Ning to Clients – Now You’s Can’t Leave
Monday, June 1, 2009 19:47
We’ve written about the business practices of Ning.com before. The company offers a platform that allows anyone to create a social network for free. Sounds great doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t like to own their own MySpace or Facebook? Ambitious entrepreneurs signed up in droves to become the next ” MySpace Tom” only to find out they’ve been duped.
Ning decided to form their own social network, Ning.com and furnish it with hundreds of thousands of members which it “Borrowed” from their clients websites. YOU may have a public profile on Ning.com and not even know it! If you joined a website community which uses the Ning software, you (And your personal info) are by default on Ning.com.
Clients fired back at Ning with outrage over the decision to form a competing social network. Ning’s response? Shut down ALL access to any/all files on clients websites. You have a website which uses Ning’s software? Well, you aren’t allowed to see any of the files on your site. Nada.
Widget Laboratory, a 3rd party app maker that Ning shut down in 2008, has been trying to settle the score by creating an app which allows members to move their sites from the Ning platform. Ning has made it nearly impossible for their clients to move their websites by restricting access to the database/content. WidgetLaboratory developed an app which would provide an easy solution for Ning network creators. The response? The app is shut down by Ning within 24 hours.
From WidgetLaboratory’s site:
“…That Ning has clearly demonstrated that they are not only “passively” refusing to offer you any migration tools or capability so that you can move your site elsewhere… they are now “actively” interfering with all attempts to let you and your members decide for yourselves.”
Since running our original post about Ning, we’ve been flooded by comments and emails from Ning clients. Members complain that Ning refuses to address their concerns, and ignores requests for member privacy, migration tools and spam. A visit to Ning’s GetSatisfaction page shows that the top concerns/complaint have been met by NO RESPONSE from the company whatsoever. GetSatisfaction is Ning’s official customer service platform. Not much satisfaction for Ning clients.
Our advise to disgruntled clients of Ning – Stop wasting time on GetSatisfaction, Ning Help, and other Ning sites. Ning is a company. Companies must answer to shareholders. Why not let the stakeholders of the company know that their investment may be in jeopardy? Among the major investors of Ning are:
Legg Mason Opportunity Fund:
Managed by Bill Miller (CEO of LMCM) and Samantha McLemore
Email them by clicking here.
Allen & Company :
715 5th Ave
New York, NY, 10022
Related posts:
lindalawform says:
June 2nd, 2009 at 7:31 am
Ning sucks. i lost all of my members when i tried to leave yet Ning.com kept them all.
WilliamTon says:
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:57 am
thanks for the post. the tech blogs refuse to cover anything regarding what ning is doing to us. its nice that someone is documenting all of this
XmasterT says:
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:19 am
I ALMOST made the mistake of using Ning but glad i didnt. self hosting is the way to go.
Jason_Gordan says:
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:52 am
thanks for the info. i just shot an email to legg mason. see what happens
dmasterninger says:
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:04 am
This is straight from ning’s TOS (the fine print which NO ONE ever reads). They specifically say that they take your members from you and create a Ning.com profile.
“Ning Profile” means information that, if you are a Ning Member, you have provided to Ning that is aggregated by Ning into a master profile. Your Ning Profile is separate from any profile that you create on a particular Social Network (”My Profile”) and enables you to keep track of friends and messages across all Social Networks. “Your Ning Profile” is a Ning Profile created by you on the Ning Platform.
dmasterninger says:
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:09 am
Through our Ning Member Services, Ning collects Ning Member Data from Your Network Members and general information about a User’s use of Your Social Network(s).
SallyBoyzzzZZ says:
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:00 pm
those guys are crooked. you dont find many companies like Ning
Another Look at Ning and the Governance Issue Facing Web Platforms - Kid Mercury's Blog says:
June 2nd, 2009 at 6:09 pm
[...] So I received an email today from a person calling himself “Angry Ninger” who tipped me off to this article on ChartingStocks. The article documents the ongoing saga Ning has had with Widget Laboratory and other members of [...]
Carobee says:
June 2nd, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Another Ning article? Your traffic must be slowing down! LOL
This “widget” is basically stealing Ning credentials, so it was good that it was shut down I think.
chartingstocks1 says:
June 2nd, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Not slow enough as to avoid you Carobee!
Zohra says:
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:53 am
I have been a networkcreator on NING since 2007. IOn the beginning is was delirious about NING. ‘Wow, i can have my own MYSPACE’. I created multiple networks with different themes and i loved it and so did my members.
I also had and adult network wich was running quite good, the members loved it and where extremely active on it, it was a beehive of activities. Until…. ning came with the decision to stop the ‘red light zone’. We were announced that we had 30 days to move our asses elsewhere if we wanted to continue having an adult network, we had to host it elsewhere.
However, NNIG doesn’t let the members ‘go’. When you are trapped inside the web, you just can’t go anywhere because NING steals the members from you!
Next to that you are left out in the cold. Where else can you go to a system with similar features that offers you at least the things you are used to?
I tried Socialgo, it seemed promising, and they were free for a certain period of time. After coming out of the bétastadium they announced their pricingplan and they are very expensive. Where NING offers 10GB of discspace for free, we have to PAY Socialgo for HALF the discspace and bandwidth and then we don’t even have the features we want to. On Socialgo you have to buy every single widget, some are cheap, some are very expensive. For hobbyists this is simply to expensive to start a simple social networking site, so they aim for people with big bux, companies, people who make lots of money who can easily afford buying these widgets. Ofcourse i know all companies must make money, but why does the ‘free’ version not offer a layout manage, how else can i experiment to find out if this is the system i am looking for?
I liked the team at Socialgo in the begining, but after time it has become obcious that we are alsways ‘lured in’ and spread the word about the system and after time the true faceof the company shows and we have to open our wallets BIG TIME!!!
I believe that none of them are trustworthy. Next to that Socialgo is more complicated then NING and ning on the other hand is a stupid company which changes direction all the time. I believe NING is suffering from a ‘bipolar disorder’ and has ‘extreme moodswings’. Maybe we should inject some lithium into them to stabilize NING and Socialgo too.
Trent says:
June 16th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
After removal of the adult network on Ning. I lost more than 30,000 members, who stuck in ning.com permanently!!!
suing ning says:
August 31st, 2009 at 10:51 am
Ning is a SCAM!
suing ning says:
August 31st, 2009 at 10:57 am
Trent, seriously dude, get a lawyer on a contingency and sue the shit out of ning. they scammed you and ripped you off! R U gonna take that lyin down?? I am going after my money with a lawsuit v. ning, for sure.