Comment

Comment by Friends of musicians on May 19, 2016 at 4:10pm

Yes I think there have been some folks who have looked at a few owner-created Jamroom sites that were imported from ning, and they then conclude that the 'look' of Jamroom is dated, like ning 2.  But that's simply not so.  Some creators wanted to duplicate their ning sites to a certain extent- due to their members expressly wanting little change.  Or, to their lack of willingness in learning to tweak their own site.  Or, simply their personal taste.  My members for example are older and they want a reassuring 'homey' setup with everything readily accessible on the main page.  My site definitely does not resemble a spare architectural design storefront, a cutting edge web designer site, or a clean Spa Retreat site.  I 'could' make my JR site look like those...but my members would hate it.

My point is that people shouldn't judge Jamroom from looking at a few sites imported from Ning 2 a year ago.  As IndieGospel said, Jamroom is incredibly versatile, powerful, and customizable- You can really make it look and function any way you want it to.

Comment by Friends of musicians on May 19, 2016 at 3:39pm

Yes I too have been super, super happy on Jamroom as well for the past year now.  They are just fantastic and the sky's the limit for my site(s).    :D

Comment by Indie Gospel on May 19, 2016 at 3:09pm

Hi Jen,

We have a forum for former Ningsters over on Jamroom. Some of them used Ning 3 and it is not nearly as powerful for designers as Jamroom is.

The same story for PHPFox, we have a bloke who is quite knowledgeable and he prefers Jamroom after spending years building with PHPFox.

It all depends by what you mean by "design". Yes, Ning has a fantastic design studio in terms of easy CSS manipulation and drag and drop simplicity for layouts. Any novice can build a "pretty" site, within set limits of functionality. Styling options are super easy and intuitive, I agree.

Unfortunately, that same ease of use comes with inherent limitations. Not so with Jamroom. They give you the source code, and a template editor. You can do anything under the sun with that access. It's powerful beyond belief.

Besides, they also provide an easy tool that any novice can use. Here is a quick video that shows how the "sitebuilder" works. You can duplicate external sites quite easily, even import layouts and get there quickly.

Comment by Indie Gospel on May 19, 2016 at 2:16pm

Hi Kos,

That's actually a hard question to answer because I started off by building on the Jamroom 4 platform which was not responsive, web 2.0, and very difficult to use.

I was testing the waters because Ning announced that they would no longer be supporting native audio files in Ning 3 and I have a music based site.

When Jamroom 5 was released, they completely threw out the old core in favor of responsive design and went with a modular system that is far easier to build with. So I decided to take the leap for real and become the "Guinee pig".

That caused me a lot of problems that others don' have to face. You can have your site uploaded to a Ningja skin and be up and running in no time. Then as Jen pointed out, the design studio you are used to won't be there and styling will have to be done on the template level.

That has the drawback of requiring a learning curve but the advantage of being far more powerful than Ning, even Ning 3.

Comment by JenSocial on May 19, 2016 at 2:05pm

Indie Gospel, I hear what you're saying. But for me, Ning 3.0 has unbelievable power on the design side of things. BUT, I am a Designer, and can write CSS in my sleep. I can design a 3.0 site to look like any website. In fact often, Clients want me to "mirror" their branded standard sites. It's hard to tell you're even on a Ning site. Granted for the average user, that's not the case. So again, I hear you. My beef with Ning 3.0 is the lacking features that were promised, and the zero communication with their customers. Oh, and the recent down-times, unbelievable and unacceptable.

Comment by Kos on May 19, 2016 at 1:25pm

managed to get where I wanted to be through patience.

Indie how many months have you been at it (Jamroom) and when did you open?

Comment by Indie Gospel on May 19, 2016 at 1:10pm

Hi Jen,

I would agree that when it comes to styling one's network or profile that was far easier on Ning. Intuitive drag and drop tools and premade packages in the design studio were easily implemented by anyone.

However, the template driven system at Jamroom is far, far, more powerful. I can change between many skins with the click of a button, use a powerful site builder to replace network pages with my own, and redesign skins at the template level to look or function any way I want.

There is definitely a trade-off between "drag and drop"simplicity and power. I missed the simplicity at first but bow I've come to appreciate the design options open to me in the template system.

Admittedly, Ning Creators who are completely lacking in coding skills and patience would find it taxing. However, I had no coding skills and managed to get where I wanted to be through patience. 

Comment by Indie Gospel on May 19, 2016 at 12:50pm

ABCD in Action - yes profile-centric but with the ability to have community-based centralized forums, groups, and lists of all sorts. For instance, I built a central marketplace so every saleable item by every member shows up there under different lists (Categories, Rated, Bundles, etc).

I also built a central list of member stores, so that everyone's individual "profile-centered" storefront could be accessed from a central location on its own network tab.

The "storefronts" themselves was a module I created myself using the Aparna tool and trial and error because I am not a programmer. I will put it in the marketplace soon for everyone to use. It will add like any other module.



So the JR model is to give you a working network "out of the box" but then you mold it into the form that you want, which could be radically different than the next client.

The "cookie cutter" approach at Ning is far simpler for the creator, but very limiting. You get what you get, can't access the source code, and can only design within certain boundaries. Jamroom requires more knowledge to take advantage of the possibilities, but once you wrap your head around a few things - it opens so many doors.

Because many Ning Creators are non-coders (like me) a solution giving "out of the box" functionality was developed called the Ninja skin. It is a good starting point for Ning to Jamroom transfers. It will accommodate all of your data nicely and get you up and running straight away. Where you take it from there is completely up to you.

Comment by JenSocial on May 19, 2016 at 12:39pm

Hi Indie Gospel,

Thank you, appreciate your post! I don't know how to say what my beef is with Jamroom, without sounding like a snooty snot. The nicest way to say it, don't think the "look/feel" is up-to-date. I am truly happy that they are helping so many others. I believe that they are probably one of, if not the best team, for assisting their creators.

Thanks again,

Jen

Comment by ABCD in Action on May 19, 2016 at 12:09pm

Indie Gospel Artists, I agree about the support... it really is unbelievably wonderful....

The biggest change for me was that JR is very profile-centered, so most posting is done on your own profile page. However, they were able to help me with some nice work-arounds, especially in terms of the discussion forum. 

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