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Top 10 Most Ignored Requests.
1. Spam. The biggest flaw on the Ning platform is the cross network invite spam.
By continuing to allow this, Ning hurts the reputation of NC's whose websites are viewed as the source of the spam. Ning hurts their own brand exposure as well. Many NC's refuse to mention the word "Ning" on their site out of fear that members will create their own network and spam members of their site.
The recent allegations against Tagged.com may also be applied to Ning. Unsuspecting people join a Ning website, without realizing that their info will also be on Ning.com. Members are also helpless to the bombardment of spam invites they will receive from countless other websites using Ning.
This problem can easily be corrected yet Ning refuses to take action. If a complaint is received, they'll reply back with the standard form letter email.. "Most NC's love the feature..It's better for us...Members should choose friends more carefully..etc"
2. Portability.
Ning refuses to provide us with a way of exporting our websites if we want to leave. If we can't take the spam and finally decide to leave, we can only backup member profile info. We would lose all blogs, forum posts, photos, videos, etc. We would lose our entire site, while Ning.com would retain ALL of our data.
Ning promised to provide us a way to export our files over a year ago.
3. Privacy/Member Data.
When I created a Ning network in 2006, I was under the impression that I was creating MY own social network, as advertised. In 2008, Ning changed its model and developed Ning.com, a competitive social network which it furnishes with hundreds of thousands of profiles taken from OUR websites. They did this without permission from the NC's or the members themselves.
Call me crazy, but should the members decide which websites they want their info on??? Most members never heard of Ning, yet have profiles on Ning.com. I know, I know, its buried somewhere in the TOS right?. Who actually reads the fine print?
Certain things do not belong in any print. Fine or otherwise. Who joins myspace and expects to have their data appear on facebook?
4. OUR files!
Over the years I've watched an open Ning platform close down to the total lockdown that it has become. I remember a time when we could access the source codes, our php files, and webdav. All gone.
What platform in the world restricts access to files on the domain owned by you???
I know i know, its because of bad developers and Ning had to amp up security. But that was years ago. They banned the developer they didnt like. Why are we still punished??
5. Promotional Links Remain. Premium or not.
I've been paying premium fees for years to keep ning from being mentioned on my site yet links to Ning have been increasing throughout my site. Why are there "Ning ID" links on the "edit profile" page??
6. MONETIZE.
When will Ning allow us a way to monetize our sites by charging membership fees??? To do this, however, they MUST fix the spam issue first. No one can charge membership fees on a site that causes a bombardment of unwanted spam emails.
7. Ning.com technology years ahead of ours.
Why is Ning.com eager to improve the technology on their social network and not ours?? Aren't we the paying customers? Aren't those OUR members they are using in the first place??
8. Policing of content and double standards.
Ning should not be policing OUR websites for content they disapprove of. they are OUR websites.
Not to mention the double standards involved. Go look ar 50 cents site. Click on the popular photos page. I rest my case.
9. "Slated" for next year.
Has Ning completed ONE, just one, of the scheduled upgrades on time in the last 2 years? I stopped telling my members about upcoming enhancements because they would always be released weeks, even months, later.
10. IGNORING US. No Satisfaction on this site.
Go look at the most popular complaints on this site. Has ning responded to ANY of them??
Why are we using this site?
I hope that this post catches the attention of Ning, and that they would be kind enough to answer each these concerns. There are hundreds of NC's in here who voice these concerns only to be ignored.
Wyclef decided to leave Ning because of the spam and data issues. He sent out 1 TWEET on twitter, and had the full attention of the Ning CEO.
http://www.businessweek.com/the_threa...
Can we get the same "satisfaction" as Wyclef?
By continuing to allow this, Ning hurts the reputation of NC's whose websites are viewed as the source of the spam. Ning hurts their own brand exposure as well. Many NC's refuse to mention the word "Ning" on their site out of fear that members will create their own network and spam members of their site.
The recent allegations against Tagged.com may also be applied to Ning. Unsuspecting people join a Ning website, without realizing that their info will also be on Ning.com. Members are also helpless to the bombardment of spam invites they will receive from countless other websites using Ning.
This problem can easily be corrected yet Ning refuses to take action. If a complaint is received, they'll reply back with the standard form letter email.. "Most NC's love the feature..It's better for us...Members should choose friends more carefully..etc"
2. Portability.
Ning refuses to provide us with a way of exporting our websites if we want to leave. If we can't take the spam and finally decide to leave, we can only backup member profile info. We would lose all blogs, forum posts, photos, videos, etc. We would lose our entire site, while Ning.com would retain ALL of our data.
Ning promised to provide us a way to export our files over a year ago.
3. Privacy/Member Data.
When I created a Ning network in 2006, I was under the impression that I was creating MY own social network, as advertised. In 2008, Ning changed its model and developed Ning.com, a competitive social network which it furnishes with hundreds of thousands of profiles taken from OUR websites. They did this without permission from the NC's or the members themselves.
Call me crazy, but should the members decide which websites they want their info on??? Most members never heard of Ning, yet have profiles on Ning.com. I know, I know, its buried somewhere in the TOS right?. Who actually reads the fine print?
Certain things do not belong in any print. Fine or otherwise. Who joins myspace and expects to have their data appear on facebook?
4. OUR files!
Over the years I've watched an open Ning platform close down to the total lockdown that it has become. I remember a time when we could access the source codes, our php files, and webdav. All gone.
What platform in the world restricts access to files on the domain owned by you???
I know i know, its because of bad developers and Ning had to amp up security. But that was years ago. They banned the developer they didnt like. Why are we still punished??
5. Promotional Links Remain. Premium or not.
I've been paying premium fees for years to keep ning from being mentioned on my site yet links to Ning have been increasing throughout my site. Why are there "Ning ID" links on the "edit profile" page??
6. MONETIZE.
When will Ning allow us a way to monetize our sites by charging membership fees??? To do this, however, they MUST fix the spam issue first. No one can charge membership fees on a site that causes a bombardment of unwanted spam emails.
7. Ning.com technology years ahead of ours.
Why is Ning.com eager to improve the technology on their social network and not ours?? Aren't we the paying customers? Aren't those OUR members they are using in the first place??
8. Policing of content and double standards.
Ning should not be policing OUR websites for content they disapprove of. they are OUR websites.
Not to mention the double standards involved. Go look ar 50 cents site. Click on the popular photos page. I rest my case.
9. "Slated" for next year.
Has Ning completed ONE, just one, of the scheduled upgrades on time in the last 2 years? I stopped telling my members about upcoming enhancements because they would always be released weeks, even months, later.
10. IGNORING US. No Satisfaction on this site.
Go look at the most popular complaints on this site. Has ning responded to ANY of them??
Why are we using this site?
I hope that this post catches the attention of Ning, and that they would be kind enough to answer each these concerns. There are hundreds of NC's in here who voice these concerns only to be ignored.
Wyclef decided to leave Ning because of the spam and data issues. He sent out 1 TWEET on twitter, and had the full attention of the Ning CEO.
http://www.businessweek.com/the_threa...
Can we get the same "satisfaction" as Wyclef?
I’m frustrated
33
people have this problem
I have this problem, too!
Tell me when someone solves it.
The more people who report this problem, the more it gets noticed.
The more people who report this problem, the more it gets noticed.
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Inappropriate?you should start from 10 and go to 1. its more fun ;). Ning has big problems and they are ignoring them.
I’m frustrated
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of course they are ignoring them. But don't take it personally, it's the American Way. "When you are small, look after your customers - when you grow big and the bucks are rolling in, fuck them all!" -
Inappropriate?Well said. If only there was a forum where people would actually read this...
I’m using sarcasm to mask frustration
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removal of the network creators forum could have made no. 11 lol
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the Getsatisfaction "forum" is much better than Ning forum on our networks. Actually I'm hoping they will mimic Getsatisfaction in a future update to forum on our networks:
http://getsatisfaction.com/ning/topic... -
Inappropriate?The fact that they're now making updates to Ning.com and not passing them on to us just shows me that their sole intention is member harvesting.
Ning: you are never going to be the new facebook! Facebook already has facebook's market!
I’m tired of ning
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Inappropriate?by the way, I've noticed Ning is MUCH more responsive to twitter posts than to comments on this site.1 Comment Add a comment
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yea. especially if you're 50 cent or wyclef lol
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Inappropriate?thanks for not dissappointing me Ning. I figured you'd ignore this one as well. VERY bad business1 Comment Add a comment
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What do you mean bad business? The 20 people who use this site are already dissapointed with Ning, why should they waste resources listening or responding?
Obviously Ning is scarce on manpower, otherwise we would have all of the things we were promised. They triage the workload, and keeping both people who contribute to this site happy isn't high on the priority list. That's why they killed the NC forum, so they could move it down the priority list and stop responding. That was the reason THEY gave.
Ignoring us is good business for them, it's just bad news for us. -
Inappropriate?Seems like the like to continue to add Ning everywhere they can on our premium sites. In the past I was able to use the language editor to remove some of these, but it is not working this time-
5. Promotional Links Remain. Premium or not.
I've been paying premium fees for years to keep ning from being mentioned on my site yet links to Ning have been increasing throughout my site. Why are there "Ning ID" links on the "edit profile" page??
I’m frustrated
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Inappropriate?Yea and now in the new video uploader, That uploader was a excuse to ad there terms of service advertisement to the networks.......1 Comment Add a comment
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lol. i didnt even see that. unreal
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Inappropriate?You forgot the widgets they hijacked from SiteSuites, promised to offer for free, and then only gave to the larger networks. What about the rest of us? I pay Ning too much money every month to have to keep dealing with this. It is a good platform but support sucks and is getting worse.
Is it me or is Ning offline for maintenance at least once a week now?
I’m creating a new non-ning site
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This reply was removed on 09/09/09.
see the change log -
Inappropriate?Yeah there is just too much ill will at this point. It is really discouraging because we should be the people who are the most excited by Ning. It is such a shame. The unfortunate thing is that I am not sure that the folks at Ning realize that it takes work to maintain a successful community. Why they never tried to make life easier for NCs working their buts off by helping us with monetization and features WE need is beyond me. Ahh well... Its all spilled milk now.
Although I am not the one to do this I think someone should sue them at this point, I think that if no one does they will continue to steam roller over people he way they have been and no company should be allowed to do that without recourse. I think it's a fair trade that if they take your money then they should have to address and acknowledge your concerns. The continued silence or lack of action to address concerns is just bad business.3 Comments Add a comment
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I think things will change when Ning Apps come out this month. After that Ning will be able to go back and update the Ning software like they used to do several times a month once.
....oh and let's NOT forget the 90 + new features we will be able to choose from for our networks with the release of Ning Apps
....oooohhh I think excitement is coming back to Ning world pretty soon. We have just been going through a feature drought while Ning has been tearing down the Open Social wall which is about to flood our networks with more features than we can go through in a day
I'm SUPER excited about that ! -
Yeah see Brian your comment illustrates the problem... You are just another NC like the rest of us. Why is there no official answer to the original question for this thread? It should not have to fall on your shoulders to carry Ning's water man. We don't pay you, we pay them.
I am glad though that you are still excited about the whole Apps thing. I keep wondering if they will do something in within the final timeframe I have given them to make me think twice about bailing. I will cross my fingers but sure as hell won't hold my breath. -
I know what you mean, I was shouting in various different threads about employee participation. At least they are a little visible now, unlike before.
The Ning blog has not been announcing a lot these last 6 months, due to the back end upgrades and constant work on the Ning apps
But perhaps you have seen yesterdays announcements on the Ning Blog about Ning Apps and the upcomming activity monitor feature. -
Inappropriate?Brian-
Don't forget that you are talking about 90 apps that Ning will have to add customer support for. I don't anticipate a big shift in their output after the Ning Apps are released, whenever that ends up being. Some of the apps may end up being cool, but most of Ning's innovations beyond their platform have been pretty lack-luster.
I'm not anti-Ning, I'm just realistic that things tend to not change that much. Ning is over-extended and working hard to fix bad decisions. Ultimately their model is screwed up, but they still provide a great platform overall.
yeah, some of their decisions have hurt me, but that happens sometimes in business and I don't take it personally. I have a network with 5,000 members on it that I wouldn't have created if it had been more effort.
Do I wish they handled the widget labs and scripts 4 ning situations very differently? Absolutely. Do I think they need to hire more people and focus on quality networks instead of lots of 15 person networks with no activity? Yeah. Have they lost credibility with many of the medium sized networks? yup. Is Ning.com a pretty big risk on their part that probably won't work out? I think so.
But I don't get to make those kinds of decisions for their company for 40 bucks a month. Instead I get to have a network that usually works and get to bitch on this site about the things I dislike (like I did here: http://getsatisfaction.com/ning/topic... ). That's about fair.
I have my fingers crossed for the apps, but I don't hold my breath. I have started hosting my own stuff and i-framing into my site as much as possible. It gives me some sense of control and consistency.
my 2 cents,
Scott1 Comment Add a comment
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Hi Scott
I am also not for the ning.com idea at all. It think it will explode in bad media once enough people get angry that they "suddenly was plastered all over another domain?!!!??"
About the Ning apps. We can't get 90 new features without someone having to support them. We can't get 90 new features without support either. Bascially we can't ask for any new features without support.
I'm not sure if Ning will have to support all 90 apps and all those that follow. I think the 3. party developers will have to do that, perhaps through Ning ?!? I think Ning has to make Open Social work with the Ning platform and that's it. I can't imagine that facebook supports those trillion facebook apps right now making any facebookers life a living spam hell :)
Ning told us yesterday that they will soon provide a list of the lauch day apps available... and that the apps are coming soon now.
Ning apps has been prosponed several times, but we did all tell them to not lauch it until they were sure it worked. I think that's what they have been doing and it was the right decision.
I think this is going to be very very cool... The Map App alone is enough for me lol -
Inappropriate?Like who cares about "90 apps" being added to a worthless network that the ning thieves RIPPED off from me? Bottom line: they screwed tons of NC's who were serious business people, conned us, cheated us, and now they will pay with lawsuits. ning - take you "apps" and f***ing SHOVE them you know where. NC's contact me and let get our lawyer app running after ning.
For those of you who are still unaware of exactly how ning planned to set us up , and then STEAL "our" networks, read this:
http://www.chartingstocks.net/2009/03..."
I’m getting my damages back from ning
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Inappropriate?I think with the new Google Friend Connect... Ning will go down the drain. After all, now we can turn almost any site into a community site!
I’m concerned
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Inappropriate?"Who joins myspace and expects to have their data appear on facebook?"
WHAT??!!!??!!
I stumbled into Ning. Very randomly. But I read the "fine print" as best I could. I realized if I choose my profile as public it shows up on the network I create only for all members not just my friends. I even tested it across the networks I created.
So, are you saying that my profile and my members' profiles are on OTHER networks not affiliated with mine? Are you positive on that?
I hope SOMEONE AT NING does address these things or at least replies to yours with some rebuttal or something. I am now a bit ... paranoid?
I’m totally shocked and confused!
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Make your profile private I did that after the spammers attacked last month.
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Susy, with the release of Ning.com, it became a social network of all Ning networks (creators and their members). You have a public profile there; you can set your Ning.com profile to private, but each of your network members will need to do the same. And Ning.com does not appear to care.
It was not always this way which is why network creators are unhappy. We built networks, Ning.com was launched and we have no true control of our network members automatically becoming a member, and no true way to move our networks to another platform. And Ning does not appear to care based on their response to our complaints and concerns. Last year, we were promised an easy way to export our networks. It was published on their Roadmap; but then they changed their mind. They deleted our NC discussion forum with maybe 48 hours notice and sent many NCs into a panic trying to figure out how to stay connected. Ning customer service has done a complete 180. -
Inappropriate?A member signs up to facebook.com or myningnetwork.com
Would he expect his profile to show up on myspace? would he expect it to show up on ning.com ?
Would he be angry? Would he feel conned and tricked, leave and never return?
...is that bad for everyones business here on Ning?
Bad business decisions needs to be corrected, if succsess is more important than reluctance to admit mistakes.
This is such a clear mistake we can only expect it to be corrected asap or conclude the other possiblity.
I’m disappointed
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Inappropriate?Why is Ning putting so much time and energy in things like Applications? They are perhaps fun features for members and designed for a better 'user experience'.
How about the 'user experience' from the network creator side? We run the networks, put money, all our time and energy in it.
So I discovered yet another 'amazing' user experience for the members. Privacy is very important to Ning so when a member leaves the network all content is removed, including EVERYTHING they posted on the forum, leaving huge gaps and topics missing.
Oh well... at least the members have 90 applications to keep them busy!
I’m frustrated
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Not on my network I turned the Apps off - none of theme seem to work properly.
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Hi Xena,
Can you confirm whether the apps are not working or just not useful for your network. Last we spoke, you confirmed that they were working, you were just not finding ones you wanted on your network. If they aren't working, the Help Center (as you know:) is the place to report this.
Thanks,
Courtenay -
Courtenay--I can confirm that the Ustream App is NOT working!
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Hi Dogg!
I have this Ning app on my social network and it is up and running (just have to add your UStream username to set it up). If you need help setting it up, contact us at help.ning.com. If you want to report an issue to the UStream developer, you can go to Manage>Ning Apps then select the UStream.tv Ning app and the developers contact information will be under "Support"
Thanks,
Courtenay -
"Not on my network I turned the Apps off - none of them seem to work properly"
Most make you register off site or take people off of Ning. Polls don't work, slows down your site, off site ads... etc.
Personally I would rather you give more attention other people's requests on here than more attention on these bloody Apps, but that's just me; a person with an unanswered ticket in help, as with many a person here. ;-) -
Inappropriate?Seems like there has been more interaction by Ning on this forum lately and they finally removed the cross-network invitation feature! Amen!
Ning, how about the rest of the list? I share the same concerns...
I’m amused
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Inappropriate?I'm adding one to the list. I posted a problem here at GetSatisfaction, a Ning rep responded a typical Ning response and marked my question "answered" ... funny, I don't feel it was.
http://getsatisfaction.com/ning/topic...
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Inappropriate?Hi Ning Stings - can I suggest you raise a ticket for these in the help centre? I'm sure they'll get back to you and address all your concerns promptly ;-)
Phil
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Inappropriate?Hi All,
As I think many have seen, we've been listening to many of your ideas and suggestions in this post and elswhere on Get Satisfaction. Last week we removed the Invite Friends feature from Ning Networks and will be removing this from Ning.com in the next couple of weeks.
Additionally, we posted back in July that for anyone who plans to leave the Ning Platform, you can simply drop us a note through Help Center and we'll be happy to provide an export of your content.
Stay tuned for more news from us around more enhancements you can expect to see from us in the coming weeks.
Jason
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Jason can you or anyone from NIng provide more information about what we can expect to receive in a Network Export? There is little information available about this. Thanks in advance.
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Yes Jason (NING REP), I have the same question that DerekB asks --- what exactly is included in the content export? Is it just one folder of all files, or is there any kind of organization to it? Please respond. Thank you.
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Inappropriate?(20 feature limit in my network Apperance)
My problem is the limited 20 features when I drag one off to meet this requirement; I still can't add another one on. I have 19 features I took off 10 and still couldn't add events by dragging them. I was afraid to "save" it because I may not be able to drag the other features back on!
Also I don't understand as the "creator" why I can't udpate groups that members who either have left my site have abandoned...I hate to delete the group because its good stuff in there. But its faded out so I can't do anything with updating their old stuff in the code box its a shame as admin/creator I should full autonomy of 'my' site.
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Inappropriate?Yes, that is a valid point! We should have more control over our networks. Maybe if enough people respond to this discussion in a positive way, Ning will hear us and make some changes.
"Cheers"
JP -
Inappropriate?NCs have been requesting "control of their networks" including the ability to reassign Group Moderation, or to default Group Mod to Admin/NC for a very long time - almost the entire time Ning has been around. Members join for whatever reason and then drop off their activity level, many turn OFF network notifications (also something NC should have control in overriding so they can send messages to their network members as needed) and Groups go dormant. This is of NO BENEFIT to the Network, NC, nor Ning. Not really sure why they've continued to ignore this request, but it's been asked so many times and still we have things outside our control that thwart the work we do on our networks. Not good.
I’m still thinking NCs should be in control of networks THEY labor to create & maintain.
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Part of the problem is that Ning are being honest with no-one. I believe that this time last year they stated their number of networks and members. But when they closed all the adult networks and started playing games with everything else, they have not told Google Ads that the number of active networks has plummeted and the number of active members is practically NIL. To br frank, they are not even slightly interested in NCs or members any more. They are thinking only of the advertising revenue and how badly it will deteriorate once Google find out that Ning activity is a mere fraction of what it used to be and that NO-ONE is reading Google Ads any more. When was the last time YOU read a Google Ad? More important, when was the last time you looked at the detail? And have you EVER bought anything through Google Ads?
I spent well over £1000 with Google Ads last year to advertise my books. The stats looked good (according to Ning), the clicks ran into tens of thousands (according to Google), so I looked at my website stats to see how many people had seen my ad. The three sets of figures bore no resemblence to each other. And when I checked with the publicher, they had sold only 2 books by means of the camapaign.
Things are not what they seem and someone is distorting the data to make things appear good. -
Inappropriate?Who marked this "solved" is the question?
Jason?
Its not exactly solved. "Wait and see" is not "solved.
I’m confused
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Inappropriate?Why isn't anyone bothered by the fact that all content is removed when a member leaves the network? Am I the only one who is freaking out about this? Doesn't anyone realise that especially when you have a small intimate network of 300 members this seriously damages the content of your network?
I now have topics on the forum that don't make sense as there's replies missing, groups with no 'owner' because the person who left my network created the group. What will happen if an active member leaves? Will all the topics they created on the forum disapear as well? I have yet to discover this!
I am now at the stage that I want to turn to advertising. But how can I do this if I know my network will fall to pieces in time? I have worked my butt of for the last 6 months to get my network where it is now. And then I find out this. Thanks Ning!
I’m frustrated
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Manda you are not alone. Backing up manually as I go along is getting tedious.
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Inappropriate?THis issue is very frustrating and admins don’t have any control about..... I feel that we should have the option to completely wipe out the data but otherwise have in place....
I’m sad
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EMPLOYEE
