Announcing Groups for Ning 3.0

[Phil McCluskey]

Today we're pleased to announce the release of Groups for Ning 3.0.

Groups are a critical part of allowing network members, especially in larger networks, to come together in smaller niches. We've rebuilt Groups for Ning 3.0 and we've supercharged them. Many of the features and capabilities that we've added are based directly on your feedback. I want to thank all of the Network Creators who told us what was missing from Groups in Ning 2.0 and who gave us direct feedback during the Groups beta. For those who weren't part of our Groups beta program, here's a rundown of what's included in this new feature.

 

Customization & Control

Each group in Ning 3.0 can function like a mini network, with multiple Forums, Blogs, Photos and custom pages. Group Admins can customize the Group Cover Photo and menu, set individual page privacy, content and layouts, and choose which commenting system to use for features. Network Creators can determine exactly how much control over the layout and site structure Group Admins can have, and these settings can be changed per group. Want to allow a single group to have a different layout or run network-level header and footer ads on its Group pages? You can do that.

Automatic and Manual Joining

The control that network creators have with the Groups feature extends to membership. As the Network Creator or a Network Admin, you can manually place a member into any group via the Member Management console. You can also move new members into groups automatically based on their answers to multiple choice profile questions. Need each new member who identifies as a Photographer to automatically join the Photography group? We've got you covered.

Moving Content

As part of the Groups release we're adding the ability for Network Creators and their Admins to move individual pieces of content around in the network. If a member contributed a blog post that you think would work better inside a group, or vice versa, you can now move it to the correct location, and you can do this with Photos, Blog Posts, and Forum Discussions.

Experience the new, supercharged Groups by starting a Ning 3.0 trial! To learn more about Groups for Ning 3.0, check out our new Groups feature page and help articles.

Edit Note: An earlier version of this post included a screenshot from a pre-release version that caused some confusion. It has now been updated to a production screenshot.

[SweetPotato]

This might have been asked before and I'm being blind. Where is the option to allow 'Anyone' to join a group but have 'Approve new members' turned on?

I don't see it.

Thanks

SP

[Lester Unega Waya]

SweetPotato.

Re;

"I've had two clients who plan to use groups as micro sites"

I have been doing that for ages. It's not a new thing so they would be doing that now.

[SweetPotato]

Fair enough but you can't display groups on your Ning 2.0 as I have just enquired about, and groups on Ning 2.0 are not as powerful as Ning 3.0, so i hope to make use of that.

[Lester Unega Waya]

Of course you can display groups on 2.0. One clicks the "groups" button on the tab bar and there they are. So what's wrong with that.

If it worries you that much why not just hand them your site.

If you can't manage a market stall, you certainly are not going to be able manage a supermarket.

If they can't use a group as a micro site on 2.0, they certainly are not going to be able to on 3.0

It's all to do with ability.

[SweetPotato]

erm, Lester, i'm really not sure what end of the stick you've got hold of here, or really why you're talking to me in this fashion. I'll leave you to it safe in the knowledge that I know exactly what I'm doing

SP

[Lester Unega Waya]

SweetPotato.

All I have seen is you want 3.0 so you can do what you always have been able to do but didn't do it.

Another point is that there are probably 50,000 networks on Ning but I don't see anything like 50,000 creators on this forum, do you.

So you could say at least 99.99% of networks are not being represented.

That is the issue.

[SweetPotato]

Phil,

I was building out a client site today and had expected to be able to add blog content from a group to a custom page across the site. Seems that I can't, though. Is this expected behaviour?

The blog instance within the group is set to be public, as is the group.

Any advice would be good, thanks

SP

[Phil McCluskey]

Hi SP,

Content from within a group can't currently be displayed on pages outside of the group in that way, so yes, that's expected behavior. We'll look at how we can enable that, but there are some UX issues to be considered.

Thanks,
Phil

[SweetPotato]

Phil

Another question (sorry). When adding Group Hub as a Content to a custom page, we're not given categories as an option. Will this change soon?

[Phil McCluskey]

Hi SP,

This isn't something we're working on at the moment, but it would be a good addition. Can you use Favoriting as a workaround for now?