Ning – WTF
Ok, we normally do reviews. But this is a What The F*ck post regarding ethics, namely business ethics, and Ning. Ning is a platform for creating niche social networks. I love the service, in fact, I’m a member of a few networks (here and here actually).
I’m not sure when it happened, but recently, you can sign in via Ning’s root site, and see the networks you’re a part of. This essentially turns the networks you’re a part of, based on the Ning network, into Groups, and thus making the Ning site the root social network – turning all that hard work to get members to join “your site”, based on their platform, sort of moot.
Here’s what’s wrong with the execution:
- They do nothing to promote Ning Networks on their home page
- They do nothing to help network creators expand at all, actually
- In fact, the changes are very, very anti-network creator
- The premise for Ning was to create a social network, not a sub-network of a root network
- Ning now has a huge centralized user base they are leveraging to centralize the network experience
Here’s what right with the execution:
- Ease of use for the users of Ning networks
- Centralization of friends, activities and the sort
- Ability to mass-update your profile settings, specifically your avatar (yay)
The intentions are clear. The status update page on your mega-Ning netowrk overlord profile updates… nothing but the Ning network, not your sub-networks. Ning, you f*cked up with this move. I can understand where they were going with this, I can see the business logic behind it as well… But what they should have done is:
- Notified network creators and allowed to opt-in
- Created an incentive for being in the Ning network
- Promote networks; treat each network like a YouTube video, for example
- Made the switch more sub-network centric, with “universal” user settings as a sub-section
Ning, you’re doing it wrong. It is unethical. It is incorrect. It is going to spell certain doom for the networks I’m a part of, as I’ll now be using Pinax to replace you.
Thank you @northlight for this: http://twitter.com/northlight/statuses/1425680704
