Free Service on Ning is Being Eliminated

TechCrunch reports: Ning’s Bubble Bursts: No More Free Networks, Cuts 40% of Staff. This isn’t a copyright issue, but a matter of profits: they’re finding free networks insufficiently profitable, and so are going to be focusing more on their “premium” services.

This may displace vidders (again!) who put their work at places like Bam Vid Vault and other networks after the fall of Imeem; we’re also going to see more disruption of vidding communities. We remind you to document yourself and other fans on Fanlore so that people looking for you and your work can find you regardless of what platforms, services, or networks you use–and yes, yes, we need A Vidding Archive of Our Own!

2010-04-16 admin
News of Note, Vidding
  1. Kevin Mark commented: http://zenofnptech.org/2010/04/betting-the-farm.html
    • fcoppa commented: Thanks for this! It would be great if this were true, but I'm not holding my breath either.
  2. khellekson commented: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/16/grou-ps-and-grouply-welcome-ning-refugees/ However, I agree with the point of the link that Kevin Mark pointed to: if you're gonna go free, then you must accept the consequences. With the constant going-down-ness of vid sources, I can only assume that it sucks down the resources like whoa, and nobody is able to monetize it. Should OTW consider a paid version as it researches hosting vids?
    • fcoppa commented: Honestly, I think it depends on what your expectations are - that's what I thought the point of the article was. Like, there's a difference between something that's nonprofit or open source and something that's a startup business. I also think that there's a question, even among the businesses, of how much profit they expect. I mean, publishing used to be a nice little stable 4 percent a year business, but you know, the houses got bought by bigger companies and they started demanding higher percentages and giving bigger advances and--well, you know the story as well as anyone! :) Anyway, the whole POINT of the OTW is that we aren't looking to profit, and I think there may be models for sustainable video--especially if its specifically limited to fanvids, meaning that you don't accept every kind of video out there on the internet--that wouldn't be, you know, any kind of "business" plan for someone looking to make a profit, but which might work for us. Especially as bandwidth gets cheaper and the technological solutions advance.
  3. Grey Bard commented: I know *I'd* be willing to pay a small monthly fee to a video streaming service to host my vids if A) it was as easy to upload to as Youtube, BAM VidVault etc B) I knew it wouldn't TOS my vids. Even if I didn't have to pay the fee, I'd be happy to pay it to support such a service.