Important Information Regarding Widget Laboratory

[Athena]

This morning we removed WidgetLaboratory, a third party application developer, from the Ning Platform for violating Ning’s Terms of Service. WidgetLaboratory provided independently developed applications that could be added to a social network on the Ning Platform by a Network Creator. While we try to be as transparent as possible, it’s our long standing policy not to comment on specific cases where we remove networks or third party developers from the Ning Platform so we will not be providing any additional details publicly.

Third party widgets and applications are entirely separate from Ning and we strongly encourage Network Creators and members to use judgment and caution when working with external companies because we cannot be responsible for them nor guarantee that they will continue to abide by our Terms of Service and therefore be available. Additionally, we have a set of guidelines Network Creators and members should use when considering adding features to their networks provided by people other than Ning.

Please funnel all help requests or questions through the Ning Help Center as we will not troubleshoot issues related to WidgetLaboratory here on Developer.

Update: We have a bit more written about this topic on Network Creators from Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

[Scott]

I too have spent hundreds of dollars and hours building a successful social network using Widget Laboratory's products. This month is the one year anniversary of my site's launch and we have over 1,500 members in a very small niche. Over half of my members came in the last 2 months, which was 2 months after I started using WL products.

Those products clearly take Ning's work to the next level and provide network creators with options native to other social network platforms.

I really respect Ning and their service. The team has always been very professional. I think this is a HUGE mistake on their part. Worse yet, it's us that suffer. I'm paying money to support ads on my site. This means I'm paying Ning for a service they took away from me without warning.

the Ning team could have easily sent us a warning email, they simply chose not to. I see that as a slap in the face to my members who valued those products.

If Ning had seen WL as competition I would understand, but they were the exact opposite. They were a great provider that brought in many more Network Creators. The least Ning could do was offer replacements for these services. That would screw the WL guys over (which I wouldn't want to have happen) but it wouldn't screw over the 5,000+ Network Creators that were members of Widget Labs (and all the members of our sites).

Ning: You guys really blew it on this one. You send out emails when there will be down time, you post updates about tech problems to your blog. You intentionally kept your customers in the dark on this one and it is actively hurting our communities. Spence and Mick from Widget Labs were always professional and helpful to your customers. They added value to your platform and provided more incentive for people to use your service. In my multiple communications with both of the guys they were always hoping to work more closely with you.

What do you expect us to say to our advertisers who have paid in advance? What should we tell our members that were enjoying products you knew about? My site was recently featured in your network creators blog. Widget Labs products were very much in use at the time. They have been discussed extensively in your forums and praised by your customers.

This is a huge mistake on your part, and I hope you recognize how big the impact is on some of your largest networks. More importantly, I hope you can quickly come to some reconciliation with the guys at Widget Laboratory and give us what we have all paid for.

Respectfully,
Scott

[archibot]

Well said Rob. I imagine that Ning had some serious problems with what WL was doing. But clearly it was back end; from our perspective, their products were fantastic, their service professional, etc. I think it would be helpful for Ning to tell us what happened because from this perspective, it looks a bit... errr... well, it doesn't look so good. Anybody? I know the lawyers got your tongues, but it seems to be PR disaster at the moment.

Loving the Ning life,
M

[Stacey]

Everything that I have seen of Ning is that they are level headed and straightforward. They haven't done anything to doubt their credibility and veracity. Their rules are clear. Also, if you go to change your network, they remind you again that it is your responsibility and it may adversely affect your site. So, they let you know it is out of their hands at that point, which only makes sense.

I trust that Ning did indeed contact WL for violations. WL is allowed to say whatever they want...but just because they say it, doesn't make it true.

I am sorry people were caught in this. They are the ones paying the price for WL not doing the right thing...but they knew it was possible that WL could close shop anytime and leave them high and dry too. This was always a known possibility WL would or could not honor their agreements with the good people here. WL should be who you contact about any money owed to you.

Quite frankly I am shocked that WL is trying to cause an uproar instead of focusing on the problem. They violated the TOS and are mad that Ning acted on that policy. To Nings credit, they have stuck by their policies. Not only have they stood by their TOS, they have also stood by their agreement not to discuss WL (or others) negatively. Their statement was matter of fact. Ning has taken the high road in this whole situation.

So, I am going with what I know...I know how Ning has behaved in the past and now with regard to their policies. I respect them for doing what they feel is right. I feel it is NONE Of my Business what WL did...or anyone else's.

Thanks

[DrankCoolAid]

I'm not sure how you can say "I trust that Ning did indeed contact WL for violations." without evidence. I happen to know the guys at WL, and indeed NO, Ning did not contact WL, warn it's own users, or use any ethical standard when dealing with the "issue".

Most likely a competetive play. WL has great services, and Ning is jealous.

Are you a sockpuppet?

[Jeff Chadwell]

Do *you* have evidence that Ning didn't contact WL? Also, it appears that you've just shown up out of nowhere just to comment on this particular discussion. So maybe you're the sockpuppet, eh?

[Paul Snodgrass]

The cancellation of Widget Laboratory services without warning is a huge problem for my network. Ning may be in the right legally, I don't know the details, but the end result is that the conflict between WL and Ning has had serious negative consequences for many networks.

In my case, the outage of services came while I was on stage demonstrating "Member Search" and "Member Map" at an orientation of new students who were supposed to be able to use these features to easily find other students, faculty, and alumni with similar research and practice interests. Not only could I not demonstrate, but now I am not sure if I'll be able to replace WL's elegant and powerful solution.

I've waited a year for Ning to add the much needed daily email digest for forum discussions. Now that the 3rd party developer that had met many other needs has been banished from Ning, I'm left very, very disappointed.

What we had before was a win-win-win situation where network creators and users benefitted from the powerful combo of Ning and WL. Ning benefitted from increased functionality of their networks which drew new customers and made existing ones happier. And WL obviously made some money. Now everyone is losing. WL: money, users: functionality, and Ning: horrible PR and possibly some people ditching the platform.

Please reach a fair and acceptable resolution quickly and restore the functionality that WL provided!

[rsrobbins]

Maybe Network Creators should band together and develop an open source alternative to the Ning platform. CakePHP is very similar to the PHP API and just needs storage in the cloud. I bet the team of developers I'm working with are going to push very hard for developing our own social networking site from scratch because we cannot be so dependent upon a capricious and indifferent hosting company. However I don't relish the prospect of tackling such a huge project. But an open source project with the involvement of disaffected Network Creators and third party developers could work.

[Zarzing (Dustin)]

Okay If You Bann Widget Lab You Need To Bann Scripts4Ning and Livewired Becasue They Offer 3rd party widgets

[doone]

Poor orphan neglected discussion thread! It cannot even get closed like its companion discussion on Ning Creators.

[doone]

Why attack those who do not violate the Ning TOS?

[Evan]

Hi everyone,

Gina has posted some additional details about the removal of Widget Laboratory. You can find the discussion here, on Network Creators.

Cheers,
Evan

[Janice]

lol ... wait for it....