at 4:21pm

Hiya Asil,

Admins can join this site, I am an Administrator on a Ning network and I am here! I think Ning just need to be able to verify that the person applying to join this site really is an Admin before they are approved. It took a couple of days for my application to join this site to be approved, but I am here now :)

I just thought you might like to know so you can pass this info along to Admins that you think might want to join us here :)

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Permalink Reply by Asil on March 17, 2012 at 3:14pm

Thanks, Charlie. I think the issue is these users are moderating via a role created by the network creator and not via the "administrator" role that is created by the NING network.

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Permalink Reply by Shannon @ SyfrSpace on March 15, 2012 at 4:38pm

I'm an admin as well, but only because we can't assign more than one creator to our network.

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Permalink Reply by Shannon @ SyfrSpace on January 24, 2012 at 7:48pm

OK - this is getting critical now. We have member groups that pay us to provide them professional development and space for discussions. They are getting frustrated that we can't move discussions because their own staff keeps starting new topics in the wrong places or posting outside of an ongoing thread. We do not want to lose these paying members when it comes time to renew with us, but this could potentially be a deal breaker for some of them.

We MUST have the functionality of a simple bulletin board. Moving topics and threads is crucial for a network that encourages discussions.

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Permalink Reply by Asil on January 26, 2012 at 8:01am

Yes, Shannon ...thanks for sharing how this profound lack of functionality is effecting your paying clients. Paying clients. Let me type that again ...paying clients.