What I would like to see on Ning

I have been using Ning for the past few weeks or so. The only tool that I use is this one, the forums. I have been playing with the Chatterwall on my page and on others. I am not sure of the friend request. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of benefit to it. The search function makes no sense. I searched for "Christopher Potter" and it said I wasn't a member. I searched for "mrpotter" and I miraculously appeared as a member. Why not be able to search for either one? I may be going crazy, but I thought I was able to edit my page here. I want to rearrange some pieces on my page and delete others and I can't seem to find the option to do it. It isn't logically obvious to me. I thought we could do that last week, I may be wrong on that. I am a member of a few different SN on Ning. Why do I have to keep entering a biography, etc.? It has been said before, but I'll throw it on here. Feedreaders do not differentiate between a new discussion and a new comment.

Now, why am I still here and asking you to be my amigo? Because I think there is a ton of potential here. The forum alone has provided me the opportunity to discuss with topics with teachers from around the globe. Where else can I find something like that? Some things I'd like to see: A tagging system that shows me when a new topic/tag that I am interested in. A "watch" system that shows me when a friend or someone I enjoy reading has posted a new discussion or a new comment. This would make the friend function a little more useful. Drag and drop on the different sections of the my page section would be great too. Basically I'd like a combination of Newsvine.com and Netvibes.com

Please add any ideas you have below and maybe it will give the powers that be some ideas.

Tags: classroom2.0, ning, technology

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nancy Cavillones on April 30, 2007 at 12:24pm

It happened again! I got a friend request and couldn't find that person's profile anywhere. I looked on the friend list of one of the listed friends, and nada. So I declined the friend request. Also, it just so happens that this person and the person I declined before had the same friend on their, and both times, neither of them showed up on that friend's list, a person that has over 300 people on their list, which makes me suspicious and I might end up deleting that person from my friend list.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gina Bianchini on April 30, 2007 at 4:52pm

Hey Nancy!

If you don't want to meet people from other networks, that's totally cool. You should decline that friend request.

Here's an explanation of how friends on Ning works.

Thanks!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nancy Cavillones on May 3, 2007 at 2:19pm

Gina-
The issue is not that the friend requests were from other networks. The issue is that I could not find their profiles anywhere, even on other people's friend lists. This is why we should be able to click on the thumbnail photo in the friend request area and go directly to that person's profile instead of a list of their friends.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gina Bianchini on April 30, 2007 at 5:01pm

Hey Brian!

Anytime you add stuff around Classroom 2.0, it's added to a profile page. Yours is here. The idea is that as you add stuff around this network, it should be aggregated in one place, your profile. From there, you can further customize your profile, but that's optional.

Thanks!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sylvia Martinez on April 29, 2007 at 11:11am

I like the friend "watch" idea. It's obvious that Ning still has a long way to go, but at least they seem to be trying.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nancy Cavillones on April 30, 2007 at 3:25am

I would also like to be able to see who made my video a favorite. It's just another way to discover members!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gina Bianchini on April 30, 2007 at 4:36pm

Hey Christopher!

First of all, thanks for opportunity to see through our potential. We appreciate it.

You're right, search isn't good right now. In fact, it sucks :-) It's a cobbler's kids issue. We're fixing it in the next 4-6 weeks and then it will rock. (I'm the CEO, I can say that something sucks but that it will be awesome and it will be true. :-))

With respect to profiles or "bios", you do share your name/Ning ID, photo, and basic information across networks. The reason that you have to keep entering a "bio" is because you're joining different networks which have different profile questions over and above the basic bio. The benefit of this is that you don't have a "one-size-fits-all" profile for both a classroom 2.0 network and something, say, dedicated to gaming.

We'll fix these annoying things like Feedreaders not differentiating blogs from forum posts; tagging that works; a watch system; drag and drop the different sections; and better friend functionality. All of those are in the plans in June.

If there's anything else that we can do to be awesome, please drop me an email directly at ceo(at)ning(dot)com.

We love your feedback!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Christopher Potter on April 30, 2007 at 5:02pm

June is going to suck for this group, because as educators, we all take a vacation to "Teacher Island" and not do any work at all..... ;)

I have faith and I can wait. I am sure it will be awesome. I didn't mean to whine, but I just really think this is a great product with a ton of potential.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on May 4, 2007 at 4:21am

One more thing ... and I apologize if anyone else has already mentioned this and I didn't see it.

But, with most social networks, you create a profile of yourself, and then, the network automatically connects you with users with similar interests. For example, I play the saxophone and if I have the word "music" or "saxophone" in my profile, then I become connected through that shared interest with anyone else with those keywords.

I may be missing that feature here, but I don't see it happening. That is one of the true powers of most social networks, I think.

Thanks to Ning folks for reading and responding, by the way.

Kevin