Current status of the Ning Platform is always available on the Ning Status Blog.

So here we are. It's 2018. And Ning is "humming along nicely". Or is it?

If you're like me, you need progress. The kind that, Ning 2.0 had back when it was around. Before it's discontinuation, we just had all of this handed to us did we not? You know, the leaderboards, a working chat that shows the members online on a moment by moment basis site wide. The way members could customize every aspect of their profile page. A working gifts feature, a section to add apps to profiles. You got to see who liked your posts, you received new notifications for new content. You could limit who could administer what features with moderator roles. You got to ask new members for payment on sign up to join, using paid access. You got to invite your friends to join your site if you were a member of another site back in the day, so you had a great experience. You had the ability to back up your content in case you wanted to look at a localized copy of it later using the Ning archiver. You had invidual music playlists on profiles so people could upload music. You had RSS feeds on profiles so people could link another blog and keep the connection going and the word spreading. You had the ability to add custom information to your profile using text boxes. You could even delete or suspend a member who didn't fit in with your community right from their profile page. Along with being able to see who did it, as well as who featured them if they were a good member. You had advanced search so people could use profile questions to find members who interested them. You had the ability to add any main features you wanted members to keep in mind site wide if you wanted to using features layout. You had the ability to truly make your community unique by customizing the footer, media players, and even badges you could paste onto other sites inviting people to check your site out. You had the ability to even put a tag line in the site to complement the site name so that you could describe your site separate from it's main description in member generated emails, in case people wanted to know. You could even email people outside the network to participate in groups, and any piece of content just by clicking the share link. You had the ability to set the default text editor in case you wanted people to use HTML view. You could even type in network.ning.com/profiles to get to your own profile page. Things were great! Fantastic even. We even had Pingomatic working in the background, along with a sitemap of all the important Ning pages of our site to keep us going for SEO. With a few minor tweaks, any Ning powered site on a 2.0 platform could instantly hit the top search results for any search term. So, what's lacking in Ning 3? Is it all of the above? In Ning 2, we could share content with the members of the site so they stayed informed about what was going on. Classic tools of member engagement, it's called notifications and they worked. Well, relatively. What would've made it even better is if members had the ability to customize who can see their posts. Oh wait a minute, Ning 2 had that also. but with Ning 3, you guessed it. Everything I mentioned so far, has been stripped out, taken away, abandonned to never be seen again.

In light of Ning no longer supporting the continuation of the Ning 2.0 platform, it's time for a chat. the kind that gets us thinking, what can we do to bring the good days of Ning back again. Well, we may not be able to bring back auto posting, or sitemaps, or pretty much anything else I mentioned so far. but what we can bring, is hope.

Hope that one day, someone will understand why successful Ning 2.0 networks still around today, will only become more so as we try our best to make it work for us on Ning 3.0 with all the things we are lacking from the 2.0 sites. Things which are still available on the competition. Phpfox. Dolphin. Social Engine. Jamroom. Etc.

You need to be a member of Ning Creators Social Network to add comments!

Join Ning Creators Social Network

Votes: 0
Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • It's never too late to add the ability to see site wide notifications if members or content are awaiting approval on Ning 3.0.

    • Hi there!

      If somebody or something should be approved the number would be shown on the green admin bar. It would be indicating the number of items that awaits approval.

      Best wishes,

      Ning Team.

       

  • All of the things you list were part of Ning 2, I remember them from when I first joined and then moderated a Ning site, and it is true that it was a more comprehensive operation. Funny, I had almost forgotten. Silly little things still missing, like not knowing who liked something, or no automatic notification of posts to groups of which you are  a member, or chat being intuitive and listing actual people actually online, and all of the above. I am very grateful for the improvements that have been made in the last months - very grateful - but it is true that Ning 2 seemed to have been effortlessly easier. I hope too that service can be restored to that level. It's almost harder to give out now about Ning now - compared to a year or so ago when things were truly appalling and our networks were permanently suffering -  as the people are so nice and helpful. One feels like a nasty person to say anything untoward now.

    • Agreed only reason I’m still around is because I have to much invested on this platform and truth be told jamroom and other alternative is knock off of Facebook I want nothing that reminds me of another platform 

      • That's the only reason why I left Social Engine. I will not deal with a broken database, as it is just not going to happen.

        I want someone else to handle the back end of a site. All I want is a secure, stable and affordable platform to connect with people and grow a community. To do that, engagement has to be taken into consideration, account etc.

        While I'm on the subject, the move to place all the older discussions in creators as a separate archive, does not sit right with me. It's still relevant, however many years have past.

      • I stick around because I love my site. Also I do want to emphasize that things are a thousand percent better than they were, and I don't really want to trash talk it. I reckon it will keep getting better and the small annoying things will be sorted

        • That is my hope as well. You give out the best of intentions, and you receive them in return.

    • That's why I can put up with the price difference. Yeah 2.0 you could get for 19 bucks a month, 2 bucks a month and 49 bucks a month respectively. Now it seems the cheapest is 30, 60 and 120 a month respectively. I think the prices are a money grab. I don't like them at all.

      And what with this 14 day trial plan, instead of the 30 day promised when Ning 2.0 networks were a thing. You could start your Ning site back when you had money, and at the same time next month, be able to pay it off. but if you're like me, and you live literally pay check to pay check, you are paying for more money put towards the Ning site, than a dedicated server set up. Or even a sell phone, a night out at a high end restaurant even. And for what? So members can upload videos and can't export their content? Tell me what's attractive about Ning 3.0, besides having multiple feature instances of things, something you can get with wordpress types, a navigation designer and word press all for free?

      Yeah the new features are great. I like Ning posts every day, all be it once a day. But I can't help but feel as though what once was, is truly missed. And if you add it all up, censorship seems to be the only reason why I can think we'd be paying more for less. As opposed to what gina biinchini originally helped build and create with Mark Andreson.

      • Hi there!

        Yep, we also have been thinking about the rates for a long time, actually since June of the last year. And came to teh decision that they should be reworked including the limits of the packages. The prices should be reliable for us as well as if you are not getting profit from the service you running there is no place for the development. That's why we have been researching different business models, trying several CDN providers, moving the servers etc. and when everything would be ready you will be presented with our new pricing policies, however, I'm not able to make an official announcement with some details as the rate and the limits could be adjusted on top of that some backend work should be still finished. So stay tuned and check creators from time to time :-)

        Best regards,

        Ning Team.

        • that is amazing news!

          Max CDN as well as cloudflare is very popular. In fact cloudflare integration would be ideal for Ning sites. In my opinion, Acamai is too expensive for anyone to put up with.

          as for servers, if each one has 200 gigs ssd space, you could still get away with a $15.00 plan. VPS servers are each going for around $20.00. But if you buy and or own your own servers, you wouldn't need to ask people to pay for them outright.

          Home grown nas options would also give you the freedom to develop whatever you want. without it having to go through a separate data center. Data centers are professional, but they cost a fortune. Just one dedicated server is $200.00 and up. I've seen them go for $500.00. that's a month, not including bandwidth just to use the data center itself..

          If all you have to pay is a bandwidth bill, and you set up your own data center, you can customize pricing plans to better suit the needs of customers. The best cdn spaces and cheap hosting out there, does happen to come from Amazon. So if you try them out, it's a learning curve, but you won't be disappointed. Their prices are very affordable. I've also heard of Max CDN as well.

          Rackspace does server plans, but they are a little on the pricy side. Vultr also is a good host. That's if you have to use a datacenter. In motion hosting is also an option, but it costs a fortune.

This reply was deleted.
 

Some interesting articles related to community management, digital marketing etc. could be found in our digest. Don't hesitate to leave a feedback so we would know that we should continue :-)

Latest Activity

LEO Mobile App Builder updated their profile
Tuesday
Aase Lillian replied to Aase Lillian's discussion
Community - activity page
"Ok, thank you. Please send me details as I have no idea on how to do it. "
Mar 19
Aase Lillian and ⚡JFarrow⌁ are now friends
NC for Hire
Mar 19
⚡JFarrow⌁ updated their profile photo
Mar 18
⚡JFarrow⌁ replied to Aase Lillian's discussion
Community - activity page
"Yes you can add emojis to your community pretty much anywhere you like.
If you need some help…"
Mar 18
Aase Lillian updated their profile
Mar 18
Aase Lillian posted a discussion
Hi all. Is it possible to add emojis to the community? I also wish the activity page to include…
Mar 18
Donna MacShoe updated their profile photo
Mar 6
Adul Rodri is now friends with ANGE.L LUAR and Margarida Maria Madruga
Feb 14
Shweta Sharma updated their profile
Jan 26
catherine martin updated their profile
Jan 16
Donna MacShoe updated their profile photo
Jan 15
More…

Meanwhile, you can check our social media channels