Build Your Own Social Network

Comments

• Anything new? arpod on 03/09/2007 at 12:56 PM

  Posts: 1

  This seems similar to MySpace with an emphasis on groups and while MySpace focuses individual profiles.  Decent idea, I wish they would work to mimic some of the useful tools and features in other group sites such as Yahoo! and Google have.  I still feel that Yahoo! and Google don't meet my needs either.  Features such as calendars, file libraries, database, and more would be helpful with Ning.  I feel that this is a MySpace wannabe and not a group site wannabe, which is the type of users that will be utilizing it. Imagine having a Ning account, being able to go in many “Social Networks” or non-social networks.  I want a place where I can login, post pictures of my Jeep, write my comments on a school project in the forum, upload my part of a project for commenting, put up a template form for the people at work, have a sign up for my softball league, ask where I can recycle electronics in Philadelphia, find info on the new Nine Inch Nails album.. maybe watch the new video, create an event for the upcoming homecoming game and invite my fellow fraternity alumni, look at the rankings for my racquetball league, find a phone number of the director of my volunteering group, poll my family on what time and where we should meet for dinner on Friday, and comment on a new book all-in-one place.  Is it too much to ask for? Rate this comment: (Reply)

  • Re: Anything new? wroush on 03/12/2007 at 8:18 PM

    Posts: 6 Avg Rating:

    Hi Arpod, Yes, I'm afraid it's too much to ask, at least for now. I would also love to be able to do everything you described from one place. But right now Web programmers are having a hard enough time making small subsets of these functions work together in an easily scalable way. You could use Ning to create a "social network" just for you and your family or your college classmates or your racquetball partners, and you could use it to post pictures of your Jeep, leave comments on a school project in the forum, and share personal reviews of books and music. But to find phone numbers or learn about recycling in Philadelphia you'd still have to go to a good old search engine or online white pages. To find the latest Nine Inch Nails video you're probably stuck going to iTunes or the band's page on MySpace. And to coordinate a dinner time with your family you'd have to go to someplace like Google Calendar. Thanks to open APIs that characterize Web 2.0, all sorts of neat mashups and mergers of various Web applications are happening. But what you are asking for is a mega-personal-information-management suite, and that would take some central planning. It's difficult enough to get each component of your vision (calendar, photo sharing, etc.) working well; few programmers have the stomach to try to make them work together. Mitch Kapor's Open Source Applications Foundation started out trying something like this with Chandler but now they're calling it a mere "small workgroup collaboration suite." I think it will eventually be possible to do all the things you mentioned, using a reasonably small collection of separate and (hopefully) interoperable tools. But I'm not sure there are many people who think of this as a high business priority right now. BTW, the blog Mashable.com is a great place to follow all of this. -Wade Roush Rate this comment: (Reply)

• 	there are other websites which offer similiar service danielonline on 11/27/2007 at 11:42 AM
  Posts: 1 Avg Rating:	Websites which offer similiar service to ning http://www.crowdwine.com http://www.everyvisitor.com Rate this comment: (Reply)

• The Truth about Ning levkamensky on 12/27/2007 at 9:21 PM

  Posts: 1 Avg Rating:

  I am a dyslexic person on disabilities whose hobby it is to coach young men in dating and relationships. I first learned about Ning from this site. I tried using Ning as a teaching aid. Ning staff are very bad at accepting criticism. They can't admit their mistakes. Ning is very slow. Gina Bianchini said something is wrong with "me" if I think waiting 4 seconds for a page to load is slow. I am using Orkut, MySpace, Yahoo Groups, and those networks are a lot faster. Although Ning finally listened to me and made their site a little faster, it didn't do me any good.  One of the features Ning is boasting is the ability to create your own profile questions. But what they do not tell you (at least they did not tell me) is that, the more questions you make, the slower your Network is going to be. (Right now I have to wait 20 seconds for a page to load on my Network.) After they told me this was the case it was too late. I reduced the number of questions, but the members' profile answers are already stored in the system. They told me the information couldn't be deleted and my Network will always be slow. Again instead of accepting responsibility they played the blame game with me. They told me I was the only one on Ning who made so many profile questions, and that I was odd. It is funny hearing this from people who allegedly want to give Network creators freedom to be individualistic. Not to mention that they are very rude. They say in an advertisement that you can create your own Social Network, but in reality it is more like your own forum or miniature network. The Groups feature of Ning Networks is very underdeveloped. For instance you can't approve group posts. This one-fit-all approach is why all Ning networks look the same. Also, I got a death threat and when I complained they banned me from Network Creators forum. Most of the Networks on Ning are "dead", in part because Gina has a big head and will not accept advice on how to improve the site. They have been very rude and inhospitable to me. Rate this comment: (Reply)