Comments on: A BuddyPress Christmas Wish: Why Ning Users are Clamoring for a BuddyPress Migration Tool

By: Doug Daulton

Doug Daulton — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:29:12 +0000

The movement is in full swing. Follow the details here:

http://ningtobp.org/

By: Brian Hanifin

Brian Hanifin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:25:41 +0000

… I forgot to subscribe to the follow up reply Emails. Sorry for the double post.

By: Brian Hanifin

Brian Hanifin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:25:02 +0000

We need this NOW! Ning announced yesterday the end of support for free networks. Now is the perfect time for us to transition to self hosted BuddyPress.

By: Carlos Hernandez

Carlos Hernandez — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:38:07 +0000

I couldn’t agree more with Derek’s comments. I was on Ning testing the system for years hoping that someday it would develop into something better than the Geo Cities of social networks. I finally got tired as I developed my own concept of what I wanted Boon Republic to become. I do believe that Buddypress and WordPress are great platforms to get behind and develop on. I believe that the next year will be a Boon(pardon the expression ;-)) to buddypress as more individuals discover it and create niche social networks.

Carlos Hernandez
Founder
Boon Republic in BETA

By: Sam Moshe

Sam Moshe — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:47:51 +0000

I feel your pain. I’ve been involved with ning related projects twice now. The first time, was for a community site some friends were working on. At the time, I found ning combersome, annoyingly obtuse, and difficult to use and administrate. Two years later, I’m part of a committee at an ad company to create a social network for our clients. One of the options was ning. I voted against it, given my experiences the first time around.

This time, ning wasn’t so bad. I mean, it was still irritatingly non intuitive in spots, but it had improved considerably over two years prior. Still, they had some ridiculous policies, like the fact that you pay them once for a premium membership, and even then you still have to pay them again to remove ads from your site. These ads can’t convert well on their side. I’ve seen community sites on the web like the ones ning hosts where not a single ad registers even so much as a single click for years at a time.

I guess my point is that it’s bad policy.
And that shows up right off the bat when you work with them. My thought at present, why would you work with someone that is more interested in marketing their own company, than providing you a reasonably competent service?

By: Doug Daulton

Doug Daulton — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:27:47 +0000

A full-featured Ning->BuddyPress migration tool is in the works. I now have a full export of my biggest network and some friends and I are working on the importer now. Having just gotten hold of the export, it is hard to nail down the delivery date, but I am hoping we'll see it in Q1 of 2010. Follow our group (Migration Tool Development) on BuddyPress.org for more details as they become available.

By: Derek

Derek — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:17:07 +0000

Thank goodness someone is paying attention to this! I am one of those Ning to BuddyPress converts and since I have made the switch I am not at all worried if I made the right choice! Over year ago I created my first Network on Ning and had hoped to create many more. However the prevailing attitude within Ning is that they are not a white-label product and therefore since you are using their software, on their servers you are subject to their rules. OK… Playing by the rules is fine but when you make sweeping often destructive changes of the sorts they did, it made it far too difficult for me to ever really trust them. The irony is that only now that software like BuddyPress has developed so fast has Ning realized that it doesn’t matter one bit if you have the best software on the fastest servers if no one with really creative ideas uses your service! It’s the creativity and diversity of the Network Creators that has always been their strongest asset because a Ning network on it’s own is a bland boring thing.

I only wished that more people I knew that were unhappy with Ning made the switch. It became such an oppressive and stifling environment for me that my communities suffered. However I am reinvigorated so much more now that I am on a platform that is going to allow me to be creative in my own way, on my own terms. BuddyPress for life!