The new Ning Gift thing - keep it, or can it?

[Laura Gibbs]

Hi everybody, I'm guessing you may have noticed the new Gift thing which Ning has launched tonight (Tuesday), but without a lot of explanation. After exploring it a bit, I decided it seemed kind of silly and I removed it from the Ning I keep for my class.

What do people think about having it here at Fireside? I myself wouldn't be inclined to keep it but maybe people who are familiar with similar stuff at Facebook et al. will have fun with it...?

You can read more about the "Gifts" here at this Ning Help Center page.

[Mike]

Hey Laura.... my vote... kill it!

hope you are well

mike

[Ellen Pham]

Kill it!! Grrrrrr...

It's just a ploy to get more money... buried a bit in the gift info page:

Ning Credits currently cost USD $1.50 for 75 Ning Credits. Ning Credits generally can be purchased in increments of 100, 500, 1000 or 5000 Ning Credits.

To me, there's nothing warm or fussy about it.

[Laura Gibbs]

That was my impression also - I've heard about these "gift" type schemes at Second Life, and while I'm not against making money online, this doesn't seem like the right way to do it! :-)

[Ian Carmichael]

On a 'working' network like this one, it seems rather silly to me. I'm sure I won't miss it. I certainly won't 'spend' beyond my starting credit!!

[Ellen Pham]

And you might be surprised to know, Ian, the price of many of the gifts is 75 credits! I just don't want anyone falling for it. There are many gift-type images available for free, if you're looking for something cute to post on a friend's wall...

[Ian Carmichael]

Yeah,
I've only got about five real friends - so my 375 should be enough!

[Connie Weber]

So, it looks like it's on my page--how do I get rid of it? Yuck. I definitely wouldn't use this in a class network, encourages all the wrong things.

[Connie Weber]

Can it, obliterate it, remove it! Oh dear, such a mimicking of the commercial, thing-based world.

[Or-Tal Kiriati]

Please remove it.

[Laura Gibbs]

I think the votes are in - I will remove it (for those of you who have Nings, the way to remove it is on the "Manage" page; there's an icon labeled "Gift" - you click on that, and it gives you the option to remove it).

Thanks for the feedback - I'm glad we have an instant consensus! :-)

====

Whoops: I am guessing that ONLY the creator of the Ning can remove it, which would be Connie. Connie, I sent you a message about that with a screenshot - it's easy to remove, but it looks like the Ning creator is the one who does that.