Roadmap - should we be worried?

[SweetPotato]

I'm not normally one to publicly bemoan a lack of progress here on Ning but checking out the roadmap today left me a little depressed. There are really only three or four things on it, two of which (blog and third party commenting) have been on for a year, and one (ning ads) was announced not long ago at the seeming development expense of things that were promised a while back (blog and third party commenting).

I know there have been minor updates and that some of what I have listed are major redevelopments but this is the first time I've felt cause to highlight the perceived sense of stagnation that I'm feeling.

Is there some cheer you can bring me, Ning?

http://creators.ning.com/page/product-roadmap

Thanks SP

[Jen]

Ismail, Looks like Eric agrees you haven't. ;-) I should have kept out of it.

[ismail shah]

i think i should wait as i said above. Eric is no doubt Most Responding Staff member of NING.i know sometime he can miss my discussions :)

Jen,Thanks =)

[Tyler Durbin]

My Ning site is going great.  I rarely have problems and if I do, they are fixed quickly.  Then again, I have used the competition and self hosting so the "Problems"  have here are temporary minor annoyances compared to the real problems I have experienced with other platforms. 

[SweetPotato]

Don't get me wrong, I'm totally happy with the way my site is constantly up, things do what they're meant to, and I don't have the issues with self-hosting. I'm working on a Wordpress site at present and that's a pain in comparison. Just concerned that there didn't seem to be much going on roadmap-wise, whereas before it was positively humming.

[Jordon McGee (Jords)]

.Just concerned that there didn't seem to be much going on roadmap-wise, whereas before it was positively humming.

It's the extended period of silence that's throwing people off. Everyone's so used to regular updates from the announcement board, blog area, and roadmap (Which I highly appreciate). It's like coming off a highway at 65 and going to 25 in residential. Everything on the car is working normal, just at a slower pace and your senses have to adjust to the change of speed. Most of us just aren't used to a slower speed on Creators.

[Fire-Tech]

It has been a while for any updates, but we have seen this before. We wont see anything, and then floodgates of new things to play with.

I think the Roadmap is great, but a % of completeness for each item may put some minds at ease...

[Trieu Thanh Tuan]

Ning is sleeping...

[Amit]

As far as I am concerned (a NC of over 7000 members) i am pretty much happy with NING, not worried much about the road map. Many a times my solutions came from the fellow community members including, jen, sweetpotato, bernard, tj and so on. Ning may not be a perfect solution but it is one of the best options available right now :)

[Ed]

An interesting debate.

Has anyone ever tried to implement their own version of a Roadmap? I have, on two different networks and both of them died a slow and silent death. I guess, for me, the answer to the Ning Roadmap conundrum can be found in my own "failed" attempts so I thought I'd share my reasons. I speak for myself.

1. Why did I start them in the first place? - to make my own development roadmap public and thereby open up the relationship I have with my members. In principal, fantastic. In reality, opening up my plans before they'd been thoroughly drilled was a bit like an artist showing his pre-paint outlines and expecting them to impress (and more importantly, not evolve).

2. By identifying my objectives I was providing a solid surface to bounce ideas off my members, get a sense of where the wind's blowing. No one replied. This is clearly more a reflection of my membership than the concept but it is certainly one reason I myself can't complain about non-delivery from Ning. I simply haven't given any tangible indication of where my priority lies regarding their roadmap objectives.

3. I felt that by committing myself publicly I would start delivering. In this sense the age-old motto "don't make promises you can't keep" rings true. I think this is more a case of how the ideas are presented (i.e. whether they seem to be "promises" or simply "ideas") than what they actually are.

4. Why was their death so slow and silent? - Simple. I had a limited amount of time to dedicate to my networks. Developing features was more important than updating/remembering my roadmap. My roadmap updates eventually got lost in the mass of other, more pressing matters.

Conclusion: Having a public Roadmap was/is a great idea. Taken 100% from Ning. Not all great ideas pan out how they're expected to - especially when taken from someone else. I have now learnt that, for me, they only result in disappointment and unfulfilled promises.

My roadmap is now for me and my admins. There's a life lesson in there somewhere, I'm sure.

P.S. On a separate note, SweetPotato, how about changing the title of this discussion to "Roadmap - has Ning lost the way?" or "On a Road to Nowhere?"

There's nothing like a shameless pun-fest to cheer people up.

[SweetPotato]

nice post, Ed.

ha ha, nice puns, although I feel like we've stuck it to Ning enough and they've replied in a communicative fashion. I'll ease off :-)