Paid Members Expired - But still showing up in Group

[Tim]

I have a group which is charge a membership fee for and there are several people who have not renewed and their membership has expired.

Why do they still show up in my group as a member?  Shouldn't they be removed from my group since their membership has expired?

Do I have to manually remove them by suspending them....however, if I do this, will they be able to pay and get back in if they chose?

Thank You!

[Cisco]

Good post. I'll be monitoring this one.

[Tim]

I just received word from an expired group member that since these profiles still show up in my group and they are expired, they still receive the emails you send out to the entire group.

Also, they can get into the paid access group for free this way!!!  Not good Ning!

[Tim]

Just an update, by clicking on the link in the email that I send out, they can access the group and see the wall and the info in the text box.  They can get into the forum topics or access the pages.  I use the wall for almost everything I do and send out email alerts on stocks.

This is going to be a major problem for me and now I have to try to figure out a way around it.

I really don't like the fact that I may have to suspend expired people.  It won't allow them to get back in unless they send me an email asking more for permission.  It will also leave a bad taste in their mouth.  Nobody likes to be suspended from something!

I have an email in to Ning support, hopefully they get back to me soon.

[Tim]

Another update, I'm sure other people are having the same issue.  I am going to have to suspend expired members so they cannot get in.  I went into the language editor and changed the suspended text to deactivated...suspend is a strong word.  This is really annoying.

Ning needs find a way to kick people out of the group once their paid membership expires.  This would solve all of our problems.  i just started my paid group a month ago and was wondering how this would work out when memberships begin to expire.  Turns out, they stay in the group and can get back in through any group email links, especially the one at the bottom that says Visit " Your Group" at:                                               xxxxxxxxxxxx source_msg_group

[Eric Suesz]

Hey, Tim. It appears to be working as expected. If something isn't working correctly, our support team can investigate.

[Tim]

Hi Eric, already spoke with support team, it will not work correctly until Ning implements a paywall system where expired members get automatically deleted out of a group.  Worse case, Ning let's group owners manually delete members.

Right now, I have a group which is paid access.  When a membership expires, they still show up in the group.  They don't get deleted out.  This means all of my sensitive emails are sent to expired group members along with active paying members.  They can also click the bottom link of the email and get into my paid access room for free.  They can see everything except for group forum and group pages.  I used the wall all day long and send out stock alerts via group message option.  

It is also lying to potential subscribers, showing 70 members when 20 of them are expired but still show up in the group as paying members.

Right now I have to spend time manually suspending expiring group members one by one.  Now, they cannot pay for another membership with one click, they have to email me first so I can "reinstate them" so that they can pay and renew.

This is a major flaw that needs to be addressed.  I hope all all network creators that are thinking about starting a group with paid access is aware of this.  The last thing you want to do is lose members and have them access your group for free.  

[Eric Suesz]

One other thing, Tim. I think that the reason you haven't seen them kicked out of the group yet is that they haven't tried to visit since their membership lapsed. That's my hunch, but our support team can check it. 

[Tim]

That is another thing, when do they go into lapsed phase?  Shouldn't that be right after their membership expires?  I had two members come back and rejoin, also had a member that wasn't going to rejoin that gave me heads up on this major flaw.  

[Eric Suesz]

To be honest, I don't have all the answers for you without looking closely at all of the specific details of your situation, which is what our support team can do. What I can say is that the feature appears to be working as designed from my own cursory look.