Ning

Safety Settings for Network Creators

Click here for safety settings for members.

As a Network Creator, the safety of your Ning Network is in your hands! Take advantage of the many tools available to you to ensure that all of the content and members on your Ning Network fit with your Ning Network's privacy and safety goals. Always encourage your members to communicate with you and your Network Administrators. They can easily report any problems or concerns by clicking on "Report an Issue" at the bottom of every page. If there's anything that should be reported to us, don't hesitate to contact us and/or the authorities as necessary.

You can achieve your privacy and safety goals with the tools built into your Ning Network, which allow you to:

• Make your Ning Network private and invitation only
• Approve members before they join
• Approve photos, videos and blog posts before they appear
• Control members' ability to create events and groups or approve them before they appear
• Use featuring to control the content that appears on the main page of your Ning Network
• Control members' ability to change the layout and appearance of their profile pages
• Prevent members from posting status updates & posting directly to Twitter
• Delete any content uploaded to your Ning Network
• Suspend members
• Promote Administrators to help you moderate your Ning Network
• Post guidelines and implement a warning system
• Decide whether or not to add Ning Apps to your Ning Network
• Choose whether or not and which My Apps are available on your Ning Network
• Disable searching by age

Make your Ning Network private and invitation only

You're able to limit who can see and access your Ning Network with a few simple settings available in the Privacy Section of your Manage tab.

To have your Ning URL (e.g. "examplenetwork.ning.com") lead to a sign in page which requires the general public and members to sign in to see your Ning Network, you should make it private.

If you'd like to require that new members have an invitation from you or an existing member of your Ning Network in order to be able to join, below "Select private to make your network visible to members only. Who can sign up to become a member?" select "Only Invited People."

To add another layer of privacy, you can turn on member moderation. When member moderation is turned on, you or a Network Administrator must approve or deny every member that wishes to gain membership into your Ning Network.

In order to have a totally private Ning Network, you should set it to Private, Only Invited People and turn on member moderation. To edit the privacy settings of your Ning Network, sign in, go to your Manage tab and click on "Privacy" in the "Manage your members..." section. Once you've chosen your privacy settings, click the "Save" button.

Approve members before they join

You can use member moderation to approve new members before they join your Ning Network, which requires members to apply to join. To turn on member moderation, go to the Manage tab, click on "Privacy," and check the box next to "Approve new members before they can join." When new members want to join, they'll create a profile on your Ning Network and then be placed in "pending approval" status. You and your Network Administrators will receive an email notification letting you know that you have a new member to approve, and you'll also see a yellow "Awaiting approval" box in the right column of your Ning Network when you sign in. Click the link in this box and you'll be taken to a page listing all of the members currently awaiting approval. Click the "View Page" link to check out the profile they've filled out to join and approve, decline, or suspend your new applicants.

To prevent unwanted members from applying again with different information, you should suspend applicants that make you uncomfortable or wouldn't fit within your Ning Network's privacy and safety goals.

Approve photos, videos and blog posts before they appear

You can choose to moderate all photos, videos and blog posts before they appear on your Ning Network. If you want to make sure this content on your Ning Network is appropriate to your Ning Network's theme and audience, approving this content up-front is the best way to do this. To turn on photo, video and blog post moderation, go to the Manage tab and click on "Feature Controls." Below "Photos," check the box next to "Approve photos before they appear," below "Videos," check the box next to "Approve videos before they appear," and below "Blog Posts," check the box next to "Approve blog posts before they appear."

The next time members upload photos, videos or blog posts, you and your Network Administrators will receive an email notification letting you know that you have content awaiting approval. You'll also see a yellow "Awaiting approval" box in the right column when you sign in. Click the link in this box and you'll be taken to a page where you can review the photos, videos or blog posts and choose to approve or delete them.

Control members' ability to create events and groups or approve them before they appear

When you add the Events or Groups feature to your Ning Network, you can limit the ability to create groups and events to only you and your Network Administrators. Alternatively, you can turn on group moderation and event moderation to approve all new groups and events before they appear on your Ning Network. To do this, go to the Manage tab and click on "Feature Controls." To disallow members from creating events or groups, uncheck the box next to "Allow members to create groups" or "Allow members to create events." If you'd like to allow members to crate groups and events, but want to approve them before they appear on your Ning Network, check the box next to "Approve groups before they appear" and "Approve events before they appear." By default, all members of your Ning Network will be able to create events and groups.

Use featuring to control the content that appears on the main page of your Ning Network

You can use the feature option to showcase interesting content and members on your main page. When you feature content, it'll also appear at the top of the home page for that section. A featured photo, for example, will appear above all the other photos at the top of the Photos page. To feature a photo on the main page of your Ning Network, go to the photo's page and click the "Feature" link. On blog posts, forum posts, member profile pages, notes, and events, the "Feature" link appears in the "Admin Options" box. On photos and videos, this link appears below the photo or video. Next, go to the main page of your Ning Network. Locate the Photos module and click the "Edit" button in the upper right corner. In the "From" drop down, choose to display "Featured" content. The Photos module will now display only the photos you've featured. We used photos in this example, but this works similarly for blog posts, forum posts, members, notes and events. If at any time you'd like to stop featuring content, you'll find a "Stop Featuring" link in place of the previous "Feature" link.

Control members' ability to change the layout and appearance of their profile pages

If you'd rather your members not change their profile page theme and layout, you have complete control of this. To update these settings, go to the Manage tab and click on "Feature Controls." Uncheck the box next to "Allow members to change their My Page theme" to disable members' ability to change their profile page appearance. To disable members' ability to change where the features appear on their profile pages, uncheck the box next to "Allow members to adjust their My Page layout."

Prevent members from posting status updates & posting directly to Twitter

To disable the Status feature, go to the Manage tab and click on "Feature Controls." Once there, uncheck the box that says "Allow members to post status updates." If you'd like to keep the Status feature enabled, but don't want members to be able to post directly to Twitter, go to the Manage tab, click "Twitter & Flickr" and make sure the box next to "Members can post to Twitter directly on..." is unchecked.

Delete any content uploaded to your Ning Network

As Network Creator, you have ultimate control over what appears on your Ning Network. You can delete any piece of content at any time. Just look for the "Delete" links or "X" that denotes the option to delete content across your Ning Network.

Suspend members

If at any time you decide a member of your Ning Network might not be the right fit, you can suspend them. Suspending a member will give you the option to remove all of their posted content including photos, videos, forum posts, blogs, comments, events and other content they've added to your Ning Network and prevents them from joining again with that Ning ID. Keep in mind that this won't remove any groups they've created, but you're able to delete them yourself. To suspend a member from your Ning Network, go to their profile page, locate the "Admin Options" box under their profile photo and click "Suspend Member." You can also suspend someone by going to the Manage tab and clicking "Members." Check the box next to the member you'd like to suspend and in the "Actions..." drop down, select "Suspend from Network."

Promote Administrators to help you moderate your Ning Network

As a Network Creator, there are many tools available to help you moderate your Ning Network, but sometimes you need a bit of help, especially as your Ning Network grows larger. If you find yourself in this position, you can promote members to Network Administrators, which will give them many of the same privileges that you have with a few important exceptions. Administrators cannot access the Network Information, Analytics, Gifts, Advanced Options and Premium Services sections of the Manage tab, take your Ning Network online or offline, or delete your Ning Network. To promote a member to Administrator status, go to the Manage tab and click on "Members." Check the box next to the person you'd like to make an Administrator, then select "Administrator" below "Set Role:" from the "Actions..." drop down menu.

You can also provide members with administrative tools to help manage your Ning Network, without giving them full access to all administrative features. To create different levels of administrators on your Ning Network, go to the Manage tab and click on the "Members" link. Once on the Members page, follow the link to "Manage Roles." You can appoint a member to moderate an entire feature or multiple features.

If you have specific content that you need help moderating - such as a very active forum thread - you can choose an individual content item by URL for the role to moderate. An Administrator of a content item can delete comments, remove the item from your Ning Network and perform other administrative duties.

After you have selected the mix of features and content items that you want a member to moderate, click "Save" to create that role. Once the role has been created, you can appoint members to the role back on the Manage Members page. And, to save you time, energy and repetition, you can assign as many members as you'd like to a particular role and create up to 20 roles on your Ning Network.

Post guidelines and implement a warning system

As Network Creator, you can delete any content and suspend any members immediately. Suspending a member will give you the option to remove all of their posted content including photos, videos, forum posts, blogs, comments, events and other content they've added to your Ning Network and prevents them from joining again with that Ning ID. Keep in mind that this won't remove any groups they've created, but you're able to delete them yourself.

If instead you'd like to give a member a chance to clean up their act, you can issue them a warning by sending a private message. To give an effective warning it's important to educate and be clear! Outline what they did wrong, when they did it, where they did it and why it isn't an acceptable use of your Ning Network. Most importantly, let them know what the consequences are if they continue to behave inappropriately. A good way to keep your warning messages separated from your normal messages is to archive them. This will keep all warnings organized into the Archive tab of your inbox. If you think someone may be a repeat offender, check out your archived messages to see if you've warned them before.

If you'd like to get a sterner warning across, you can temporarily suspend the member without removing all of their posted content. When a member is suspended, they cannot access your Ning Network, but they'll be able to message you and your Network Administrators up to three times to resolve the issue. Once everything has been cleared up, you can reinstate the member. If either you or the member ultimately decide that this isn't working out, you or the member can immediately delete all of the member's posted content.

To prevent misunderstandings about your Ning Network's safety goals in the first place and make sure your members know that you're dedicated to keeping your Ning Network safe and fun, you can:

• Post a set of guidelines or Terms of Service specific to your Ning Network in a prominent place. You can take advantage of the Notes or Pages features to do this, and utlilize the featuring option to ensure that your guidelines are always front and center!
• Create a profile question requiring members to acknowledge upon joining that they're committed to your Ning Network's safety goals and have read and agreed to any additional Terms of Service specific to your Ning Network.
• Customize your Ning Network's welcome message to ensure that members are aware of your guidelines, know that you're dedicated to keeping your Ning Network safe, and encourage them to report anything unusual to you immediately.
• Add a text box on your Ning Network's main page with details about who they can contact and how if anything inappropriate is uploaded or takes place.
• Dedicate a forum category to your members' feedback and concerns and foster thoughtful, constructive discussion.

As you can imagine, there's no shortage of means through which you can promote safety and fun in your Ning Network! For more ideas, take a look at the Ning Help Center.

Decide whether or not to add Ning Apps to your Ning Network

Ning Apps are third party features for your Ning Network that expand the quantity and quality of the features available to you as a Network Creator. Please keep in mind that limited information will be provided to the third party application developers, and as Network Creator, it's up to you to decide whether or not you'd like to add Ning Apps to your Ning Network.

Choose whether or not and which My Apps are available on your Ning Network

As Network Creator, you can remove specific My Apps from the My Apps Directory on your Ning Network. To do so, go to your profile page and click on "Add Apps," below your profile photo. To remove an App from the list, simply click the small "X" next to it. Once you've done this, the App will not appear in the My Apps Directory for members to add to their profile pages.

Additionally, you can turn off the ability for members to add My Apps to their profile pages altogether. To do so, go to the Manage tab, click on "Feature Controls" and uncheck the box next to "Allow members to add Apps to their My Page."

Disable searching by age

By default, searching for members by age in Advanced Search is disabled. If you'd like to make sure that searching by age is disabled on your Ning Network, just go to your Manage tab and click "Feature Controls." On the Feature Controls page, uncheck the "Allow searching members by age" box.

If you'd like to allow searching for members by age on your Ning Network, there are safety settings built right in to the Advanced Search feature. Members who are 18 years of age or older will only get search results of members who are also 18 years of age or older. Additionally, members who are between 13 and 17 years of age will only get search results of members who are between 13 and 17 years old.