SocialGO Owners

I've recently moved my ning site over to social go after reading the sociago website which clearly stated that it supported adult sites and offered free membership. Now, after accepting tens of thousands of adult users, they have changed this policy to cash in. The socialgo version of the site will be closing shortly. It's a shame I have to mess people about, but it's out of my hands. I would advise all those who have recently migrated from ning to go back to using the ning site, and investigate other possiblities from there. Clearly, socialgo is not an answer. Socialgo - the site this is hosted on now, have decided to charge for "adult" sites, and force such site to purchase their own domain name. It would cost arounf $60p/a for anon domain registration and $14.95 per month minimum for socialgo hosting. (And that's a basic package). This comes after they offered a free service and accepted thousands of adult sites over the last two weeks. It reallly smells and it means that I'm still looking for somewhere to move this (and the other) site. Any suggestions welcome! http://www.socialgo.com/help/topic.php? … ics/276467 So socialgo lied. I don't like liars. Not good for discretion, privacy or trust. It also concerns me that socialgo is based in the UK where they don't exactly have a great history of corporate privacy or truthfulness. Quite apart from that, socialgo doesn't work when more then two people go online... (Posting on a forum seems to be the only way to allow people to see this message. The broadcast function on my socialgo site doesn't work, so I'm using this site.)

@NoLongerNewToThis:

We will be sorry to see you go... actually, not really.

You see, your post indicates quite clearly that you are part of the "problem" and not part of the "solution". And you know as well as anyone that you are not moving back to Ning, because they won't have you. Further, your argument falls apart when you claim that that someone is LYING, without any quote anywhere that shows you were promised FREE ADULT NETWORKS.

SocialGO has always maintained that that it will have a free solution for non-adult sites, and it will, but it has NEVER published any official pricing plan ANYWHERE nor has it indicated what the price would be for ADULT networks. The fact that you are mistaken on this point is clearly the reason that you are the type of client who is not worth the trouble of inviting to the party. You will likely kick and scream about how bad SocialGO is... but then end up right back here in a month to host your network. You just decided what you wanted to decide, heard what you wanted to hear, and now you're upset that you got it wrong.

Over the course of handling hundreds of thousands of members on thousands of sites at Ning, we have come to understand exactly what makes a success on Social Network sites. Two rules: First is the fact that you cannot please all the people all the time. Second, is that those people who want EVERYTHING for free are the ones who will cry and complain the loudest when they don't get what they want, even if they were never promised any such thing. Your posting today is the example that proves the rule.

SocialGO has a business model that is based on offering multiple tiers of service to non-adult networks, and one paid tier of service for adult networks. There ARE NO OTHER OPTIONS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET for adult social networks that will compare in features, price, or service to SocialGO. All other social network platforms are using Google Adsense for revenue, and now they have to capitulate to Google's "sanitizing" of adult content. If you do not believe that having a turn-key adult soclal network is worth a certain amount per month, that can be recouped by way of the built-in monetization and subscription tools, then you will not find any other solution short of hosting it yourself at an exponentially-higher cost.

WidgetLaboratory has thousands of SocialGO site owners as clients, and many of these are adult content networks. The majority of these clients have all confirmed that they would gladly pay a reasonable sum monthly for the security, certainty, and service that would come from having all their needs met. More importantly, they all unanimously agree that they would PREFER that SocialGO not attract an enormous quantity of FREE sites that both take up bandwidth and support staff effort. With less effort and resources spent on those who are not paying their own way, the higher-quality adult sites are thereby able to receive a greater share... instead of it being diluted to those who ride for free.

It is clear to anyone with their eyes open that this is the mistake the NING and all the other sites have made. They thought that they could give away the milk for free to anyone who came along. What they didn't count on was the fact that it only takes one bad apple out of a hundred to TAKE THEM DOWN with misuse or abuse of their bandwidth, storage, content, or customer service. Unfortunately for Ning, they did not plan for this in advance, and it has now cost all of their QUALITY CUSTOMERS greatly in lost time, effort, changes of TOS, or worse. You CANNOT MONETIZE ADULT SITES with Google Adsense. This is a fact.

Our job working with SocialGO is to advise them as to how to provide the BEST SERVICE AND PRODUCT possible, while helping them steer clear of people and issues that will cause them to crash the ship on the iceberg like Ning or others before them. WidgetLaboratory has advised them that payment of a reasonable monthly service fee (by a registered site owner) IS THE FILTER that will help to make it possible for all other adult sites to operate in a mainstream environment. IF you do not wish to pay a reasonable monthly fee for a reasonable adult network solution, then you are NOT the type of customer that should be using SocialGO.

The fact that SocialGO is not based in Palo Alto is their greatest STRENGTH. Now that Yahoo is "gone" and the economy has flipped, the concept of FREEMIUM does not work. Anyone who is looking for a long-term networking solution should consider that this company should have an actual business model based upon selling a reasonable product for a reasonable price. This will ensure their survivability and ability to deliver the goods to the customer. Your complaints about the product do not reflect the fact that it is in BETA and is receiving dynamic and daily updates to add features and improve functionality. Did you happen to notice that NING was offline for four hours the other night? Wake up and smell the coffee... you get what you pay for. Right now you are not paying anything.

You have my PERSONAL INVITATION to reconsider your position, take a breath, and WAIT until the adult network pricing plan is announced. Until then, have fun finding a better solution, and feel free to come back here and share it with us when you find it.

EG
WidgetLaboratory

No - your site clearly stated if offered free adult group support - otherwise none of us on the equivalent ning service would have signed up to it. The poster above actually made video guides on how to migrate from ning and posted links all over the net - specifically targeting ning users.

The juvenile response above from socialgo only reenforces my beliefs about the motives of this organisation and does nothing to promote confidence re discretion and privacy for users. After all, would you trust an organisation who rants like a 10 year old in the playground when confronted with a few home truths?! Really, posts like that don't exactly help the socialgo cause do they?

Most importantly, how can Socialgo even consider charging for a site which has no consistency or quality of service?

To me it smacks of a marketing scam to take advantage of ning users - a great shame.

I notice that you have STILL not provided any links that show where FREE adult networks will be entertained?

I AM the person who made the videos... hello? Does EVIL GENIUS not ring a bell?

No one had to take advantage of any Ning users because they have been kicked out on the streets... now you have come along to complain that the local restaurants are not offering to feed all of them for free? Nice...

Your failure to either UNDERSTAND the facts or be able to POST any facts indicates that you are not credible. I am personally of the opinion that you are a Ning fanboy or employee. Either way, feel free to share with us your site URL either on SocialGO or Ning so that we can feel your pain.

My site is www.electromen.ning.com
I have a similar socialgo page, which I intend to delete but cannot since socialgo's admin site has been down all evening.

Here's the page where you continue to promote free service without mention fees for adult sites:

http://www.socialgo.com/free-premium.htm

The argumentative and juvenile tone of your previous posts demonstrate how unprofessional you are without requiring me to provide further evidence.

Finally - socialgo's imageserver has been down all evening, and the admin site is also down. Are you it's still worth trying to convince customers to pay?

Reply to be posted on another forum http://getsatisfaction.com/socialgo/top … _migration
(which interestingly appears to have been turned off.)
On this forum you are listed on the left hand side as a Socialgo employee. If you are not it would be advisable to remove such a listing, as genuine customers might assume you to be an employee.

I have now listed my site three times, but for your further information, it is here: www.electromen.ning.com . Unfortunately I cannot remove my socialgo site since the admin site is not functional. Otherwise I would have removed it already since I cannot trust the discretion of socialgo given their marketing strategy.

I have already listed the page on socialgo in which no mention of fees or special qualifications for adults sites are mentioned prior to signup - an instance which I believe breaks UK Trading Standards law.

For your information the relevant page is here: http://www.socialgo.com/free-premium.htm
I invite you to make appropriate alterations.

I have forwarded a report to the Trading Standards officer responsible for the area covering the Socialgo company address.

I would remind you that this thread has been dugg and added to google and as such it is likely your comments will appear in search engine results.

BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA! BETA!

In software development, a beta test is the second phase of software testing in which a sampling of the intended audience tries the product out. (Beta is the second letter of the Greek alphabet.) Originally, the term alpha test meant the first phase of testing in a software development process. The first phase includes unit testing, component testing, and system testing. Beta testing can be considered "pre-release testing." Beta test versions of software are now distributed to a wide audience on the Web partly to give the program a "real-world" test and partly to provide a preview of the next release.

I amazed at this post. SocialGO could have just said no to adult networks. This site is in beta and because loads of people jumped ning to come here the service was failing. What did they do? The worked hard to get it stable with no down time. They could have just blocked everyone and went back to closed testing.

Sorry NINg screwed you guys but backlashing SocialGO on rumor is not the way to proceed. Lets say the pricing above is correct, If you think you will be able to develop a site for less then by all means go for it. I can tell you this, I have developed large social sites and something very very basic starts around 20 GRAND. SocialGO will not be able to monetize an adult site without charging for hosting. Most ad networks will not allow you to have adult content.

I have been messaged by a few of the migraters and I asked each one do they monetize their sites and they said no or they didnt know how and these sites have 6,000+ members! If you charged each member $1 a month hello $6,000 a month. If no one wants to pay a dollar for your network then maybe webmastering is not for you. People will pay for a network with good content and great features. The best thing for adult networks is affiliate marketing. Some will pay $30 bucks for each sign up you direct to their service. All of the porn affiliates will give you video to post on your site as well. Affiliates cost nothing to join and everything to gain if you work at it.

I don't know who this person is but others reading this do not let this drag you down. As EG said NING is blocking you so you can either try here or elswhere. Go to my network and sign up. I will be covering a lot of marketing ideas so you can make money with your network. I have worked on social marketing projects for KRAFT SONY MTV MOTOROLA NBC and many other companies. I know how to get people to sites and get them to use it.

ok I'm over it LOL

You cannot get into your site without approval of the admin.

The SocialGO site you link to does not say anywhere that ADULT SITES will be free, as we've explained in your numerous posts here and on GetSatisfaction.

If you had spent even a moment reading the GetSatisfaction board, the Owner's Network Board, the LAB, or the http://status.socialgo.com site, you would have known that SocialGO is in BETA and all this week the DNS, IMAGE, and VIDEO servers are all being updated...while the site is being kept LIVE and online.

Compare this with NING, where they had a 4 hour outage of total offline the other night....

I think we've pretty much beaten this dead horse. If you are not happy... see ya. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. The fact that you've spent the better part of an afternoon complaining on four different posts about how SocialGO is lying and cheating and hurting you with their FREE BETA trial is clear proof that you are not a customer that anyone would want, and you are not likely one who would ever pay a fair price for a fair service.

Good day...

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out"

That's why a number of us will be leaving ASAP. That's not a professional response, and not what any customer expects to hear. If you want to charge for a service, you need to provide a service and be honest about your advertising and your quality of service. I would never tolerate an employee speaking to me in such a fashion. If you cannot see that I really worry about the viability of your business.

Ryan - socialgotemplates.com I think you misunderstand this post.

My point is simply that no mention of adult fees is made on the signup pages or blurb for socialgo.com . At a time when socialgo.com is directly targeting and marketing towards ex adult ning groups this is at best misleading, and at worst a breach of UK Trading Standards law. I am merely inviting you to be more honest, update your listings and provide a clear explanation of your level and standard of service on your introductory pages listed on socialgo.com.

In response I, and a number of other site owners, have received vitriolic and juvenile remarks from socialgo employees which I'm afraid only reenforces our opinion that placing a site with socialgo is not a viable option. In essence socialgo is highlighting its own problems by the way in which it responds to this thread - which is a shame since the essential idea of socialgo was sound. However, I do hope that someone in your organisation with more developed communication skills will recognise that socialgo needs to engender trust and discretion with the adult users it is targeting - unfortunately, so far this has not been the case.

If you want to charge for a service, you need to provide a service and be honest about your advertising and your quality of service.

uhm...SocialGO hasn't released their pricing structure yet and they are not charging for the beta and when you sign up a big screen pops up saying its a FREE BETA.

Threatening to contact trade commisions not based on facts is not cool either.

This is in the current TOS. Clearly stated that they can change pricing if they want to but so far SocialGO has not posted the pricing structure.

Service and Pricing Changes for Network Owners and Members

1. SocialGO reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify, change, suspend or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service (or any part thereof) with or without prior notice to you or any third party.
2. Any new modifications that alter, change, improve, enhance, augment, or otherwise modify the then-current Service, including, but not limited to, the release of new tools, utilities, resources, features or functionality, shall be subject to the Service Terms.
3. Notice of any change(s) to the Service and/or any related pricing programs may be provided by SocialGO (or its representatives) at any time and from time to time by posting notice of the applicable change(s) to the SocialGO website (at www.socialgo.com/blog).
4. SocialGO shall have no obligations or liability to you or to any third party for any modifications to the Service, or any pricing changes, or any suspension or cessation of the Service (or any part thereof), and/or any amendments or other modifications to any aspect of the Service Terms.

Open Beta Period

If you sign-up and establish an Account during October 2008, you will be entitled to receive SocialGO.com “Premium Service” (including all available options) until the end of the 2008 calendar year at no charge. Starting on January 1, 2009, you will have the option to continue to enjoy the benefits of a “Free” SocialGO.com Account, or, alternatively, you may choose at that time to start paying for SocialGO.com Premium Service and/or any particular options that you want to continue to receive. If your storage or bandwidth consumption exceeds the then-applicable “Free” service limits, please be advised that you will need to upgrade to Premium Service and pay for any additional blocks of storage that are be required for you to continue operating your network in its then-current form. All other terms and conditions set out in the Service Terms shall apply during the Open Beta period (which may be suspended or terminated by SocialGO at any time at its sole discretion).

In this post a socialgo employee describes the pricing structure shortly to be released:
http://getsatisfaction.com/socialgo/top … he_premium

@nolongernewtothis

I am neither an employee of SocialGO, nor does it show me as such. Why you make such a claim is perhaps the root of the issue... I'm now thinking it has to do with a vision problem perhaps? I've stated in all of your four distinct threads that I am one of the principals of WidgetLaboratory, and speak as such.

GetSatisfaction board is presently offline for a moment because of their own "issues". SocialGO does not have anything to do with that public service. GetSatisfaction is used by thousands of other companies, including NING, to act as a public repository for questions and help. The fact that you believe there is a conspiracy afoot and that SocialGO might have something to do with them shutting down is one more notch in your lack of credibility post.

You sir, are NOT a customer. Until or unless this product is RELEASED there ARE NO CUSTOMERS. This is a BETA product and is being TESTED prior to final release. Likewise, any displays or discussion as to POSSIBLE pricing for adult or non-adult content are likewise NON-BINDING upon you or SocialGO since you have neither paid any consideration, nor have you relied to your detriment in any way.

You sir were GIVEN NOTICE by NING that you are not welcome. Now you have come here, and made a nuisance of yourself by trying to disparage the service that has been made available as a BAND-AID to HELP adult site owners such as yourself. Instead of showing any modicum of mature or responsible behavior, you have chosen to whine and complain like a three year old.

I am well aware of the fact that these posts will NOT be deleted and WILL REMAIN as a PUBLIC BILLBOARD to show the world that SocialGO is going to do things DIFFERENTLY than anyone has done them before in Social Networking, and that WidgetLaboratory will be leading the way. One of our first responsibilities is to ensure that all of the FACTS are presented and not the MISINFORMATION that you have decided to propogate.

I sir have contacted my ex-wife and informed her that she is NO LONGER the most annoying person I have ever met. Instead... you have now taken her place.

Good day to you sir.

I said... GOOD DAY!

Regarding Trading Standards, after an initial referral Trading Standard will conduct their own investigation whih will not involve me. If your advertising is truthful and sound you have nothing to fear.

http://getsatisfaction.com/socialgo/top … _migration

Left hand side icon lists Evil Genius as logged in and a "Socialgo employee"

"You sir were GIVEN NOTICE by NING that you are not welcome." I have received no such notice, as I invite you to withdraw that comment.

Are you finished yet? I can go on like this all night.

I stand by everything that has been posted.

I am NOT an employee of SocialGO. Nothing about my comments would be any different even if they had come FROM any SocialGO employee.

You are not any more welcome on Ning than WidgetLaboratory... that's the whole point.

NING made a huge error in their business model and allowed free porn sites to be created that had nothing to do with adult content. Instead, there were thousands of people using Ning as a FREE REPOSITORY for porn. Ning made zero money on Google Ads from them, but they were eating up HUGE storage and bandwidth costs.

SocialGO is not as foolish. The best and most certain way to ensure that responsible adult content networks can thrive is to FILTER out the bogus sites (such as yours perhaps?) that are UNWILLING TO PAY. If you have a site with a couple hundred or thousand members, and you cannot utilze the built-in monetization tools that will be provided as part of the package to pay for the monthly cost to SocialGO, then you should either take up a collection to pay the cost or give up the adult site biz.

There is NO ONE ELSE on the Internet who is going to provide FREE HOSTING to adult social networking sites if they are using a Google Adsense business-model. The only way is to pay a reasonable amount for a reasonable level of service.

IF you would ONLY get that into your brain... then none of your whining or bad-mouthing of SocialGO would be required. You are the ONLY ONE we've heard from, out of more than 5600 WidgetLaboratory customers who came over from NING, that somehow has not figured out that you have NO OTHER OPTIONS. And, if you do have other options...then just run along and use those options instead of whining that you're not getting something for nothing.

where was the new pricing structure posted? or did you make this up. Others need to know you lied so they don't freak out as well.

Here: (already posted in this thread)

In this post a socialgo employee describes the pricing structure shortly to be released:
http://getsatisfaction.com/socialgo/top … he_premium

well getsat is down otherwise we can get over this. does it explicitly mention adult networks or is it a generalized overview?

Perhaps you (and the ex ning non-porn baron adult group users) simply don't realise the implications of running a company with this type of business plan in the UK.

"If you charged each member $1 a month hello $6,000 a month. If no one wants to pay a dollar for your network then maybe webmastering is not for you. People will pay for a network with good content and great features. The best thing for adult networks is affiliate marketing. Some will pay $30 bucks for each sign up you direct to their service. All of the porn affiliates will give you video to post on your site as well. Affiliates cost nothing to join and everything to gain if you work at it."

This is such a cavalier approach and shows comtempt for the ning users you have worked so hard to attract, nearly all of whom do not remotely fit this demographic. Your approach will make you a target for the police, netwatch, CEOP and others. It is highliy likely in my professional opinion that the police will secure a court order to raid your offices and seize user information once they receive the merest complaint after the point you go live. This will expose thousands of average working individuals to unwarranted police attention, and for anyone working in a profession such as the police, armed forces, medicine, teaching, civil service, in short any profession subject to professional disciplinary rules, your approach could bring about a nightmare to many people's lives.

You have a moral obligation to stop advertising your product to ex ning users without explaining exactly what your product is. However, I suspect you won't do this because you realise it will kill your potential revenue stream. I'm stating this publically, because I am disgusted by the manner you are treating ex ning users as widgets and I forsee all hell breaking loose when the media or authorities take an interest in your site. I strongly urge anyone who is not a wanabee porn merchant to steer well clear of socialgo.com . I intend to delete my socialgo site as soon as the admin options are back online. If you really want to provide a service, perhaps you might delete it for me now as an act of goodwill.

"well getsat is down otherwise we can get over this. does it explicitly mention adult networks or is it a generalized overview?"

A socialgo employee quotes prospective figures.

I'm not an employee of SocialGO I am a network creator just as yourself and have been here for awhile waiting for this service to go live. No I don't live in the UK. Are you not allowed to charge for membership sites in the UK?

I am not advertising SocialGO to ex ning users. I am just excited to use this awesome product! Sorry you are not.

I'm the words of EG

"good day"!

I don't have a problem with the socialgo product, as long as social go tell potential customers what they are signing up to. Bear in mind that virtually none of the sites on ning were designed to make money, so marketing socialgo to such people is pointless and misleading. These aren't the sort of people who want the risks associated with the adult porn industry. Under UK law, anyone part of such a social networking group would be liable to any complain or charge of misconduct upheld. Put simply, just being a member on a UK hosted site could result in all members of a group facing the sack if a complaint was upheld - that's how professional disciplinary law works here. Socialgo is exposing users here to significant and unacceptable risk. Hosting the site in the UK was a very short sighted decision on the part of socialgo. Ning is hosted in the US and doesn't face such issues. In short - the business plan outlined by socialgo in this post is far too much risk for ex ning users to entertain, and socialgo needs to be open and upfront about the product they are offering, otherwise users will not be happy.

If the premium adult services are to be aimed at potential porn site owners, then say so - don't hide it away in small print. If socialgo isn't prepared to be open and honest we all have the right to be very suspicious.

You are remarkable.

First, your link to GetSatisfaction shows that no employee of SocialGO ever made any price claims regarding adult networks;

Second, SocialGO has not made any claims or posted any information as to the details of the adult network package, such as where it is hosted, whether it will be distinct from the regular networks, or how much it will cost.

Third, you've posted all sorts of NIGHTMARE SCENARIOS designed to scare the hell out of anyone foolish enough to listen to you. None of which has any basis in reality;

YET, despite all these FACTS... you've spent over two HOURS and dozens of posts spouting out ALL THE REASONS why people should be afraid of SocialGO and FLEE!!!!

You sir, are the one who is doing YOURSELF a disservice due to your multiple mistatements. No one else is buying into your "Chicken Little" game...

Either quietly wait until the facts are in, or run along. Your behavior will not be tolerated without rebuttal.