Ning Phasing out Free Sites - What Are Your Thoughts?

Today, Ning announced a monumental change in it's business plan. This is good news and bad news. For premium networks, it's probably good news; in that, it's what most premium networks thought they were investing in, in the first place. It will make the premium Ning Networks closer to white label, and likely more valuable assets. It is bad news and extremely sad for some free Ning Networks. Here's an excerpt from the announcement by Ning's CEO - Jason Rosenthal:


When I became CEO 30 days ago, I told you I would take a hard look at our business. This process has brought real clarity to what's working, what's not, and what we need to do now
to make Ning a big success.


My main conclusion is that we need to double down on our premium services
business. Our Premium Ning Networks like Friends or Enemies, Linkin
Park, Shred or Die, Pickens Plan, and tens of thousands of others both
drive 75% of our monthly US traffic, and those Network Creators need and
will pay for many more services and features from us.


So, we are going to change our strategy to
devote 100% of our resources to building the winning product to capture
this big opportunity. We will phase out our free service. Existing
free networks will have the opportunity to either convert to paying for
premium services, or transition off of Ning. We will judge ourselves by
our ability to enable and power Premium Ning Networks at huge scale.
And all of our product development capability will be devoted to making
paying Network Creators extremely happy.

Full Story


New Group: Alternative Solutions to Ning


Please offer and discuss possible solutions, for owners of free Ning Networks. And most of all, let's all offer encouragement to our fellow Ning Network Creators.


UPDATE FROM NING CEO: JASON ROSENTHAL:

ORIGINAL STORY HERE - - Ning Update: Rolling Out Full Details May 4th

Hi Everyone,


As many of you know, we made a decision yesterday to focus 100% of the company on enhancing the features and services we offer to paying Ning Creators. The tens of thousands of you who already use our paid
service represent over 75% of our traffic, and we’ve heard repeatedly
from you ways that we can deliver a killer service to help make your
Ning Network more effective. Some examples of things we are working on
that you’ve asked for include new APIs, a new mobile experience and new
advertising and revenue opportunities.


As part of this change, we’ll be phasing out our free service. On May 4, 2010, we will share with you all of the details of our new offering, including features and price points, through a series of blog
posts, emails, and conference calls. We recognize that there are many
active Ning Networks for teachers, small non-profits, and individuals
and it's our goal to have a set of product and pricing options that will
make sense for all of them. For Ning Creators using our free service who
choose to move to another service, we will off a migration path and
time to make that change. We will still continue to allow free trials
and test networks on the Ning Platform.


We look forward to talking to you further on May 4th.


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Comment by Temple of Our Lady of the Moon on April 15, 2010 at 9:06pm
Ok I feel everyone's outrage because of what we've just heard. *Sighs* I am obviously no exception. But before we panic....lets just start (for those of us who have free sites) saving our data. You can create an email list by copying and pasting to a word doc and if you have firefox just go to your home page and in the top left corner hit file and then save page as to save your stuff...that way should this prove NOT to be jut a rumor then we can decide what to do. In the meantime lets see what happens. As Jen said we dont know.
Comment by Living On Love on April 15, 2010 at 9:03pm
With 10 networks, only 1 is premium right now. With that one I have Ad control plus extra space. Frankly, not sure why I have the Ad control since it doesn't produce enough to cover costs.
[ http://livingonlove.ning.com ]. But with the other networks, I see them as my improvement grounds. Different ideas to be sure, but with each, the changes I make or new things I try improve all of my networks. This doesn't even speak to the test network in order to try new things out in real time.

That being said, many have spent tons of hours, months, even years building their networks. Some have done really well, yet others are just keeping things rolling. most all do not see anything for their time....and I'd say their time is as valuable as anyone else's.

There are many who have spent a great deal of money on tweaks here and there, add on's, third party wares, and themes, in order to build something. While some may be able to pay sooner than they had planned to do so, after growing a network, many just won't be able to pay extra. Thus, they lose all the countless hours and money spent in various ways, to do what[?] grow Ning? With well over many hundreds of thousands of networks, millions now, more than 78% [as seen on various blogs] of those created will disappear. The others will be forced to pay whether they have it or not, or lose the massive content, time, and expenses put into them.

Of those left, perhaps, there will be some good platform with many options available at some reasonable rates. They would have to be offering a lot of new to make it worth continuing. We've all heard about new features, including paid member levels for our own networks so we could at least earn something from them, but none of that ever came about.

Offering more usable/needed/wanted features in various packages at some graduated rates may be one thing, while what is, remains free....or as free as it now seems....it cost creators much.

If going that way, perhaps shared income makes better sense, in some way.

I came from using Dolphin by Boonex [on my own space] years ago, just because every time it was upgraded there was just to much back end stuff to keep it running right. But it did have tons of features, including membership modules to name only one. If your going to put all the time and money into something, and see it grow, maybe it's time to go back to own space and software. It might be less to offer for a bit but at least I would be in control of my own creations.

Hummm, lots to think about. A lot of very good ideas are fixing to disappear here, if not outright stolen. I keep looking over at this network, offering free migration, and actually, a whole lot more features and possibilities: http://bit.ly/oWe0m but still undecided if that's the way to go - would they eventually do the same things too?

I applaud the real and original people who worked Ning, and helped many of us, most now losing their jobs as the greed steps in to replace sanity. Be it govt, or corporations....once the greedy show up, the good ideas and energy recede.

Well, the best of luck....
Comment by Metro Vancouver Motorcyclists on April 15, 2010 at 8:58pm
Hi cat Lawford

If you're using Firefox, go to 'File' and down to 'Save Page As". Choose the option to save as a complete web page, which will then include the graphics. This will save a copy of the page as html and a folder with all the graphic files.
Comment by Magic Happens on April 15, 2010 at 8:52pm
Not to hurt Jen's feeling but the site here can go on but only with the paid creators. l can not see why this directory would stop. It is just for the creators who can afford to stay.
Comment by TheSoulProprietor on April 15, 2010 at 8:42pm
I'd be interested in knowing what's going to happen to this site, 'The Ning Directory', which, to me, is a lot more functional than the one Ning offers. In essence, they want us to pay for something less better than what we already have? I don't even use the listings they offer in our profile section.

This issue is very important to me, in making a good decision concerning upgrading to a premium account. Wish we could put together a petition, created for those of us who might upgrade to premium, to include this directory in the deal!

(also posted in The Friends Helping Friends group)
Comment by Administrator☼JenSocial on April 15, 2010 at 8:22pm
Staff cuts means Free Ning sites are gone in 2 weeks
Here is a link from CNET Ning cuts staff, free service
Comment by Art Lab on April 15, 2010 at 8:14pm
It is difficult for us people from developing countries to pay in dollars. We trusted Ning & built our homes ( sites ) with hard work. Now if you ask us to pay , we will have to destroy all that we did. This is injustice.
Comment by Code Whacker on April 15, 2010 at 7:22pm
If your going to have problems due to ning changing their agreement with you, you can take out a class action against ning. if you are an American.


‘Unconscionable conduct’ under the Trade Practices Act refers to harsh or unfair
behaviour by a stronger party over a weaker party through imposition of unreasonable
terms or non disclosure of conditions. In general, unconscionable conduct results in
financial benefit for the stronger party to the detriment of the other.
Does the Act apply to you?
1. The conduct must have occurred after 1 July 1998.
2. The transaction must involve good or services priced under $ 1 million.
3. The circumstances of the alleged conduct must be reasonably foreseeable.
If the answer is yes to one or more of the following then the risk of
‘unconscionable conduct’ is increased.
1. Does the size or strength of the company put it in a substantially stronger
bargaining position than your small business?
2. Is your small business, as a result of the company’s conduct, required to
comply with conditions that are not reasonably necessary to protect the
legitimate commercial interests of the company?
3. Was undue influence, pressure, or unfair tactics used against your small
business or representative? If so, was such conduct engaged in by a
company or person acting on behalf of the stronger party?
4. Was the amount paid and/or the terms for the goods and services higher, or
were the circumstances under which they could be acquired, more onerous
than generally apply elsewhere?
If the answer is ‘no’ to one or more of the following questions the risk of
unconscionable conduct is increased.
1. Were you able to understand the documents used?
2. If you were not able to understand the documents, were you advised by the
larger company to seek independent advice?
3. Has the larger party demonstrated compliance with an industry code?
4. Has the larger party disclosed all terms that could affect your commercial
viability?
5. Were you given the opportunity to negotiate the terms and conditions of the
contract?

The ning executives need to review their plans concerning fazing out premium users they have already made an agreement with. This means existing members should be told that their agreement with you ning will not be changed and you will have a free accounts with no new restrictions whatsoever.

Its time for the ning excutives to take legal advice. that's my opinion
Comment by Metro Vancouver Motorcyclists on April 15, 2010 at 7:19pm
I moved my group from Meetup six months ago due to crappy service and high fees. I need none of the premium services, none. I was extremely happy. Not now.

VERY DISAPPOINTING. TWO THUMBS DOWN TO JASON ROSENTHAL, MONEYGRUBBER!
Comment by Magic Happens on April 15, 2010 at 6:59pm
This is something that ning may have worked around about their free site advertisement, l know you know what you are talking about saveNaturefree. But still, it looks like we all will be out. l know l sign up for a free account, l do not know if ning is in the right to change that. l hope they wouldn't be, but what's to say they may make us want to leave.

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