Introducing New Sign-up Options

Our Product Roadmap this year is rolling along smoothly. Today, we're happy to be releasing another project that we think will be very useful: a whole bunch of new sign-up and sign-in options. Let's get right to it.

Let Members Join with LinkedIn and Windows Live

We've heard a lot of requests from Network Creators who want additional sign-up/sign-in options. You'll be happy to hear that Social Sign In now includes both LinkedIn and Windows Live, which will be great news for business-focused networks and many international networks (e.g., Windows Live is huge in Brazil). The set-up for these will be very similar to Facebook and Twitter options; as the Network Creator, you'll need to create an app for this purpose by entering your own LinkedIn or WindowsLive credentials.

Ready to create yours? Here are the Help Center articles for LinkedIn and for Windows Live.

Sign-up redirection

Want to send new members somewhere besides the Main Page — where they currently land after signing up? This is another request we've heard over time — to be able to redirect members to their own profile page or to a very specific page that a Network Creator has created to serve as a welcome landing page. Now, Ning Plus and Pro Network Creators have the option to send new members to either the Main Page, their own profile page (MyPage), or a custom URL.

This custom URL can be an external URL if you need to integrate your network with another web property. For example, Pro networks may want to send new members to an external web application that makes use of the Ning API to retrieve that new member's information and register them before sending them back to the network.

We hope this will give you a few added options for customization of your new-member experience. Check out this Help Center article about these new redirection options for all the details.

Mix, match or remove sign-up / sign-in

You will now see that your options for sign up and sign in are split, and that "native" network sign in and sign up are included as options. This will allow you to turn off specific services for new members while allowing existing members to continue to sign in to the network, or to do things like limit all new members to Facebook or LinkedIn if it better matches your network's theme and aims, or if you'd like your members to be a little less anonymous than they otherwise could be.

There's an additional option here, one that won't appeal to most Network Creators but that can be powerful for sites that are, for example, less about socializing and more about publishing. That option is to completely remove all sign-ups. If you make this choice, all invite options will be removed and no new members will be able to sign up. This might be an attractive choice if your network is focused on publishing, for example, and not social networking.

Want the full skinny on this new sign-up/sign-in split? Read all about it in this Help Center article.

Phil, for a network I'm building I was going to use redirection, too, and member moderation.

I was going to use the redirection to send them to a "Quick Start" page with suggestions for best content for various demographics. To be clear, I was expecting the redirection to happen after they were approved.

Not sure why you would tie redirection to no-moderation. Or only redirect during the approval phase. Doesn't work with my membership sign-up flow. Doesn't make sense to me in my limited perspective.

Seems that when features are made mutually exclusive like this it's usually either a coding-thing or someone in programming making decisions for the user (i.e., creator). "There's no way they would want both of these things together - or if they did, they shouldn't - so we'll just make them choose one or the other." I can understand if it's a coding-thing. I do not understand if it's one of your programmers making decisions for me about how I should manage my own membership flow (had enough of that in the 90's with Little Billie Gates telling me how to run my office!)

Replies

Rich Page July 2, 2012 at 1:28am

Yes this redirect sucks that you can't moderate and use this - kind of pointless. What is the update on fixing this so that it works for moderated networks? I think this redirect to a new members page will really help initial engagement, which is always a struggle...
- Phil McCluskey > Rich Page July 2, 2012 at 10:18am
  
  Hi Rich,
  
  When a member is pending approval, they can't participate in the network, so their opportunities for engagement are pretty limited. Can you let me know where or to what kind of page you'd like to send those members?
  
  Thanks,
  Phil
  - Jeff Bean > Phil McCluskey August 15, 2012 at 9:25am
    
    Phil, for a network I'm building I was going to use redirection, too, and member moderation.
    
    I was going to use the redirection to send them to a "Quick Start" page with suggestions for best content for various demographics. To be clear, I was expecting the redirection to happen after they were approved.
    
    Not sure why you would tie redirection to no-moderation. Or only redirect during the approval phase. Doesn't work with my membership sign-up flow. Doesn't make sense to me in my limited perspective.
    
    Seems that when features are made mutually exclusive like this it's usually either a coding-thing or someone in programming making decisions for the user (i.e., creator). "There's no way they would want both of these things together - or if they did, they shouldn't - so we'll just make them choose one or the other." I can understand if it's a coding-thing. I do not understand if it's one of your programmers making decisions for me about how I should manage my own membership flow (had enough of that in the 90's with Little Billie Gates telling me how to run my office!)
  - Rich Page > Phil McCluskey July 2, 2012 at 2:00pm
    
    I would like to send them to a page that contains all the best content on my site, and recommended next steps to enjoy the site more. Is there no way to redirect them to that after they received confirmation that they have been approved by me?
  - Pat Howlett > Phil McCluskey July 2, 2012 at 11:28am
    
    Phil, I'd like to provide an example. I operate Inside919 - a micro business network in the 919 area code of NC and so moderate membership due to this specific member and spam.
    
    What I'd like is for a person to Register for membership and be taken to this page to look over our Member Options while they await approval.
    
    This is my workaround the current limitation of the Membership function - we are moving to a 100% paid network model.
    
    I would think that the new registrant HAS to land SOMEWHERE after completing the registration form and why not have it so we can dictate where it best serves them and the network? Thanks!!!
    - Phil McCluskey > Pat Howlett July 2, 2012 at 12:07pm
      
      Hi Pat,
      
      Very helpful, thanks!
Frank May 22, 2012 at 2:08pm

Hi there, I have Ning Plus and I'm not given the option to redirect new subscribers. Can someone please have a look at my account?

Best,
Frank
- Phil McCluskey > Frank May 23, 2012 at 5:16pm
  
  Hi Frank,
  
  Are you moderating members? The redirection is only available if member moderation is turned off.
  
  Thanks,
  Phil
  - Pat Howlett > Phil McCluskey May 24, 2012 at 7:07am
    
    Hey Phil, gota say that this really makes no sense to me, it's like... if you're okay with spammers joining your network you can redirect, however if you wish to control quality you can't.
    
    There HAS to be a way to allow this for moderated networks by simply making the "registration FLOW" move the prospective member to the landing page of choice while they await confirmation. One would think that they have to land somewhere after applying. Had an extra .02 cents this morning :)
Alexander May 20, 2012 at 5:26am

Whats with these links in your post?

LinkedIn

http://www.ning.com/help/cgi-bin/ning.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p...

Windows Live

http://www.ning.com/help/cgi-bin/ning.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p...

this Help Center article

http://www.ning.com/help/cgi-bin/ning.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p...

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