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 Chris on January 17, 2011 at 12:47pm

Also to change a discussion into a blog and vice versa. Important for networks with a wider membership who perhaps aren't all used to this sort of thing.

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Permalink Reply by Safire on June 13, 2012 at 7:02am

OMG! I would love that! People post "journal" style entries in my forums all the time.

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Permalink Reply by Chris on June 13, 2012 at 12:20pm

Thanks Safire - we get people trying to post discussion style entries in their blog, and blog style entries in the forum. Not everyone understands what a blog is, or what a forum is. Asking them to re-post in a different section of the site puts them off posting in the future.

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Permalink Reply by Janettee McCrary on January 17, 2011 at 3:13pm

You're lucky... I'm paying $600/yr. I'd like the same ability!

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Permalink Reply by kopper on January 18, 2011 at 6:09am

Since I paid in one lump sum last July, I was billed for $499.95. I chose that over the monthly $49.95 charge, which would have equaled out to another hundred bucks.

But yeah, Ning is way behind on adding a lot of additional functionality to their forums and groups. It would also be nice if we could merge and split topics... just like w/ phpBB forums.

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Permalink Reply by Julie Hochstadter on June 13, 2012 at 9:48am

Agree -

My site is heavy of forum and groups, it took a lot to build up and I'd love more functionality...

Ning is way behind on adding a lot of additional functionality to their forums and groups. It would also be nice if we could merge and split topics..

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Permalink Reply by Evan on January 18, 2011 at 10:43am

Hey Jeff!

It's not that it's taking us a year to do it, it's that this isn't something we have been working on or plan to work on in the near future. We work with Network Creators to develop a product roadmap based around their demands, and this hasn't been something that we've heard from most Netork Creators.

Additionally, it's not exactly a cut-and-dry feature, as there are some edge cases we'd have to work through (like what happens if a member hasn't joined the group you want to move the discussion to? Do we allow it anyway? Do we make them a member? What if the group is private? Does the member get notified about all this, because now they can't find the discussion? What happens to the old URL?). It's not an easy feature, and we're focusing on a few other features that we've heard a few more requests for. We'll be publishing an updated roadmap soon, but you can check out what major features are in store here:

http://blog.ning.com/2011/01/welcome-to-2011-welcome-to-the-custom-...

All this isn't to say that you shouldn't have the ability to move discussions to a group. You should. It's just not at the top of the roadmap at the moment. But we'll keep an eye on the request and see if there's anything we can do in the future.

/Evan

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Permalink Reply by Julie Hochstadter on June 13, 2012 at 9:49am

Evan -

When will the next survey be or do you use this forum for our needs? Would love to answer the questions about what we'd like to see done next.

We work with Network Creators to develop a product roadmap based around their demands, and this hasn't been something that we've heard from most Netork Creators.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Suesz on June 13, 2012 at 5:18pm

Not sure if we have a survey coming up soon, and we aren't able to just put it all up to a vote, but we pay a lot of attention here and I relay ideas to our product team every week.

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Permalink Reply by kopper on January 18, 2011 at 1:33pm

Got a reply from Jason Rosenthal about this:

Hey Jeff,

Sorry for the delayed reply. We do in fact have this planned and it will come as part of an overall redesign for Groups which is something you and others have been asking about for quite sometime. We'll get to this in during the second half of the year although I don't have an exact date yet. As you may have seen in my blog post last week we'll be launching a regularly updated product roadmap page on Creators to give you better visibility into what we're working on and when it's coming.

Thanks for checking in and hope all is well.

Jason

JASON ROSENTHAL
CEO

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Permalink Reply by Asil on October 18, 2011 at 1:21pm

Pokes at the thread to get it back top-side, since part of why NING appears to not have moved on this is they think its not a priority for their customers.

I opened a support ticket to learn if the NING programmers could do it and was advised by NING support that "...it isn't possible for us to move discussions from the general forum to a group's forum, or vice versa. It's something we'd like to offer as an option, but the code doesn't support it at this time."

Knowing that NING can't move content (as the programmers of the service) is shocking to me. This is really an untenable position, as NING is constantly pushing creators to make their sites public, but isn't providing the code to allow us to do it in a way that works for our membership. We'd like to make our community more available to visitors, but until we have the ability to shelter member discussions in the protected group discussion forums, that's not going to happen.

@ NING Developers: Please advise on an ETA for this critical functionality. Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by kopper on October 18, 2011 at 1:39pm

Thanks for the bump, Asil. I agree wholeheartedly. This is one of two HUGE issues I have with Ning's functionality (or lack thereof) with regard to the Forum/Groups (here is the other). I have been waiting for over two years, hoping that word would come that they would fix this, but still, nothing... and "the second half of the year" is almost over. Maybe it's time to send a follow-up email to Jason about this?

Folks, if you would like to see Ning add this feature, don't sit on your hands. Post a reply here and let 'em know. Thanks!