Overview of Q3 and Ning Q4 2017 plan.

[Kyryl_Ning_Support]

Better late than never - here is the product plan Q3 overview and Plans for Q4.
As you might have noticed, all the promised features have been released. We did our best to keep the deadlines and fit your expectations.
So here are Q3 updates:

1. Paid Access is finally live. It is even more than just old Paid Access, it is a great e-commerce platform with Stripe and PayPal integration. For now it is only available for beta-group, so if you forgot to ask for beta access, don’t miss your chance till Nov 3d.
2. Audio feature is live. Now you can easily create playlists, audio lessons, add audio tracks, podcasts, and any mp3 files. The feature has got a completely new design, which we think looks awesome.
3. Polls. Completely new feature for Ning, only available for Ning 3.0. Using Polls all Ning NCs can easily get up to date feedback from Network members.
4. The Design Studio got a few new templates, a bunch of new fonts and backgrounds to make it more user-friendly and provide flexibility of options you have in order to make your network modern and unique even without coding skills.
5. SSL certification had been implemented for all ning domain names.

Keeping in mind that we are living in the era of mobile devices all new features have been developed in a way so they would look great on mobile devices.

You could not miss how the Creators network changed, which is completely Kyryl’s merit, as is the new guide for Facebook integration.

And now as for the next steps, we are going to make:

1. Member ranking system
2. E-commerce platform wider development (donations, network membership, groups)
3. MailChimp Integration
4. SSL for custom domains, completely automated process.
5. Push notifications

Besides, there are lots of other improvements on the way, more related to back end, like the rework of the activity feed architecture and migration script (these are just the biggest ones so we simply can't help but highlight them).

As always we are happy to receive feedback from you, so feel free to drop us a line.

Sincerely yours,
Ning Team.

[⚡JFarrow⌁]

Big Request:   Could we get functionality to export member profile photo inside out exported member data?    Would also be interested in a way to only export certain answers to profile questions... Thanks...been meaning to add this..

[Kyryl_Ning_Support]

Hi there!

It depends, on how exactly you wish to receive the profile photo if you wish to have the file itself then it would require more work to implement such functionality as the CSV file cannot store the photo files, only the pass to them. However, if you wish to have the link to teh profile picture that would be easier to do. I have just wanted to specify before I'll post the suggestion which option is more convenient for you?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Ning Team.

[DYLAN GOODWIN]

I am pleased with the progress and turnaround ... I've really enjoyed the Ning platform and approach. It was great to suspend my plan to migrate to another platform and now once again re-center my business plan around this site. So, it nice to hear continuing feature add-ons for 3.0. I'm not the best at getting a result when I search for these things, but is there a place where we can see a continually updated list of 2.0 features that 3.0 is still missing? I am patiently waiting for the migration tool, but I want to be comfortable with knowing everything I need will be there when the time comes.

[Kyryl_Ning_Support]

Hi there!

Unfortunately, we don't have such list comparing the features of both platforms. However just from the top of my head.

Features Ning 2.0 has and Ning 3.0 doesn't:

- Gifts functionality (and I don't think they would be released on Ning 3.0 as they are not really popular)

- Design studio for member's profiles

- API (because of this there were a lot of custom apps to use, however now most of them outdated and are not working as the developers you have created the apps have stopped to support them)

- Advanced search

- Photo albums (of Ning 3.0 there are categories for photos but there are still some differences)

Features Ning 3.0 has and Ning 2.0 don't

- Polls

- The overall customisation of the page is more flexible, you can set different layout for different pages

- MailChimp integration

Also paid access on 3.0 has extended functionality like payment with the card, and other changes that make it easier to use and more informative, however as 2.0 also has it I don't think it should be included in the least, but the one 3.0 is definitely better :-)

Best wishes,

Ning Team.

[Anam]

Archiver? The possibility to save our site's content and make a copy of it. That was on Ning 2 when i was an admin on a site. It should be available now or otherwise we do not ever own our content and are at the mercy of the platform should a mistake happen.

[Kyryl_Ning_Support]

Hi there!

Yes, sorry how could I have forgotten the Archiver.

According to the comment from the management, the Archiver tool could be possibly created next year but it's not the top priority at the moment.

Best wishes,

Ning Team. 

[Anam]

Thanks for letting us know, Kyryl, it is good that the Archiver tool is in the sights of the management, it will be a big relief to people to know their work is their own.

Any word on the old chat being made available for those who cannot get along with the new one?

And I notice today that the Latest Activity seems to be posting all the things it had stopped posting. That's good! :)

[Kos]

Anam what trouble are you experiencing with new Chat?  Ours has been operating well for a few months now.  Maybe it's time to give it another try (?)

[Anam]

Hi Kos, people can't get the idea of how to see who is online and even if they find the list it is random people some with green light beside their name even weeks after they were last on. Read messages show up again and again as unread. I find it almost unusable and that is me who is invested in trying to make it work. Others just can't be bothered trying to figure it out and I can't blame them, so effectively we do without chat. It's a pity

[Kyryl_Ning_Support]

Hi Anam and Kos,

I have tried to reproduce the issue with read and unread messages you have described, but when I have used several test users it wasn't reproduced on my test network, so I guess there should be some specific conditions to make it happen. Have you noticed how much time usually it takes for the message to become unread one? Is it happening in the Main room or in private chats as well? As far as I have understood all the profiles are affected but please correct me if that's not right. 

Please provide me with this info so I could create the report to the tech team and we could see what is going wrong. Of course, I'll check the test messages tomorrow as well, as probably the issue could be reproduced with time but any help would be appreciated.

Best regards,

Ning Team.