Sent this message to all members today, but wanted to post it here as well, so everyone would see it!
Pardon the interruption, but as much as I have never planned to use this broadcast message capability within Ning, I wanted everyone to be aware of what’s going on.
As some of you might have seen today, Ning has announced that they will no longer be offering the free service for social networks, which the Survivor Network has been using. (see http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20002611-36.html)
As the creator of the network, I’ve got quite a few things to consider before making a decision about what to do with this network. I can tell you that it’s unlikely I’ll be continuing it with the paid version, as I am already incurring costs for my website domain and hosting. Adding another expense on top of that might not make much sense.
Off the top of my head, I could simply ask you all to join the Facebook Fan page instead, creating a community there, but I also know that some survivors are reluctant to connect their “real” identities with a survivor group, for a variety of reasons. I tried, with the use of Ning, to offer them a place to go and still remain as anonymous as they need to be, but that option is now disappearing, so I’m going to spend some time checking in to other options and see what will work best, both for the members here, and for my own availability to build something!
Whatever I decide, I’ll be sure to send out another alert to all of you to let you know, and I’ll do it before this network disappears!
Thanks for your support, and here’s hoping we’ll be able to keep this community going, somewhere!
Mike