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leaving network - keep added forum content
I run a network for ex-pat women in Thailand which allows women to connect and share information. When they go back home they will understandably leave the network, and this will happen very often. And when they leave ALL content they have added will be deleted. Forum discussions with useful advice will be lost...
That content like profile information and photo's are deleted makes sense. But deleting forum discussions and forum posts by that member doesn't.
Please, please, please change this ... my forum will soon become useless...
Not everything in Ning is the way you would like it to be and I find it a challenge to be creative and think of solutions for these things. And to be honest it has sometimes resulted in solutions that benefited the network. But this discovery affects the informative side of my network and I can't do anything about it...
I'll pay for premium services if this means being heard by someone from Ning!
That content like profile information and photo's are deleted makes sense. But deleting forum discussions and forum posts by that member doesn't.
Please, please, please change this ... my forum will soon become useless...
Not everything in Ning is the way you would like it to be and I find it a challenge to be creative and think of solutions for these things. And to be honest it has sometimes resulted in solutions that benefited the network. But this discovery affects the informative side of my network and I can't do anything about it...
I'll pay for premium services if this means being heard by someone from Ning!
I’m anxious
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The best point from everyone
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I RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE FROM THE HELP CENTER:
I'm sorry that you are experiencing this on your Ning Network. I definitely understand that this is frustrating. All content on your network is linked to a member's profile. It is linked to the member who uploaded it. Because of this, as well as for privacy reasons, when a member leaves your network their content goes with them. There is current no way to change this, and as this happens for privacy reasons, this is not likely to change.
What I can suggest to you is that you ask your members to remain on your network as members. They don't need to participate, but, you can ask them to stay, so that their fantastic content remains on your network, for other members to see.
TO WHICH I REPLIED WITH THE FOLLOWING:
thanks for your reply, it is very much appreciated.
Not that this is going to change my problem but I do want to make some remarks.
I completely understand the privacy issue but I don't feel this applies to content added to the forum or to groups. Content on the forum or groups is added in a public domain and is therefore not private anymore. On every forum I know content is never removed when a member leaves as the forum would soon become useless and the company might as well pack their bags and go.
On other forums there are no technical issues as members are also linked to the content they provide. So I don't understand why this is a problem with Ning. If a member has created a group, and then leaves, the group is not removed and you can still see the name of the creator. So obviously this is technically possible (the group is still there) and it also doesn't comply with the referred privacy view (as you can still see their name).
I can of course ask members to remain on the network but I don't know in advance if they will leave. This would mean that I have to inform my entire network. I really don't want to give away this kind of information as it looks extremely unprofessional and I also think it is much to ask of members who want to leave.
This also affects the possibilities of advertising. Many of the possible advertisers will come via the members or are members themselves. Which self-respecting company would want to advertise on a network of which they know in time will contain all kinds of gaps and will potentially wither and die. And how do they know? Because I had to ask my entire network to remain as a member so that their content wouldn't be removed.
I think this is very inconsiderate to the people who create the networks of which the members benefit from. We spend our time, and possibly money, on it and we are stuck with the mess.
I am sure you agree with this but I understand you can't change this and that you probably have no influence regarding this matter. I have worked in call centers/help desk functions myself and I know how this works. But anyway.. thanks for listening and hopefully you could pass this on to the big bosses upstairs ; )
I’m sad
3 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I agree completely! All forum content from former members should remain in the forum. This should be the case whether the person left on their own or was banned. Almost all other bulletin board platforms work this way. Ning's forum should too.
The way it is now, a member leaving results in the forums being littered with nonsensical discussions because you are not getting the real discussion, only half of it.
I think all other content should be deleted: profiles, blogs, photos, videos, etc. But forum posts are part of a conversation and are needed for the conversation to still be understood. -
Inappropriate?I don't agree with the banned part - their stuff should be removed.
There are reasons why people get banned (spamming for sure) and its a sure way to get everything off they did. But we do need a feature to remove (unsub) a member without banning them.
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
1 Comment Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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We can already delete their forum posts so you can already get rid of everything they did. I have members who cannot follow the rules and yet have many good forum contributions that would/have destroyed the integrity of the thread if removed.
So yes, I would like to be able to see the forum contributions of members I ban. But perhaps a simple choice ("remove all member content" -or- "remove member content except forum posts") would be best. -
Inappropriate?They took away even more moderation this week from every site I don't think they are planning on letting us micro manage anything ever again especially "remove all" any time soon. ;-(
Something big is coming I feel it.
I’m sad
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I noticed that I now have a group in my network that was created by a member who left. You can still see the name of that person (in the created by) but with a standard avatar image provided by Ning. All content she wrote within the group is gone however.
Deleting all content of members who leave just doesn't make sense.
What am I supposed to do? Ask all members to:
1. please not leave . . . for the good of the network
2. and for their convience, click the checkbox that they don't want to receive any e-mail from the network?
I’m confused
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Inappropriate?I RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE FROM THE HELP CENTER:
I'm sorry that you are experiencing this on your Ning Network. I definitely understand that this is frustrating. All content on your network is linked to a member's profile. It is linked to the member who uploaded it. Because of this, as well as for privacy reasons, when a member leaves your network their content goes with them. There is current no way to change this, and as this happens for privacy reasons, this is not likely to change.
What I can suggest to you is that you ask your members to remain on your network as members. They don't need to participate, but, you can ask them to stay, so that their fantastic content remains on your network, for other members to see.
TO WHICH I REPLIED WITH THE FOLLOWING:
thanks for your reply, it is very much appreciated.
Not that this is going to change my problem but I do want to make some remarks.
I completely understand the privacy issue but I don't feel this applies to content added to the forum or to groups. Content on the forum or groups is added in a public domain and is therefore not private anymore. On every forum I know content is never removed when a member leaves as the forum would soon become useless and the company might as well pack their bags and go.
On other forums there are no technical issues as members are also linked to the content they provide. So I don't understand why this is a problem with Ning. If a member has created a group, and then leaves, the group is not removed and you can still see the name of the creator. So obviously this is technically possible (the group is still there) and it also doesn't comply with the referred privacy view (as you can still see their name).
I can of course ask members to remain on the network but I don't know in advance if they will leave. This would mean that I have to inform my entire network. I really don't want to give away this kind of information as it looks extremely unprofessional and I also think it is much to ask of members who want to leave.
This also affects the possibilities of advertising. Many of the possible advertisers will come via the members or are members themselves. Which self-respecting company would want to advertise on a network of which they know in time will contain all kinds of gaps and will potentially wither and die. And how do they know? Because I had to ask my entire network to remain as a member so that their content wouldn't be removed.
I think this is very inconsiderate to the people who create the networks of which the members benefit from. We spend our time, and possibly money, on it and we are stuck with the mess.
I am sure you agree with this but I understand you can't change this and that you probably have no influence regarding this matter. I have worked in call centers/help desk functions myself and I know how this works. But anyway.. thanks for listening and hopefully you could pass this on to the big bosses upstairs ; )
I’m sad
3 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?Since opinions vary, the solution would be to give us options.
Ban member - delete: forum? photos? Movies? Blog posts? Comments? Everything?
When a member leaves they are also given the same options. -
Inappropriate?Absolutely agree with Brian. These discussions that are black or white really make it easy for Ning to argue against. Make your argument grey, just like life.
Administrators, which we are, need choices. Ban or not is NOT a choice. Ning suggesting ridiculous workarounds just indicates their unwillingness to offer real choices.
I keep saying this - we need more tools to MANAGER our networks. We need to be able to choose if we want something or not. WE NEED REAL MANAGEMENT TOOLS.
I’m so so tired of this.
1 Comment Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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I have seen this before. On Imeem once they took the "banning" function away it was only a matter of months before they took it all away. I see the same pattern here. Instead of giving us new management they are taking more away. The end is nigh. ;-(
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Inappropriate?Could not agree more! -
Inappropriate?Ning saying that this is a privacy issue is silly. The way to fix that is to update the Terms of Service. Simple. Now members know that their forum posts will live on even if they leave.
Them saying that it is impossible technically is also pure nonsense.
The real answer is that they just don't want to do it.
The way the forum is now, many MANY forum discussions are becoming nonsensical and useless. It will only get worse as more gaping holes in discussions appear. This is NOT a way to make a useful site. It is impossible to create a business this way (as Manda mentioned).
Please Ning, forum posts must remain on our forums after members leave or our forums will soon make no sense. EVERY other major forum platform recognizes this and allows posts to remain (vBulletin, phpBB, ForumLogic, phorum, SMF, Invision Power Board, punBB, UBB.threads, myBB, etc. etc.).
Please let us Network Creators do the same.
1 Comment Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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I have to disagree in the sense that I use "leave and delte" as a major selling point to visitors !
People have seen the horrors of MySpace and facebook stealing their content and they feel relieved when they see a network where they can leave in 3 easy clicks and take EVERYTHING with them!
This is a major selling point !
But the point is that there are many other situations than just the one where someone wants to leave and take it all with them. Just like there are many other situations where we need to "freeze" an account perhaps just for a few days until an angry member calms down a bit - like a warning before a ban.
But I have to agree with Ning that this IS indeed a privacy issue IN the sense that it's a major selling point. -
Inappropriate?Another point:
If you asked every member to stay in your network, the number of members don't represent the actual numbers. Especially when you have a very local network and local advertisers this doesn't make sense. So in time my network will have 1000 members of which only, say, 400 members actually live there.
So either you lie to your advertisers or you say:
"oh.. by the way, we don't really have 1000 members, only 400 of them actually live on the Island"
I don't even want to get into the possible discussions you could get into with these advertisers. And why should I have to explain this to the members as well?
And sure, you have your statistics, which you could show to your advertisers, but I also want the membership count in my network to be up to date.
I’m sad
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Inappropriate?And by the way I would like to take up the opportunity to mirror this:
Ning has chosen Get Satisfaction as their communication platform. What if they discovered after 8 months that when a member leaves all their content is removed? Or what would happen if a Ning employee got sacked and deleted their account just to cause some damage?
A. What do you think would happen with this platform?
B. And would Ning have chosen Get Satisfaction if they knew this in advance?
So as a solution Ning would have to ask all their posters and their sacked employee to please not leave the network so all their fantastic content remains on the network, for other members to see.
I’m amused
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
1 Comment Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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I have to say that is actually a good point ! There is a bit of a dilemma here.
Leave it up to the member. I think many would not feel the NEED to erase everything they have written in forum but would prefer the idea that their words will be read by other people out there "for ever". -
Inappropriate?Manda, I think your comparison to GetSatisfaction is very valid. Just think if the most active persons here left and all their comments were removed.
Now that would throw a spanner in the works. Not that I am suggesting we do this, but if we all left and then resigned boy would that cause a problem - if all the content was removed.
I’m kidding
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?Ok... I found the best solution (for me anyway):
In the Language Editor you can find the message a member gets when they want to leave the network:
"Are you sure you want to leave %s and delete all your content? This process may take a few minutes"
I'll go and change this message and ask them if they can please remain a member. I'll inform them why and inform them that I can delete all their uploaded pictures and that they change their privacy settings saying they want no more e-mail from my network.
phew! it's the best solution I can think of! -
Inappropriate?Has anyone experienced what happens, when a member leaves, if topics they STARTED on the forum also get deleted? So the entire thread?
Or will the thread not be deleted? So the content of the first message is deleted but the replies of the other members are kept intact?
