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BarTabs TopPicks & Reasoning

After doing some research, on the listings some of you have provided here in this group, I have come to these conclusions for myself, pertaining to which are the best OVER-ALL sites to consider and further investigate.

These are my Top Picks for further examination, where it concerns Create Your Own Social Network sites. The following sites seem to be the most similar to, and competitive with, the Ning Platform, due mostly to the fact that these sites are crawled by search engines, and other sites seem to require a web hosting service to accomplish the same thing. My conclusions are also based on what the marketing information revealed to me, which was readily available on each of the sites I examined.

So Far, My First Choice Would Be Grou.ps.

Follow Up: I joined Grou.ps and was very impressed with their Free offerings. Very similar to what we have here at Ning. However, their network is still in Beta, and I found a few items that are causing problems. So far I found that you can't delete music albums once you create them, and there doesn't seem to be an allowance for deleting your main account either. Most probably, some other minor problems exist. With input from it's members, these issues shouldn't be that hard to resolve, so I think it would be worth the investment of time, for those of us how need a more detailed service!

NOTE: Their Free version does allow for a lot of HTML coding, but not sure about CSS. I believe, I read, they are currently working on installing the capability for it. (I'm not that experienced with CSS) Grou.ps does have language editors, member controls & the whole shabang. When this network gets up & running it should be very nice, indeed!

So Far, My Second Choice Would Be Spruz.

Follow Up: Spruz seems to have everything that Ning has to offer, just a different way of using the controls and a different layout, which you have to get used to. I believe you can also use an older version of language editing, if that is important to you. They also allow for CSS mode and offer widgets, google, HTML boxes, rich text editors, etc. Haven't found any problems with their network, that I can remember. I hearing, Spruz has a much smaller bandwidth allowance than Grou.ps. Summary: Seems like the number two choice for transfering to, so far.

I Examined, But Haven't Rated This Site Yet SocialGo.

Follow Up: I tried out SocialGo and though they seem like a good network, I found most of their offerings are Premium Service. Their Free offering would be good for anyone who doesn't depend that much on asthetics or detailed programs and allowances. Summary: I don't think you will be disappointed in the Free version of SocialGo, if you think your requirements will survive on Standard Straight-Up Social Networking!

Haven't Investigated Yet Mixxt.

Haven't Investigated Yet Grouply.

Other sites listed, here in this group, are also very nice sites, and some offer very good, if not better, tools for building a network. The problem is, with these sites you will probably have to register with a hosting service to get any kind of outside exposure. That is, anything other than that provided by the network's internal platform.

Hope This Information Helps,
Bartabs Owner - Joe

P.S. Jen's Directory should be a compliment to any platform you decide on, because any decisions you make, won't effect The Directory's ability, to create outside exposure for your listings, here on her site.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by prexworld on April 20, 2010 at 2:51pm

Is it true Yuku has unlimited storage for free accounts your reply pls.

Grou.ps has 10GB Storage same as ning free accounts.

Wackwall is less than 10GB.

Permalink Reply by TheSoulProprietor on April 20, 2010 at 4:18pm

Must have overlooked Grou.ps. Checked them out, and Grou.ps does appears to be a hosting network. Just added them to my TopPicks.

Looked all over the Yuku site for the specs you asked for, but can't find any information, except they claim a generous amount of storage?

Thanks for bringing them to my attention, though. Sorry I can't be of any more help.

Permalink Reply by TheSoulProprietor on April 20, 2010 at 4:35pm

From what you have told me, Grou.ps might be the better of the five I have listed? I might do a comparison of the five , if I can find the time, but I am currently in the process of moving, and don't know if time will allow for it.

Good luck in your endeavors, my friend!

Permalink Reply by TheSoulProprietor on April 20, 2010 at 8:30pm

Did a rough investigative look at each of the sites I have listed, based on the information I examined and posted above, and sure enough, Grou.ps came in first place! My other ratings are also posted, as to my other preferences.

Permalink Reply by TheSoulProprietor on April 20, 2010 at 5:16pm

I found about 10 more 'create a network' sites, that I am going through, to see if any of them are worth checking out. Might be later tonite or tomorrow before I post what I find out. Check back, Kiki and good luck!

Permalink Reply by TheSoulProprietor on April 20, 2010 at 6:56pm

Well ....Forget It! They were all Software - Premium Oriented - Web Hosting Type Sites!

Permalink Reply by TheSoulProprietor on April 20, 2010 at 8:24pm

On further examination, I decided to eliminate Yuku, because it seems mostly like a forum offering only.

Permalink Reply by Jay Negron on April 28, 2010 at 12:15pm

Bartabs, I also started a group on Grou.ps and dug it except for 1 thing.

In a comment to a blog post we were unable to upload a picture or a music link from our own pc.

Our site is a private music site where we compare, share & comment about our music, remixes, videos, etc.
So we would need to have that option of uploading data on every step of the way; something that NING does provide.
It just doesn't seem like 'home' without that feature.

Do you know of any other option that I can explore to bring my group to or am I stuck here paying at Ning???

Permalink Reply by TheSoulProprietor on April 28, 2010 at 12:29pm

Ning is the best ...No doubt ....I have uploaded music to my grou.ps site with no problem ....but I guess you are talking about adding links to music and have it automatically embedded on your site .....Yeah, I don't think that grou.ps offers that yet ...they are still in Beta ...and I am almost sure they plan to upgrade over time, and as time allows .....whether you can hold on or not ..???

I truely think that Grou.ps, is still the next best option to Ning ....can't think of any others ...all the others either don't host your site ....or they offer way to low of bandwidth, etc.

I am keeping 3 networks here on Ning, because they will not transfer well to another platform. I am hoping the costs are reasonable enough to afford. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Good luck in your endeavors!

Permalink Reply by Jay Negron on April 28, 2010 at 12:50pm

Thanks for your quick reply!!!!!
I'm gonna wait & see like the rest of us!!!

:-)

Permalink Reply by TheSoulProprietor on May 7, 2010 at 1:12am

Well, After Hearing The New Price Structures, I Decided They Are To Un-Reasonable For Me!

I Do Like All That I Have Learned From Working With The Ning Platform, But I Gotta Move On!

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