fom

Hi George,

1) The pricing has been fully published in detail on the SocialGO homepage here: http://owners.socialgo.com/magazine/read/zocku-launched-to-exclusively-serve-mature-content-networks_109.html

The price is $49.99 for a pretty much “all you can eat” adult-specific network solution, that includes access to a full API, 3rd party widget store, and subscription/payments services that are not simply using PayPal.

2) As we’ve demonstrated to you already via http://CrankStation.com (with our recent CherryPicker product), PayPal DEFINITELY IS an option for allowing payments if you detach it from the content on a network by way of an intermediary token system.

Having said that, your comment b) above is premature given the fact that you have no idea what system that SocialGO is going to use for subscriptions on Zocku. We can suggest to you that it will likely be (or be similar to) CCBill for the monthly network costs, and something like WL’s token system for monetization between members.

You would do well to take a moment to read the extensive publication materials at SocialGo regarding their recent price announcement before you make any further conclusions.

a) their pricing is not clear (they are still in Beta – yes!) – I don’t want to pay an excessive monthly “hosting” fee to SocialGO just to have a “free” social network running – especially because…

b) their monetizing options are based on PayPal and PayPal does DEFINITELY NOT allow payments for adult content of any sort. This puts them back to the drawing board.

fom

Sitesuites are building a JoomlaBridge. This means – you could build your own social network on Joomla and yet connect it via the bridge with an existing one on Ning. THATS a very exciting option I think. They just start a beta program.

Thanks
fom

Although I understand Ning’s dismay at the [heavy] volume of administrative work the maintenance of adult networks requires, your approach seems lame from a business point of view.

According to partner-investor Mark Andreesen’s blog justification of adult networks on Ning last January – http://blog.pmarca.com/2008/01/porn-ning-and-t.html – Ning was going to balance those needs with others. Indeed, i was happy to see Ning grow to become such a feature-rich, content-creation-enabling environment not only for adult networks but for all communities.

Now, however, that position is not being furthered and is being quickly reversed because “it no longer makes sense.”

Gina and Mark: you are failing to use market/economic principles to resolve your cited problems with adult networks. Let’s review your arguments….

“Adult social networks don’t pull their own weight.” So price those costs accordingly.

“By having legal adult social networks on Ning, we’ve seen a rise in volume of illegal adult social networks.” Filter all new adult networks – put all adult networks on watch for 90 days, with explicit guidelines for responsible operation.

“Adult social networks on Ning receive a disproportionate number of DMCA take down notices creating additional work for our team.” Push this “cost” of doing business onto the network owner, who becomes responsible for policing his/her community: screening/approving videos, verifying copyright authorization, etc.

These are just initial proposals; many viable, profitable alternatives exist. The point I want to emphasize is that there are additional steps that Ning can take to moderate its adult communities while enabling freedom and business opportunities that Ning purports to empower. The evidence contradicts Ning’s own founders aspirations – and that seems to communicate Ning’s own MO as SOB.

In our particular case, I was planning to build out an adult network which would provide our non-profit organization a viable platform to reach gay & bisexual men, and then extend the Ning platform with web interventions: online counseling, professionally-moderated chats, peer discussions, and live medical advice. Because adult/porn content offers a viable way to attract & retain this audience, now our ambition to educate as well as entertain has been seriously impeded – we’re back to square one: how to affordably achieve our plans.

Practical decision is hardly what you’ve made; it’s always a philosophical one. The problem is that your philosophy has shifted, and is a sad precedent that you couldn’t innovate and create a win-win solution. Instead, you’ve demonstrated that any future, sudden and capricious change Ning may decide to make won’t be in the network creator’s best interest.