No more Free Ning Networks

[sharonb]

I have just read this article over on Tech Crunch - it will effect us and I am yet to hear officially from Ning but the news is that the network will longer operate free so I am thinking what to do- 

I am not sure advertising revenue will cover costs I know the traffic but may have to re-think what this site is. 

Here is the article so you know why I am concerned 

Ning Bubble Bursts 

So I am seeking ideas - do folks think adverts alone would pay hosting? I am not sure it will as people are fairly immune to advertising online - 

Anyone have other ideas?

[MichelleMermaid]

We are considering switching to wordpress for our online news site. I don't know if it would be the right venue for stitchinfingers, but here's a link to read more: Wordpress.org

I would certainly be willing to consider paying a small fee to be a member of stitchinfingers here on ning. But, as I mentioned before, I would really have to weigh how much I used the site against the cost of the fee and determine if it was worth it.

I am a flaky stitcher, meaning I have various interests in life and I don't always devote all my free time to stitching. It goes in cycles. So, for several months I may be stitching like crazy and participating in online groups all the time, and other months you may not hear from me at all. So, to be a paying member year-round would be something I would need to consider, especially if ning were charging a monthly fee. I hear you, Sharon, that you don't want to do this. And all of it is conjecture until we know for sure what ning intends to do.

I truly believe one reason stitchinfingers has been so successful is because it is FREE. The free format encourages people to participate, learn and get involved. It would be a shame to lose what we have here and kudos to Sharon for starting and maintaining such a wonderful site!

I have pictured in my head what stitchinfingers would look like on facebook or yahoo. There is so much activity on stitchinfingers, especially in the picture department, that it might be hard to handle so many stitching updates on my facebook page, as that is where I like to keep up with more personal friendships. I could see the page quickly getting inundated by all the posts. Also, someone mentioned it would be hard to have thread conversations on FB and I agree. On a yahoo group, navigating around the site is a little tricky and I don't find it that user friendly. However, it is free and fairly easy to maintain a group as long as people know where to go. And conversations can be easily maintained. Plus, you can have daily logs sent to your email and read from there.

What I love about stitchinfingers here on ning (and what I would miss) is having my own page where I can view messages, see all my friends and check in on threads I am following. I also like having my own photos there. The next thing I love and would really miss is the photo gallery. I just love being able to click on that tab and catch up on the latest eye candy. I would also miss the postcard and ATC swaps I have participated in, although I know similar things are available elsewhere. I do know there is a blogger group from here just for the ATCs, but I don't get there often.

Whether or not stitchinfingers continues to exist, one thing I know for sure is I will continue to keep up with Sharon's blog site, Pin Tangle. I would also miss the stitch dictionary if it were moved from Pin Tangle because I do use it as a resource from time to time.

I wish you weren't having to deal with this, Sharon, as this has been such a good thing here on ning. But I see it as a great opportunity to investigate what else is out there. You may even find something that works BETTER than ning and that you want to switch to. If it makes sense to stay with ning, then so be it. But the fact that they are switching from free to a payment-required site leaves me wondering what is in store for them and whether they are financially stable enough to last very long into the future. When places like this start changing things in this way it is usually an indicator of a sinking ship. Best, maybe, to bail out now than go down with the ship.

[sharonb]

Hi All there is a long piece on my blog this morning Pin tangle about what we plan to do.
Also would you believe it I have had 2 emails of abuse because I "plan to charge" and someone else has left because of greed!
Honestly - please read what I say and what I am suggesting before shooting off a nasty message folks

[Carol-Anne]

Hi Sharon. I am really sorry that you have been subjected to abuse. 3 people may be a tiny minority, but given all that you do for the stitching community it 3 too many. THANK YOU for all that you do.

[sharonb]

Thanks Carol-Anne I appreciate it. People sometimes shoot off at the mouth but when they accuse me of greed I get annoyed as it means they are not reading what I am saying and jumping to conclusions. Accuse me of rambling yes but greed?

Carol-Anne said:

Hi Sharon. I am really sorry that you have been subjected to abuse. 3 people may be a tiny minority, but given all that you do for the stitching community it 3 too many. THANK YOU for all that you do.

[Barbara Gordon]

Hi Elena, I do understand all of that and I know she is trying. I also know that it won't happen over night and I am wishing her good luck with finding something. I wouldn't mind the least bit adding something to it if it's needed. I have other groups (not going to mention who) that I am paying $20 a year to, but I'm afraid that is getting to be to much for me. I have actually stopped one of them already because I didn't find it as important. I want a connection with tatters and I will help in any way that I can.....sounds like Sharon is doing some research on it already.

Elena Rossi said:

Barbara, Sharon didn't talk of money we would have to pay!
Nobody knows yet how much Ning will ask for their services...
And once Sharon knows, she said she will first try to gather that money with advertising and Amazon affiliation. Here I must say it's true that maybe people don't click too much, but I think they would surely click more if they knew this keeps their site alive! I will click a lot more..And it would cost me nothing to go to Amazon through the link here instead of using a bookmark of mine! I think many others would do the same.
If this is not enough to pay Ning fees, , donations will be asked...Actually I think it would be useful to add this opportunity from now (setting up a Paypal account it's very easy!), for example I wouldn't like to have to pay a subscription ( if I had to pay a subscription for all the services I'm using that offer a free basic lavel and a 'Premium', improved one, such as Yahoo Mail, Webshots, Picnik and a lot others, I would spend a fortune! And for each one of them it would be just a few dollars...But they are a lot), but I wouldn't mind to donate adollar or two by Paypal from time to time... And if other people did the same in the community, it would be easy to collect what's necessary without asking a subscripton fee (that IMHO would discourage _a lot_ of people)

Barbara Gordon said:

I'm really sorry to hear this. I love all the groups I belong to, but it's starting to get a bit expensive! My income isn't high enough to keep paying out to all the groups I belong to. I'm hoping that maybe you can find somewhere else to maybe do this on instead. I'm sorry about it to.....I realize it costs money to run things, but I can just afford so much. I wish you luck and sorry I'm not that versed on this to come up with any suggestions.

[Susan]

Sharon, thank you for taking the time over the weekend to notify everyone here of the changes to Ning that could possibly affect Stitchin Fingers. I agree that you are doing the right thing by waiting to see what Ning will decide to actually do.

I see no problem with the paying of a donation or a small fee by members to cover the cost of the site if that turns out to be the best solution. You have provided a wonderful service to so many people, first with Pintangle and everything that is available there, to Stitchin Fingers and what that has bought to so many.

I feel the solution you decide on will be for the best and you have my total support. I can't see why anyone would even consider saying that greed by you is involved in the problem being caused by the changes to Ning at the moment. They should take the time to read the previous messages from you and other members and then give a fair comment.

Once again thank you for all the time you so generously give to the stitching community, as I know many of us appreciate you for doing that.

Susan.

[D. Paula Banerji]

I totally agree with Susan. Waiting to see what Ning wants in payment and then making a decision would be the right thing to do. Besides, Ning will give us time to decide one way or the other.

I am really sorry that Sharon had to face this abuse, but in such a large community there will always be some who will be mean spirited and not have the capacity to appreciate this wonderful network that Sharon has created.

I support Sharon with what ever she decides and hope this comes to a happy resolution for all of us.


Susan said:

Sharon, thank you for taking the time over the weekend to notify everyone here of the changes to Ning that could possibly affect Stitchin Fingers. I agree that you are doing the right thing by waiting to see what Ning will decide to actually do.

I see no problem with the paying of a donation or a small fee by members to cover the cost of the site if that turns out to be the best solution. You have provided a wonderful service to so many people, first with Pintangle and everything that is available there, to Stitchin Fingers and what that has bought to so many.

I feel the solution you decide on will be for the best and you have my total support. I can't see why anyone would even consider saying that greed by you is involved in the problem being caused by the changes to Ning at the moment. They should take the time to read the previous messages from you and other members and then give a fair comment.

Once again thank you for all the time you so generously give to the stitching community, as I know many of us appreciate you for doing that.

Susan.

[Judy B]

I don't visit stitchin fingers as often as I used too, but that could change next week, or next month. I keep in touch with what is happening via a reader, and sneak in for a closer look as required, only signing in when I can't keep my mouth shut or fingers from the keyboard. Then I go away for a week and come back to the news that Ning is getting greedy, or at least want to cover their expenses.

I have just had a look around stitchin fingers ..... at some of the discussions in the forum and within the groups, a few profiles, photos ....... something I cannot do easily in a Yahoo group, so I certainly hope we can stay with Ning. Some of the old discussions which attracted me here in the first place are still easily accessible and still worth reading, and there is so much of it moving would be a problem.

We have no idea really what the charges will be, but looking at the range of prices for premium services it will probably vary a lot, so a lot will depend on what features they offer at what price, and what features we don't have now we would be willing to pay for, but looking at their current prices some advertising and a Paypal donation button should cover at least the basics. The equivalent of a reel of good thread per member per year would be a small price to pay for this community.

Thank you, Sharon, for bringing us together, and I don't think I will be alone in supporting whatever you have to do to keep us together.

[sharonb]

Hi all I just wanted to say thanks for all the support. I feel confident things will be OK. So lets wait until Ning tell us what they are going to charge.

Now lets stop worrying and go checkout the photos today - there has been some great work loaded and then there is stitchin to do!

Hope you can all tell I am smiling!

[Elizabeth Braun]

Thanks a lot Sharon for your hard work. I know this is a difficult dilemma for all Ning community creators and I rather wish that Ning had released their proposals at the same time. This method of delayed release is not the best, in my uninformed opinion.

I appreciate your resisting Facebook as an alternative, being one of those who actively avoid the regular social networking media. I look upon textile groups like SF as professional networking and as something quite different from the remit of Facebook and friends.

I was interested in the comment about the site that has an annual donation request, as does Wikipedia in fact, to help cover their costs and I really think that this is a great way to go. There are many on SF who would be happy to put a few $$ SF's way once a year, and in the event you got too much, a certain amount could even be banked for the following year(s). I really like this idea as it's totally individual (ie down to the personal decision of each member and can vary from year to year depending on that member's financial situation and level of group interest) and, if the costs were to be as little as just creating our own domain name at US$5 per month, (the current premium service rate - yes, I know it's not that likely), then we as a group of 3000+ could easily raise that. Each active member donating $1 or 2 per year for an appeal should cover a great deal, if not the lot. It's not a subscription of course, just a donation. I'd do it anyway.=)

My other idea, which I left on Pintangle, would be to have paid tuition available through SF with a percentage of each student's tuition fees to be donated towards SF maintenance costs. If a tutor was making money through the network, it seems reasonable for them to give a bit of that to the 'agency' that facilitated that.

Those are my thoughts anyway, and I hope they're some in way constructive and positive.=)

[Anneliese]

Dear Sharon, Thank you for all your work with Ning which you are doing for us. I am watching and hoping that all ends well for our beloved site of stitchin fingers. Let's wait and see.

sharonb said:

Hi all I just wanted to say thanks for all the support. I feel confident things will be OK. So lets wait until Ning tell us what they are going to charge.

Now lets stop worrying and go checkout the photos today - there has been some great work loaded and then there is stitchin to do!

Hope you can all tell I am smiling!

[Mary Walker]

I have seen this for the last few days. One of my other groups has opened a group on Facebook which seems a good idea since a large number of members were also on Facebook. I am on a fixed income that barely covers my living expenses so coming up with dues or what ever you would call it would be difficult.