What's going on, Albuquerque?

How's Ning's Decision to Start Charging Going to Affect DCF?

I was looking at the bottom of Salon's main page, where they list other news items and one article caught my eye: "The Free Internet Loses Another One: Ning" http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/the-free-internet-loses-another-o... . Since DCF is built upon Ning, has the site been paying it's dues? It looks like Sophie needs (or maybe she has) to pony up $70/month to keep the site. So I guess the question is: Is this the end of free (well, advertiser paid) social networks? Is Sophie going to hold cake sales or car washes for the site to survive?
Did anybody else build Ning social sites that are also being affected? (It's a good thing I didn't start a Ning thing for the district's neighborhood association's - imagine a meeting with a bunch of retirees announcing they have to pay for a service that was free.)
As a side note, here's a terrific Tom Tomorrow cartoon that explains how life would be if it was run like the Internet: http://www.credoaction.com/comics/2010/04/if-real-life-were-more-li...
PS - don't forget to buy some swag or at least say something nice about DCF....

Tags: Ning, networks, pay, social

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Permalink Reply by chantal on April 18, 2010 at 11:14pm

Good news! I don't anticipate this will affect Duke City Fix in any way.

Fortunately, Duke City Fix is a strong site thanks to y'all and it generates enough income from Google Ads to pay for its premium Ning services and domain fees. So far, that's been the case since we switched to Ning in 2007.

Regardless, as the site's founder and publisher, I'm still a big believer in the benefit it provides to Albuquerque and am totally committed to paying the bills as I have been the past five years. No car washes necessary. Our overhead is minimal thanks to the enormous volunteer effort of everyone who contributes to this site -- Sophie, Adelita, Johnny_Mango, Masshole, Rudolfo, Barelas Babe, Vashti, Edith and more. They're the talented and dedicated people who keep the lights on. So hug a Fixer or buy one of Sophie's schwag shirts ;-)

You can be sure that Sophie is tracking the Ning decision and will keep everyone informed. In the meantime, huge thanks for looking out for the site!