It all started out with a lot of promise, with the expected start up warts. It took forever for NING to get features like assignable moderators – a staple of any open source forum software you’ve been able to run yourself for years. There was a fairly active Network Creator community and even a third party add-on market.

But a progressive disease took hold – one that affected both free network customers and premium customers a like.  Network Creators starting getting less and less news about what to expect. NING implemented a digital goods system that was automatically turned on – on all sites, including pay sites. Being able to send your buddies a digital bunny works on some communities, but not on more serious communities such as those that bring together people who are fighting for their lives against cancer.

Not only were pay network creators getting their communities hijacked by NING, but also NING did its best to avoid actually interacting with their customers. NING moved their support and customer feedback to another company, then when threaded comments became heated and customers shared specific concerns, those threaded comments would then get deleted. This seems a little odd considering NING is a social network system company – that doesn’t even use its own software to work with its own customers, and solves problems by deleting them.

Some of the changes they have announced may well improve NING’s bottom line in the short term, but the delivery of the message doesn’t entirely build confidence. New CEO Jason Rosenthal made the effort to address concerns directly with NING customers through their updated Network Creator site and states that a transition plan will be shared with NING customers within the next two weeks. That’s much better than the copy-pasted message from Mark Andreessen or the piles of congratulatory text addressed to departed CEO Gina Bianchini, who clearly left the company in its current predicament.

CEO Jason Rosenthal is off to a good start by simply listening to his paying customers.  Now if he can keep NING from undermining the very premise of his business ecosystem, NING may have a chance at a comeback.

Mirye Software Publishing will be providing Campers with free copies of Runtime Revolution Media Edition. You have to participate in the event to get one of these. They will also get a free copy of Valentina Community Server.

I will be blogging this event, which will be held at the Adobe Conference Center, 801 N 34th St., Seattle. Some important links to know if you are planning on attending.

RSVP with Mirye. Let other Rev and Valentina users know you are going.
RSVP the Event and Get Your Badge.
Get listed on Facebook
BarCamp Seattle Twitter. Watch this brighten up during the event.