Just a quick update on the status of the Ning user import plugin mentioned in the previous post. Boone has now updated the plugin to support the transfer of both users and their custom profile data.
If you’re looking for an easy way to import from Ning then this free plugin is a great choice.
You can find all the latest details and download link over at Boone’s site: Free import from Ning to BuddyPress plugin.
I love the “free” tag 🙂
Is this legally allowed?
Thanks Boone for donating time for a free one. Apparently taboo for me to mention the “Premium” one from WPMU DEV that scrapes Ning for avatars as well as supporting very large member lists.
Won’t link for fear of being censored… I guess Andy doesn’t like people being able to choose what’s best for their needs/price.
So, how does this compare to the similar plugin released by WPMUDev?
I’m happy for people to make their own choice so there is no problem linking to the other plugin. I’d expect users to make their own mind up based on the $79 price tag. It’s important that users don’t believe the premium solution is the only solution.
Sorry Andy, thought you had deleted my other post.
@Donald: The WPMU Dev one scrapes Ning profile pages and downloads/resizes the member avatars. Also supports very large member lists and is fully supported/guaranteed updates with BP version changes.
Use whatever suits your needs better.
Oh, and you can customize the email notification with dynamic fields instead of it sending all the members that boring WP one.
Thanks Aaron for clarifying this. One question though, how much is it for an upgraded Ning account? Is the price of $79/month for a WPMU subscription worth the hassle of migrating? I’m sure that that is more expensive than a Ning subscription.
I think migrating from a free service to a free service should be free and that those who develop that migration bridge should release it for, you guessed it, free.
Thanks Andy for releasing this free migration, maybe WPMU will wise up and do the same. You’d think that they would realize that they would get MORE people to buy their stuff if they offered the migration tool for FREE and then said “Hey, you liked that? Great! Oh yeah, we also have other plugins that you will find just as cool and useful now that you are on BuddyPress instead of nasty old Ning.”
Ahh, what the heck, I’ll link for you Aaron 🙂
http://premium.wpmudev.org/project/ning-to-buddypress-user-importer
The point about WPMU DEV is that – precisely because we are a paid service – it’s possible for us to get plugins like this (and over 150 other plugins and themes!) ready, really quickly, for our members and then guarantee that they work (and offer support and customization based on requests).
Also, it’s less than $35 p/month if you take the annual option… not bad for pretty much 24/7 access to a crack team of developers, designers and support people!
So, while you’ll always be able to find free solutions, like the plugin you link to Andy, if you’re looking for hand holding, guarantees, extra functionality, full support etc. etc. we think we offer a legitimate alternative.
Is Buddypress ready and stable? Any word on the buddypress for single user WP? Im also interested in bbpress for foums and it always says dont downlad me yet…whats the word?
This so hits the spot! About to install buddyPress for the 1st time due to the Ning situation. Fingers crossed.
[…] for another solution, BuddyPress announced today that there is a new, free plugin available to import Ning data into a BuddyPress site. BuddyPress is a branch/plugin allowing users to turn WordPress into a social network […]
Actually, that kind of make sense that WPMU.org would release the Ning-to-BP plugin for free. It would give them a large market-share and mind-share of all the transferring Ning users.
Excited to see this happening. Was about to launch a Kickstarter project to fund development of a NING importer and release it for free. Looks like the community is making it happen now. AWESOME!
How about porting over posts, events, and other content beyond users?
Great plugin!, thanks 😀
@James Farmer
I would like to see you release your Ning importer for free for the betterment of the community. What a golden opportunity you have here to help usher in an entire new generation of BuddyPress users and spread some good will at the same time.
You can still sell memberships to those that need support. Do the right thing and release the source.
GPL includes rights to redistribute, which WPMUDev has so kindly released their code as GPL.
NingtoBuddyPress.com offers a download of that plugin for Ning users who would like to be able to migrate without having to pay for premium service. Hopefully, after you see how good the plugin is and how GREAT BP is, you will purchase a WPMUDev service account. But it can hardly be expected for you to pay for that BEFORE you even get to BuddyPress, because the WHOLE reason you are migrating is because you don’t want to have to pay for the service.
Enjoy!
Seems a bit disrespectful to me considering the 20 hours of overtime I put into it over the weekend and the $$ James spent to put that out.
Wouldn’t it be better for you to spend your time developing your own plugins to release to the community rather than militantly redistributing other’s work because you don’t agree with their sales structure?
Least you could have done was give WPMU DEV a heads up so they could have a chance to release on their own terms.
You already did release on your terms.
I understand the work you put into it, but sometimes you just have to “take one for the team.”
Don’t you understand how much MORE this is going to help you? As soon as you release it for free, I will take mine down. That’s all there is to it. I’m not taking any subscriptions from you. You guys offer such great stuff, but you gotta meet people half way, otherwise stuff like this happens. No one wants to migrate from Ning to an unfamiliar platform without even being able to migrate users without paying through the nose.
I’m willing to work with you. You can fill out the contact form on ningtobuddypress.com
@Aaron
Someone’s out there promoting your work, and you’re trying to argue that doing so is disrespectful. You took what could be an opportunity to forge a mutually beneficial relationship and crapped on it.
If anyone is being disrespectful, it is you.
I think I’ve said it about a billion times, but once more: If you don’t want people to actually follow the terms of the GPL license, don’t release your work under the GPL.
Since WordPress plugins are a derivative work, they are automatically GPL. Once a derivative work is distributed, the recipient of that copy of the software has the freedom to do whatever they want with it.
There is also a common misconception that if you create a derivative work of GPL software that you must release it to the public. This is not true. But when you do distribute it you must provide all of the source code.
Great plugin!, thanks 😀
MrMaz: I do not think derivative work means what you think it means. Contrary to the FSF interpretation of the GPL, there are many on the other side who don’t believe plugins necessarily adhere to the derivative work definition put forth by the FSF. In fact, many plugins are released under different non-compatible licensing (whether it’s best practice or not).
Also the GPL has never had a decision in court so it’s all interpretation.
Furthermore, Aaron (and James) did release under their own terms… GPL… so there is no legal argument that can be made to say Don can’t release it himself, provided attribution is left in place and code is distributed to the end user who acquires it. That’s the GPL.
Personally, I think the wpmudev guys should open up the pay wall and offer fees for support and priority service. But that;s neither here nor there.
@Aaron Brazell
I have read many arguments from both sides. My personal opinion on the matter is simple and based on common sense.
If a plugin will not run without WordPress, then its usefulness and functionality is derived from WordPress functionality.
I am not a lawyer, but I would be afraid to bet against that argument standing up in court. Until there is a court decision, however, it is left up to each developer to calculate their risk when extending or forking GPL software and releasing it outside of the spirit of the GPL license.
I say spirit, because at the very least, in my opinion, releasing a plugin that is not GPL is breaking the spirit of the license. When a developer spends hundreds of hours writing code and releases it under GPL, I would think his intention is that it will stay free as in freedom for all eventual derived usefulness, without an asterisk for plugins.
Before a heated GPL debate breaks out, please read the response Matt received from the Software Freedom Law Center:
https://wordpress.org/development/2009/07/themes-are-gpl-too/
This all important line applies to plugins also:
“PHP files are subject to the requirements of the GPL while the images and CSS are not”.
The spirit of the GPL and the community built around WordPress and the creative works involved with it are what counts. It comes down to the attitude and spirit of the people involved.
The same goes with anything creative, and I don’t think it matters if we’re writing code, making music, or widdling wooden chairs; respect for the craft is what’s important, and that can be an easy target to lose sight of sometimes.
The fact is we’re all going to have different opinions, every one of us; and just like in any other community, being able to respect an opinion even if you don’t agree with it is ultimately what changes the world for the better.
As the WPMUDev plugin did not work on regular old WordPress (that is, apart from WPMU), I have updated the plugin to work whether you are running WPMU or plain WP. I will be uploading the modified WPMUDev plugin to NingtoBuddyPress.com soon.
(I have tested it and it is fully functional w/o any errors – Good work Aaron 😛 ) I hope you’ll see the spirit behind this is to make it easier for people to migrate to WordPress and BuddyPress, and thereby be MORE likely to purchase your program.
Also, I didn’t think that what I did was going to cause so much of a stir. Oh well. 🙂
Don, we fixed that (possibly deliberate…evil laugh) bug yesterday. One of the great benefits of being a member: having access to our frequent updates. Hope you are enjoying supporting our plugin!
Just to clarify I did not make any legal claims over the plugin and do not take personal offense. I wish it could be released for free, in fact I wish all my plugins could but the simple fact is without that paywall I wouldn’t have a job. It has enabled WPMU DEV to hire a talented group of developers and pump out and support many many amazing plugins that simply wouldn’t exist without it. Personally I would rather have more quality choices out there than more unsupported and out of date plugins in the repository. Not everyone has the luxury of $$$Millions in venture capital to pay salaries ala Automattic…
Call me a capitalist pig but I have no issues with people/companies charging what the market will pay as long as others can compete. It’s how the world works and whats given us such cool things as the iphone or ipod (which we gladly pay very high margins for). I just wish people would stop whining and start developing awesome plugins (free or paid) themselves.
I assume in July when Ning starts opening up our data through atom xml we’ll be able to import the entire contents of our site into BuddyPress? Hopefully someone will work on a full site importer!
I have a question. Like many other Ning users I’m looking to make the shift to my own server. I already have WordPress and Wishlist working together and am now looking for a facility to replace what I had set up at Ning. Being able to import what we had at Ning sounds like a bonus and I’m all for it, however, the usernames we have set up at Wishlist already would be different to the usernames many members used at the Ning site. Is there a way to match up the important usernames from Ning to what we have on the site on our server? Or will confusion reign?
enjoying this ‘nothing held back’ discussion. Fascinated by BuddyPress.
I’d be glad to know if there is a way to move from drupal (users, blog posts, cck images, blog comments) to wordpress 3.0 & buddypress.
Will there be a plugin developed that will work with the new Ning Network Archiver? It seems like we should be able to bring over ALL our content with the right exporter.
Actually, that kind of make sense that WPMU.org would release the Ning-to-BP plugin for free. It would give them a large market-share and mind-share of all the transferring Ning users.
I’m in the process of doing this Ning to BuddyPress conversion. Before Boone released the latest version, which also bring your content over, I was getting an error on importing hundreds of users. The solution was to split the sql file into multiple files. Well, I didn’t get that far, because the new version is here already. Now, I’m having a php memory limit issue. Memory is set to 30 MB at 1and1, my host, but the plugin needs 40 MB. I put a php.ini file in the actual plug-ins directory, but it’s still not working properly. Not sure where the php.ini file should go on this memory error. Any ideas?
Hi Everyone.
Another potential Ning migrater here. For me the issue is content. Is there any way to move not just my members ( we are about 700) but also all of our content? I have been reading all the posts and I am wondering if the paid version would offer this or not. I think that this is a big deal to most Ning group owners. Also I am unclear which one of these versions will keep our members homepages, since that is a big deal to my group and one of the other reasons I wish to leave Ning.
Finally, I am only a little tech savvy. How hard is BuddyPress to use?
Thanks!
Does anyone offer a paid service to migrate a ning site to WP/Buddypress- are thwere developers that do this? I have a 20Gig Nig site archived- the buddypress/ning plug in installed and nothing is working out for me-pls reply
Curtis, you can post at http://jobs.wordpress.net and/or create a new topic at https://buddypress.org/support/forum/plugin-forums/bp-jobs-board/