JJJ at BuddyPress has some Helpful Resources for Ning Users. I’ve seen smaller startups rush to fill the space left by Ning’s announcement they’re getting out of their free tier, but honestly if a company with $120,000,000 in funding can’t figure that business out, I wouldn’t hitch my horse to a company with $5-6M. It’s better to get a $10/mo hosting account you know will be around forever and install BuddyPress and have complete and total control over your network, from the domain to the source code.
“Forever” is a very, very long time, Matt.
Hosting companies have very profitable businesses on you paying them a few dollars a month, and their margins will only go up with time. They’ll be around for a very long time.
Well, sure. I run a hosting company, so I know this. But I also know that, one day in the future, I won’t. The key here is data locked in non-proprietary silos, easily transferable between software packages, on non-free hosting sites.
I don’t think that BuddyPress is the solution to all that, but I think it’s a solution. I understand that you’re quite a fan of BP, though.
The advantage of hosting your own stuff is that you have access to its database and control over it. If your webhost bankrupt, is bought by a company you don’t like, decreases the quality of its service, or simply take you down, you can just move your stuff to another host and restore database.
The advantage of services like Ning and wordpress.com is the ease of use, having all setup for you and don’t having to worry with anything. But, aside from not being able to tweak anyway you want, you also become hostage of that service, and if someday it goes down or decide to charge you for the service, you may up losing all you’ve done.
I believe Ning community owners will have a hard time learning to setup and admin BuddyPress, but if they have good will and be able to bring their old users to the new created site, it’ll be better for them in the far future.
Amen! I think you are on this role of pointing out things. At least someone does 😀
Putting together a buddypress for my old high school graduation (there were nearly 600 of us from my hs.) I really enjoy using it and it is really cool to see some of the similarities as well as learn some of the buddypress goodness code too. 🙂
No plans for Ning to wordpress.com (with BuddyPress)?
Nope.
Agreed 100%. I think a lot of people underestimate the power of buddypress.
Wow, this is the solution. Thanks 4 the information.
Agreed. Disappointed to see Ning go out like that. I don’t think it’s going to end up being a good thing for them.
I don’t think it’s a bad thing, just a business decision.
This feels like it could be the “Movable Type 3.0 pricing details announced” moment for BuddyPress.
I’d love to install BuddyPress but I can’t seem to get it to work without messing things up. The joy of Ning is its ease of use.
Check out a host with a one-click install like Bluehost or see if they can help you out on the BuddyPress forums.
One-Click install for Buddypress?
I’m trying to implement WordPress MU+Buddypress in Mozambique’s University, and this is another thing that i can use to convince them: Ning is going on!
Stop by the BuddyPress support forums and we’ll be happy to help you get it up and running!
Not sure but it sounds like you are using a custom theme. Make sure your site works properly with the default theme first.
Lia, as Matt says, if you are having trouble with BuddyPress, post on the forums at http://buddypress.org/forums/.
We’re working really hard to ensure that BuddyPress is easy to use, so any of your comments would be helpful to understand where the BuddyPress community could be doing a better job.
I know i shouldn’t be asking you this, but would you happen to know off the top of your head, would my transition to buddypress be easier through godaddy?
I’m terrified of change, but I want to use buddypress.
I checked out the site, love the features, have some more questions, but I think it’ll be economical since I already run wordpress.org on my organizations site.
I use bluehost it was a breeze. If you install buddypress it installs wordpressmu automatically first.
Well, maybe Ning is spreading a rumour and will come back on its decision (having sold some premium packages in the meantime)or make a a light version available for as small monthly fee…
I think we have to go BuddyPress anyway.
There is a ning to buddypress converter. It’s at wpmudev. It’s gnu GPL licence to I’m happy to pass it on to anyone who wants it.
Why not use the community one from BuddyPress.org instead?
Well if there is one that would be better!
All the details here: http://buddypress.org/blog/news/ning-to-buddypress-user-importer/
It isn’t as good as the WMPUDev one. They have more features with it, can’t remember what Andrew had said about it.
I had the same idea @Wayne, so I set up a site to do it. Been getting good traffic and have helped some people migrate already.
They wouldn’t have went with WP or BP if they had to pay for the migration, they told me themselves and thanked me for posting it.
Check it out @ the my name link.
We had originally opted for the paid version of ning to develop our social site, but two days before the project began we discovered buddypress. It was a no-brainer to go with BP. The advantages BP offered us in customization alone were worth way more than what we paid for it… which was zero – an even bigger advantage. Community support has been outstanding as well. Thanks Matt, for a great platform to build on….
Yeah BuddyPress is incredible. Ning is good for a starter social networking site, but you can only go so far until you hit a wall. With BuddyPress we’ve been able to build custom plugins for creating and applying to jobs and all kinds of other features for easyoutsource.com. It was a high learning curve, but honestly if you’re used to developing on WordPress you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly. And with the new versions of BP the themes are getting closer and closer to resembling regular WordPress themes. I predict this system will get really popular over the next couple of years.
I agree 100% Michael – it is just going to get better. I can’t believe how far it has come just since last Fall. I LOVE the new default template and all it’s WordPress-y goodness.
Nice site you have there too @easyoutsource.