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Is Ning Keeping Their Promises? i.e. Ning in iFrame, and Ning Apps On Home Page...

Is Ning Keeping Their Promises?

Ning Apps On the Home Page Coming Soon!
Ning Apps limit of 5, moving up to 10. >> details below
Last week Ning implemented Removal of Frame Busting and Better Capt... >> read more...

I say things are looking very positive.

Recently, according to the Ning Developer's Network, in the near future, Ning Network Creators will have the ability to add Ning Apps to the Ning Home Page. This is great news, considering the Apps tend to get lost under tabs. To be able to add one good application that applies nicely to your Network, will be a welcomed feature.

My only concern is page load time. I do hope Ning Apps are robust enough to be installed on a Ning home page, and not slow down the page load times too much. Regardless, this is still exciting news. Because it shows that Ning is serious about focusing on "premium" Ning Networks and Features.

This news and information originated from the Ning Developer's Network:
http://developer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ning-developer-roadmap
http://developer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ning-apps-on-network-main

Allow Ning Apps to be placed on the Main page of a Ning Network.
Increase the limit of installable Ning Apps on a network from 5 to 10.
The main page view will be displayed in the center column of the network. Note from Jen: In other words, it sounds like that Ning Apps can only be added to the wide column, understandably.
The maximum width for the view is 492px. Anything smaller will be centered within the column.

After all the hoopla of the big announcement by Ning about "no more free Ning Networks", it does seem that Ning is moving forward with their promise of focusing on great Features, and adding more control for Ning Network Creators.

What are your thoughts on Ning's Due Diligence? Do you feel Ning is keeping their promise so far? Join the Conversation.

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Permalink Reply by Carny Town on June 7, 2010 at 1:51pm

Correct, Jen. It is an option that serious network creators will embrace, willingly and happily. Of course, speed is an issue and I am sure they are addressing that...it would make no sense for them to do otherwise. The Ning apps are open source apps. By allowing the inclusion of the apps on a main page it will encourage many coders to work more actively on submitting useful and viable apps to Ning, which can only be good for us.
I think the point a lot of people are missing is that; once the free networks...thousands of them...are deleted, speed should automatically increase. This will open up huge amounts of space on Nings existing servers...at least that is the way I see it.
Personally I am chomping at the bit.
My plan....I will keep my carnytown site on Ning and develop it to its fullest capabilities and I will move my important non-profit sites to either a Wordpress 3.0/Buddpress combo or to static pages. For temporary pages that will exist shorter than six months, I will use Spruz.
I already tested exporting/importing members to buddypress and it is accurate and a simple process and works fine. If Ning makes good on promises and gives us ways to export content...that would be super.

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Permalink Reply by JenSocial on June 7, 2010 at 1:55pm

As always, thank you for your excellent input.
Best,
Jen

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Permalink Reply by Neuerotica on June 7, 2010 at 2:05pm

i am pleased things are working out for you with regards to ning's new changes, tom. i've always been impressed with the work you do on your sites. i too, am embracing these new changes and am confident it will lead to better functionality to our networks, and greater opportunities for both ourselves and our members.

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Permalink Reply by TeamCircle on July 20, 2010 at 8:11pm

What I'd like to know is the significance of the asterisk on the pricing of the plans indicating that this is a special price only for this first year. Then what? I do wonder.

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Permalink Reply by Magic Happens on July 20, 2010 at 8:31pm

l think mine said the second year will be the usual price. Ning gave us all a free month for signing up before August 3

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Permalink Reply by Magic Happens on July 20, 2010 at 8:35pm

Jen,
l think people that had or more 8 or more free sites were some of the cause for us paying now. l like the way the pricing is. And l think if l run into something l can not understand, l will always have this site to come to for help.
And l guess l will have some things that does not make sense to me, but then l have you!!!!!