NSS Online Cavers!!! Ning.com is cutting off free networks

[Evan G]

I wanted to give a heads up on the Ning network this was just leaked today:

Uh-oh. Just a month after Gina Bianchini, co-founder of build-a-social-network service Ning, departed the company, it's cutting 40 percent of its staff and axing its free, ad-supported service.

Bianchini had co-founded Ning with Valley legend Marc Andreessen, and it had raised $119 million in venture capital, including a whopping $60 million round in early 2008 that Andreessen famously characterized as a stockpile for the "nuclear winter" that would help get it through the economic recession.

Jason Rosenthal, the Ning COO who took over as CEO from Bianchini, sent an e-mail memo to company staffers on Thursday that somebody forwarded to industry blog TechCrunch. He explained that Ning will be focusing on premium networks--which come with additional features and are not ad-supported--because that's where the company's business successes have been, thus far.

Via Cnet: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20002611-36.html

The Palo Alto., Calif.-based company announced the cuts -- about 70 people in all -- one month after long-time Ning CEO and co-founder Gina Bianchini was replaced by by COO Jason Rosenthal. The move forces existing free networks to either change to premium accounts or migrate their networks elsewhere.

Here is another article:

Ning Collapses, No Longer Free

memo from Jason Rosenthal that was leaked to Techcrunch:

Existing free networks will have the opportunity to either convert to paying for premium services, or transition off of Ning. We will judge ourselves by our ability to enable and power Premium Ning Networks at huge scale. And all of our product development capability will be devoted to making paying Network Creators extremely happy.

As a consequence of this change, I have also made the very tough decision to reduce the size of our team from 167 people to 98 people. As hard as this is to do, I am confident that this is the right decision for our company, our business, and our customers. Marc and I will work diligently with everyone affected by this to help them find great opportunities at other companies.

[Phil Winkler]

TANSTAAFL!

Having multiple websites for caving or any other single topic, like Ranger sailboats, simply dilutes the effectiveness of each of them. I've watched this effect increase over the years as everyone thinks they have a better idea, but they often fail when they can't monetize their concept.

Mailing lists used to be the big thing prior to the internet explosion. Now, many of them are gone, too.

[MUD]

Bummer. I got a page there and enjoy the site. I wonder if they'll annouce it or just shut it down?

[Evan G]

What I posted was a leaked internal memo. Most likely in the coming weeks, the Admins will be notified.

[David Grimes]

It was nice to have a place to post videos and start your own private groups. I guess there are tons of websites that offer similar features but it was nice while it lasted. You might want to start getting your videos copied off the website before they get deleted.

[Evan G]

This mornings "leaked internal memo" is now hitting the news services. MSN Money & USA Today just did a report on it. Here is a list of other reports:List

[Evan G]

It is official now, Ning issued a press release:

“Next generation” of Ning coming in 90 days after “painful” restructuring

Rosenthal said:

I’ve taken a hard look at our business in the 30 days since I became CEO, and I’ve decided to focus the company 100% on our paid networks business. The tens of thousands of paid Ning Networks today represent over 75% of our US page views, and we believe completely focusing on this opportunity is the best path for our company, our Network Creators, and our users. I believe this market will grow enormously over the next few years and, with this focus, we will be able to provide the best solution in the market, by far.

There are two important decisions that I have made as a result, both painful but necessary:

· We will soon phase out our free service. Existing free networks will have
the opportunity to either convert to paying for our premium services, or
transition off of Ning, and we will fully support each Network Creator’s decision.

· We are reducing the size of our team from 167 people to 98 people. Marc and
I, along with the team at Andreessen Horowitz, will work diligently with
everyone affected by this to help them find great opportunities at other
companies.

Within 90 days we will launch the next generation of Ning, which will include a range of new premium features and services for our Network Creators, a new mobile experience, and a new set of APIs. I look forward to talking to you about these changes as we get closer to launch.

Via DigitalBeat

[Wayne Harrison]

Having multiple websites for caving or any other single topic, like Ranger sailboats, simply dilutes the effectiveness of each of them.

I really have to disagree with you there. If the multiple websites are doing different things, then they are each serving a purpose. OnlineCavers is a social media site, a Facebook exclusively for cavers. It has things that you won't find on any other caving Website that allows people to connect and easily share.

The site never tried to compete with Cavechat's very popular forums, but it did allow cavers with similar interests to form their own groups and interact with one another in various ways -- even share caving photographs (there are more than 29,000 on the site currently -- showing how popular that service was with cavers).

While some of the same cavers were posting on both Cavechat and OnlineCavers I did notice that the majority posted on one or the other.

Your analogy about mailing lists fits this scenario as forums like this replaced BBS's in the early 80s (pre Internet). I looked at social media sites as eventually replacing forums because of their ability to quickly share and embed different things.

Anyway, it was a great ride while it lasted. I'll be sorry to see it go.

[Evan G]

There has been some web buzz about Facebook coming out with a Ning like addition to the regular Facebook in the next couple months. I'll have to look around an see what I can find on it.

[Phil Winkler]

If the multiple websites are doing different things, then they are each serving a purpose.

Wayne,
Excellent point and one I hadn't considered.

[Chads93GT]

Personally I think that site sucks. No one ever talks in chat, no one ever posts to the forums, and lately I keep getting friend requests from porn bots.

[Wayne Harrison]

There has been some web buzz about Facebook coming out with a Ning like addition to the regular Facebook in the next couple months. I'll have to look around an see what I can find on it.

Just a reminder. We do have an OnlineCavers page on Facebook. You can find it at http://www.facebook.com/OnlineCavers

Right now I'm just using it to catch cavers on Facebook and funnel them to the Ning site.

[Wayne Harrison]

Personally I think that site sucks. No one ever talks in chat, no one ever posts to the forums, and lately I keep getting friend requests from porn bots.

Hmm. The only people who can send messages are fellow members. There is a notice on the front page asking members to report spam so those accounts can be deleted. If nobody reports them then they don't get deleted.

OnlineCavers has help facilitate quite a number of groups of cavers with similar interests. It has also amassed the largest caving photo library around (29,000+ photos).

It's not everyone's cup of tea but social media is where it's at right now and I'm glad the NSS had the foresight to support it.