Ning

Well, i had a very enjoyable visit to NING this week. They have hip (new) offices downtown in Palo Alto, California (about 2 blocks from Facebook, btw). I spoke briefly with the CEO (Gina, one of our members here) and had an enjoyable conversation both with her and with the Product Manager of this website.

While I won't go into details that would make anyone involved uncomfortable, i will say that they have a number of upcoming improvements that will address some of my more pressing issues and - dare i say it - some of YOUR concens. In particular, it sounds like they intend to update the way these Forums are organized and I think it will be easier to follow when that happens. I left encouraged and looking forward to the next few months of updates.

they are growing rapidly and adding new talent all the time, which can only help us out here with the features and usability of their site. So i'm satisfied. Let's use this discussion to add any feature wishes, bells-and-whistles, usability problems, that I can peruse and prioritize when talking with ning in the near future about our community. Okay?

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Pihk on March 14, 2008 at 8:56am: I love this community but have one quibble:

Is there any way to disable the photos feature? Or pick which albums I do and don't want to see?
It seems like its become an endless stream of broken DVDs and the same person in a zillion different poses. And since its the only window that updates on an otherwise static screen, it tends to draw one's attention and is annoyingly distracting.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by droidmaker on March 14, 2008 at 9:04am: that's a good question. let me see what i can do...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by wowwee123 on March 15, 2008 at 10:43pm: It's also a little annoying to see it being shown on every page that I land on, and then it starts from the beginning. In the main settings there should be a way to not have it shown on every page.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by munin on March 14, 2008 at 10:27am: I see that ning has a beta module to add static web pages, but I can't seem to find anything about community wikis. This is the biggest gap that's keeping me from creating my own networks or recommending ning to other people. For example, Baff is doing a great job maintaining the FAQ here, but what if he left? An FAQ wiki would be more maintainable over time.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Evil Herbivore on March 14, 2008 at 3:32pm: Thanks Michael!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by droidmaker on March 16, 2008 at 9:50pm: I will. The blog stuff also doesn't hold line breaks. And it doesn't place entries in chronological order - just the creation order (which is often the same, but not necessarily).

These are some of my peeves...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Heather on March 14, 2008 at 3:43pm: Super exciting! I'm already a fan of this community vs. those in the past (which were pretty good as well ;] ), but some updates to the forum organization would be nice :]; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cat G on March 15, 2008 at 2:14am: Michael, you have the ability to set an Admin Notices forum which would always be on the front page and on top. I would make it #1 and allow NO replies, making it what Baff calls a sticky. It would be the place to post board rules, should you decide to have them as well as Baff's FAQ page (which you might want to make official).

I've found there is a slow-down issue when there are 6-8 people in here at once, and have been booted. Ning probably knows about the problem, since it took down my board as well.

The work they're doing with the messaging is wonderful, but would request a way to keep an address book. Right now, it just gives your friends a nonsense alpha numeric name that you can't keep track of. It would also be nice to have an automated "Welcome" message to new members. If you want to keep them coming back, and to have them want to become active in discussions. A nudge at finding an avatar/using their same one as Netflix would be ideal, as I've gained quite a few friends on Netflix from posting my anon-link. I'm certain that's the case for all who have done that.

The Reply to This almost never leaves your post directly under the person's message that you are addressing. I hope this is one of the upgrades they're looking at.

Emoticons! Since the inception of written communication on the net, people have seen the problem of what they write, being viewed as harsh or unforgiving. With the ability to show a smiley face, you remove some of the reasons for fights erupting between members. That means less reason for moderation, which you don’t have the ability for anyway. On that note, someone needs to do some deletions and archiving of older threads, which is usually handled by mods.

That's my 2 ¢; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Couchtomato on March 27, 2008 at 5:49pm: yo Cat G: I am allowing my discussions and groups to stay up for 1 month.. I figured by then those of us that are active would've had a chance to look, read, and respond. Because you appear to be on the up and up, do you think I should send out a notice to my friends letting them know I'm discontinuing the thread? My hat off to you too. :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cat G on March 28, 2008 at 2:12am: Tomato, are you proposing that we all go out and delete our posts after a month? Deletions are necessary by someone or at least archiving them, but I never thought of doing it individually. Since they can only be done (in here) by the poster or an Admin, that might be a good idea!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Couchtomato on March 28, 2008 at 6:56pm: Oh no, I am not proposing that U'all delete your post. One to two month is my personal choice for my personal discussions. This would be an individual choice for members. On the right hand side of the post there is an option to close the discussion. I've also chosen to include the expiration date at the end of my personal notes.
As always Cat G, you come through for me, I've come to look at as my Mentor. Thanks-a-bunches.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by jampony on March 15, 2008 at 10:02pm: A very, very minor thing, but it would be cool if... when a person copied the code to use the Netflix badge with the most popular members' avatars on it, that the avatar of that person was somehow automatically included. That way, assuming the person uses the same avatar on multiple sites, their online friends would recognize their avatar and they might be more inclined to join the Netflix Community.; ▶ Reply to This