No More Free Ning?

Yesterday after getting an email from my husband, who had gotten an inquiry from one of his colleagues about the 'changes' at Ning, I didn't pay much attention. Said colleague was asking about alternatives to Ning because they were going to be charging soon, my assumption was that this was likely the result of going over bandwidth or something of that nature.

I was surprised later when I got the link to the creators community where the announcement was clear as day... no more free communities. More news to be released over the next two weeks, free community creators will have the opportunity to upgrade to an undisclosed payment plan or will have to begin their transition elsewhere.

Many of the replies to the thread where the announcement was made are full of anger, many creators have spent hundreds of hours creating their environments, others are bummed but acknowledge that it probably makes sense as a business decision. There are even some who have created many communities, over 20 in some cases, and their frustration about how quickly even a small amount would add up is understandable.

Creators of free Ning communities are asking the same question though, they are asking; "How much will it be.", and this has not yet been disclosed. Fees for the current premium service range from about five to twenty five dollars depending on what they are providing. Examples of these premium services include using your own domain, premium support or going ad-free for example.

Ning currently powers more than 1.9 million communities, and so this is going to be impacting a lot of people. Many other sites have linked with Ning as well such as BlogTalkRadio where many podcasters use a Ning community to interact with their listeners. Also authors such as Cami Walker have used it to support the practices described in her book "29 Gifts". Communities are used as a place where people who have something in common, find each other and become a part of something bigger.

As a Ning Community Creator I am hoping it isn't too much, I have about 4 different communities the largest of which has an international membership spanning 6 countries bringing moms who have Multiple Sclerosis together. My hope is that the small premium fees I pay will be enough to keep it going, but I'm doing my research just in case.

Sources:
http://creators.ning.com/forum/topics/ning-update?xg_source=msg_com_forum&id=4244211%3ATopic%3A151365&page=1#comments
http://www.fastcompany.com/1618615/5-things-ning-got-right
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/15/nings-bubble-bursts-no-more-free-networks-cuts-40-of-staff/
http://www.29gifts.org