Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Asil on October 23, 2011 at 7:44pm

Thanks, Evan.  As I wrote in my support ticket, we'd like to make our portal more open, but until we can move certain forum content into the protection of closed groups, that simply can't happen.

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Permalink Reply by George Lewter on February 12, 2012 at 3:15pm

The ability of administrators to reorganize content is near non-existent. I have no ability to move someone's unresponded-to discussion to to their blog space, or from a string of comments to a new discussion under the originator's name.  I, like all of you, can copy a series of comments about someone's picture into a new discussion topic, but it can only be created as my discussion.  There is no way for me to make the discussion attributable and controllable to the owner of the picture. In fact the only functionality I know of for moving anyone's content but my own is that I can change what category a discussion is under.  

My point of view is that creator/administrator content controls under the ning platform are quite lame. My network is by design extremely open for member postings.  The drawback to this openness is that a lot of content gets posted in places that are less than ideal.  This leads to disjointed discussions and comment trails and to a perceptible level of disorganization on my network.  Community is by its nature disorganized, but tools are urgently needed to pull related content together to create a level of coherence.

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Permalink Reply by Katie Shelly on November 23, 2011 at 8:59am

I would love to be able to move discussions from one forum to another. my users also frequently post in the wrong place and I have to beg them to re-post in the right place, which makes the users angry. same experience as jeff.

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Permalink Reply by Katie Shelly on November 28, 2011 at 12:11pm

It's not perfect, but for the meantime I am making screenshots of the posts I want to move, and re-posting them as images in the correct location. It's a start!

I include the OP's name in the body of the post, and I make their name link back to their profile.

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Permalink Reply by Asil on November 23, 2011 at 10:56am

I just re-read Kopper's original post on this and I see he first made this request in 2009.  Its now November 2011.  I cannot stress what a deal-breaker this is becoming for my NING networks; we really need to change how our network functions but we can't make these critical changes unless we can move the public forum posts into the forums of certain groups.  NING developers ...please push this up on the "to-do- list!

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Permalink Reply by Chris on November 23, 2011 at 11:54am

Not just moving discussions to groups, but also changing a discussion to a blog or vice versa. I'm continually asking members to repost as they aren't all internet savvy young tech heads and don't know what a blog or forum is, and post anything anywhere, no matter how many signs I put up...

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Permalink Reply by kopper on November 28, 2011 at 5:56am

Don't hold your breath, Asil. Ning just doesn't think this is important enough to actually improve. It's very frustrating, but it's the reality of the situation. They realize there's no other similar product out there that we can simply switch to that has a better forum setup, so they're basically using improvements like this to hold us hostage. It sucks, but what're ya gonna do? I've spoke out about this for so long that I simply don't care anymore. Ning will continue to deliver us silly bells & whistles that most of its users will be excited about, but the things that take a bit more work that will improve things for a select few who are as detail-oriented in managing our networks as we are? Ignore those and hope that they go away.

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Permalink Reply by Evan on November 28, 2011 at 9:28am

Jeff,

Not at all. This is something that should be done, it's not a matter of us thinking it's just not important. It's an issue of how important. We're really focused on delivering the new chat feature right now, which is not only something that thousands of Creators have asked for -- but it's much more than just bells and whistles.

We're not holding anything hostage. What we're doing is trying to evaluate which features are most important for Creators and going to deliver the most impact, and those are the ones we aim to tackle. Additionally, as I've pointed out to you, this feature is not straightforward or simple to implement.

Keep raising your voice for this feature, and we'll hopefully tackle it soon. But I want to again be clear why that hasn't happened yet.

/Evan

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Permalink Reply by Asil on December 3, 2011 at 6:29pm

@ Evan.  Perception is reality; it’s a basic truth in human communication (and in customer support).  If, as a customer, I see a vendor has marginalized me as an edge-case and appears dismissive of my concerns, I will question the wisdom of maintaining the relationship. 

In January 2011, the CEO of NING went on-record with Kopper to advise: "...[ability to move posts] will come as part of an overall redesign for Groups which is something you and others have been asking about for quite some time."  We got the Groups redesign (adding pages, etc.), but we didn't get this basic functionality.  While I understand the underlying code changes are challenging and may have permissions limitations (like not being able to move a public forum post to a closed group), I don’t accept they are insurmountable. 

NING may have decided our need to gently control the content on our sites doesn't align with its business model.  As creators, we are powerless in the face of this change.  [And make no mistake Evan, that IS a change.]  We cannot force NING to provide a function, no matter how desperately we may need it.  At best, we communicate our concerns and hope that communication will trickle up to the powers-that-be.  At worse, we take our business elsewhere.

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Permalink Reply by Evan on December 5, 2011 at 11:05am

Asil,

Not at all. In the past two years, you've seen the Ning platform go from one where NCs had some, but minimal control over the content on their sites to today, where NCs can now:

• Edit content posted by their members
• Delete members
• NCs now take over groups if/when the group creator leave
• Add their own custom Terms of Service

I think it's pretty hard to argue that Ning has decided Network Creators don't need control over their content. That flies in the face of exactly the type of projects we've taken up in the past 18-24 months.

I'll say it again: This feature is both complex and relatively low-priority, which is why it hasn't been completed yet. We did hope to roll it into some of the groups work we took up earlier this year, but that did not happen. Our roadmap changes frequently, and one of pitfalls of being open and transparent with Creators on what's coming is that often what we've said is coming will get delayed or taken off the roadmap.

I encourage NCs to keep pushing for this feature. That, above all else, will get this feature prioritized. When it comes down to it, it's simply difficulty and priority/demand for this.

/Evan

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Permalink Reply by Asil on December 3, 2011 at 6:28pm

@ kopper.  Apologies for the delay in replying; I am sorry your advocacy on this issue is creating a sense the platform is taking hostages.  Until I started posting on this discussion thread, I was a vocal advocate for NING.  I’ve used the service for many years and have recommended it to friends and clients.   I’m sad to report my feelings are starting to change.  A loyal user advising he "simply [didn't] care anymore” is a real concern.  Not only because it signals the possibility he might be lost as a customer, but because I know from my many (many) years in advertising and marketing that every customer you have who communicates a concern is speaking for multiples of customers who have the same issue and aren’t vocal.

It’s generally accepted a person having an unhappy experience with a business will tell nine or ten other people.  About 13% will tell more than twenty others.  This negative word-of-mouth can be very harmful and that person’s reach can expand geometrically if they are social media influencers.  An unhappy customer cannot be kept quiet.  However, companies can regain customer support by solving problems quickly and by being respectful of their customers’ perceptions.  Such customers often come back and then spread positive word-of-mouth at equal or greater scale.

Kopper, I want you to know that I appreciate your advocacy on this issue and your willingness to continue to engage.  As a fellow creator, it means a lot to me.

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Permalink Reply by Dusty Bottoms on December 18, 2011 at 4:38am

My question is different but related to this.  We have a discussion that was put in the wrong group and it needs to be put reassigned to another group. How/can this be done?

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