Some of you may be sad to hear that Ning is closing all of its “adult” networks as of January 1st. GuyzinGear is the only network I am a member of, but I know there are a number of pervy Ning networks that appeal to those of us with more specialist tastes in the bedroom.
The CEO of Ning posts her lazy and poorly thought out reasoning for this closure on their company blog: blog.ning.com/2008/12/the-end-of-the-red-light-district.html
At the heart of it, she claims that adult networks “don’t pull their weight”: they are difficult to monetise because advertisers don’t want their ads on adult content, because they allow legal adult networks, that encourages illegal adult networks to spring up too, and that dealing with the DMCA requests is too much hassle. But I’m sure that many of the other non-adult networks can be accused of the same difficulties – but rather than publish metrics that determine whether or not a network lives or dies based on profitability, they’ve taken the easy route and just decided to close down anything that Mary Whitehouse wouldn’t approve of.
Sad.
But it is a timely reminder of the sterling work that Squirm et al put in to keep Rubberzone running – and how they need support to keep it that way.
UPDATE
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A message to all members of guyzingear
Hello all
As most of you have heard our platform ning is shutting down all sites they deem as adult content.
This includes Guyzingear and the other sites of the guyzingear network of sites.
I made a promise to you guys when I started this site, that I would never charge you to use the site, and it would be here for as long as I am alive.
Well I am a man of my word, so dont fear Guyzingear will be on the new servers before you know it. I have been working on this for the past few months now and now I have to have it done by Jan.
Just so that you know I have been in constant communication with the CEO of Ning and their programers, we are working on a solution to this problem including a way for me to export everything on the site so that we dont loose anything.
So at this time I am making the site private and not taking any new members, and after Dec 15 I will not be approving any new media and locking down the forums and groups (This way we dont loose anything during the move)
Realize this will be a major undertaking on my part and a major cost on my bank account but in the end it will be worth it as I have a few great resources I have been testing. If you have any way to help me out please contact me as I will be needing the help.
Thanks again for your support.
& Long Live the Guyzingear network
RR
Visit guyzingear at: http://guyzingear.ning.com