Widget creator WidgetLaboratory got into a public feud this Summer with Ning after being shut out of the build-your-own social network platform over questionable behavior around its Terms of Service. TechCrunch called the third party widget developers “idiots” when they posted e-mail communication between themselves and Ning which didn’t exactly support their case, and when it turned out they flat out lied about the ban at first to gain sympathy.
Now it seems WidgetLaboratory has moved on from continuously bashing Ning on their blog to announcing a new partnership with UK-based Bright Things, who are preparing the roll-out of a Ning competitor dubbed SocialGO (currently in public beta). Like its heavily funded counterpart, SocialGO is a web-based service that allows users to create their own private social network. The company cites unique features like video chat, an open account API and a member billing system to be the main differentiators. Until the end of this year, creating a network on SocialGO will be entirely free. As from January 1, the company will let users choose between a free service or a premium service with more features (pricing has not been decided yet).
Under the agreement, WidgetLaboratory will be the first to join the newcomer’s third party program, enabling them to develop widgets for a fixed fee in exchange for a share of the revenue generated by the sale of widgets to SocialGo users.
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I took SocialGO for a test drive and wasn’t really impressed. The generic choices of premade network templates they give are bland and look worse than some you’ll find on Blogger. I didn’t dig too much into the site, but as a Ning user I’m not impressed.
I like what both Ning and SocialGO have to offer
But I’m not an active user… Well, simply because I don’t have much time to maintain that many social network accounts.
I started looking around for a social network about 2 months ago.
The first network I tried was Ning, being the most well known. I was NOT impressed.
The first problem we found was that Ning was very difficult to customize and a key point of this project was to be able to integrate the network with our website - to make it look like a part of our website - seamlessly.
The next problem was how do I get rid of the Ningbar? I can’t. I hate the Ningbar.
In his post, Mark Frost is unhappy with the premade templates SocialGO provides. But what about those of us who want to go beyond the premade templates? If you have chosen Ning, you are s**t out of luck. Care to take a look at the network I have set up with SocialGO, and tell me you could come even close to achieving the same integration with Ning? Not likely!
The third problem was the lack of support from the Ning team. I have sent numerous support emails to them, and have not had a single reply. The support I have received from the SocialGO team has been outstanding from day 1.
Ning vs SocialGO? No contest. SocialGO all the way!
I tried out the service and found it pretty good, really nice interface and some pretty cool features, better admin and privacy controls and more flexibility than i found on Ning. Wish them all the best as things develop.
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When Ning shut down WL, I was due the next day to do an interview on TV in Tampa, FL about my social network on Ning: http://www.troopspace.net
(interview is here: http://www.tampabays10.com/new.....ryid=88653)
I freaked out because we had invested in WL’s products but Gina Bianchini was gracious and helpful as always. She explained what was going on and that WL wouldn’t be back.
Now we have investors coming on and are investing in a site overhaul we are going to keep Ning- their customer service has been phenomonal from day one and they are consistently upgrading the features their backbone provides. (Although I am dying for them to add video chat).
In my short life on this planet (okay not that short, Im 36 ha) Ive found that whenever you find a superior customer service experience– stick with that firm/service because 99% of customer service in the world SUCKS.
Hmmmm…. I think I smell a rat…
..and that rat is a couple fellas named Ed and Josh from this scammy little website trying to exploit the military and their families.
In his post here on TC, they write: “Now we have investors coming on and are investing in a site overhaul…”
But on their “Donation” page on their site, they write: “The founders and administration of Troopspace do not believe in making money off of our members. However, until we are fully funded we are running this site out-of-pocket.”
They even write: “Bless you” on their site (but only on the Donation page.)
Which is it fellas? Do you have “investors” who have invested in your website or are you paying for yourself with “donations” from your website.
Scammers.
I believe in the military and just for fun, I’m going to build another site on Ning that directly competes with yours. I’ll market it better and will rail against your little scam from here on it.
Let’s have some fun your scamming, thieving rats!
Relax dude. Ask them first about what’s up before blasting them. Maybe they didn’t update the site (overhaul) or there’s something else. Maybe they are BSers, but ask first.
The generic choices of premade network templates they give are bland and look worse than some you’ll find on Blogger.
Here we go!!
I haven’t tried SocialGo yet, but my experience on Ning made me dislike the entire model of “build your own social networks.” As a user, I felt like there was no cohesion between my various ning networks (nor my identity in each group). I prefer using Multiply’s groups to build both public and private communities. My identity remains constant from one to another (I don’t have multiple personality disorder, after all.) and updates between all of these communities are aggregated into one handy location, so I don’t have to jump from network to network to find out what the latest updates are.
Good Morning,
The LAB was created on Ning for the purpose of showing how to make money through social networking. We feel that our own “flavor” of unique products, service, and sometimes shocking honesty is what catapulted us into the position of having such wonderful success on their platform. We are unrepentant as to anything we’ve accomplished, said or done since we started this adventure in November of 2007. Obviously this comes at the price of being a polarizing force for those who know and love Ning.
At this time, we are thrilled to be in a new home that has actually allowed us to do what we do best, instead of fighting us step by step along the way. Although we stand by our legal and ethical position for the events that went down this summer with Ning, that’s old news. Ning has chosen to take an entirely new path for themselves that is unrelated to what they started in 2006, and it can be seen and judged by anyone who cares to inquire. There is nothing stopping anyone from using more than one platform for more than one goal.
And that is our point. WidgetLaboratory was always about showing people how to MONETIZE their social network. Our customers were able to make several hundred dollars or more per month in net profit from tools they purchased from us for as little as $19.00. SocialGO “gets” this, and WidgetLaboratory will prove it to anyone that is interested in moving out of the Social Networking version 1.0 mode and into the version 2.0 mode… where micro-economies can exist between people with similar interests through the use of scalable and modular products that enable commerce, barter, marketing, advertising, etc.
We think it’s wonderful that TechCrunch has chosen to feature us for another brief moment in time. We love even more the fact that the author has made it very clear in the first paragraph that we are liars and idiots. We’re pretty sure that this will generate a reasonable number of comments by the readers as to what Ning has done since WidgetLaboratory was kicked off the platform. As a former litigator myself, I was surprised that Mr. Arrington chose to give his legal opinions in his previous article back in August, as I didn’t think TC was about making legal conclusions as much as publishing facts. Nevertheless, I was glad that he did. The readers comments expressed a balanced opinion of why there might have been a reasonable legal and strategic reason for airing this inside communication, and they also pointed out certain potential conflicts of interest involving TC50 and Marc Andreessen.
Either way, time will demonstrate which company had the right business model, and which company respected the true demand in the marketplace for what people need to do in order to build a financially successful social network. The entire SocialGO platform will be underpinned with a rock-solid Bill of Rights for Network Creators that ensures them legally of complete and total control (in fact) over their members, network, and data. It is worth noting how Ning has subsequently changed all of their legal terms in a way that removes NC rights instead of creating or enforcing new ones.
There is plenty of room for fun Kung-Fu-Poke-Me Open Social Gadgets on Ning, while SocialGO and the LAB focus on building productivity and monetization products for entrepreneurs and small business.
We say… let the consumer try each and judge for themselves which one meets their needs.
Spencer Forman
CEO
WidgetLaboratory
Hilarious!
I bet Spencer spent 3 hours writing his comment - and that shows how “busy” he is since Ning bitch-slapped him and his company and “poor ‘wittle Spencer ‘wost all his money”!
hahahahah
You guys ARE in fact, idiots. It took you how long to build a new website? 2 months or so? Wow! That’s some strong talent you guys have over there.
And SocialGO will be a SocialNO. They just can’t compete with Ning.
Man, I bet you wish you still had that Ning-Cash-Cow again, huh?
Hey, spend another 3 hours and write another comment. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of time on your hands.
Pot, meet black kettle.
I disagree with your rendition of events surrounding the altercation between Ning and Widget Laboratory. If you are “reporting” - then, you are coming from a biased space. Ning’s ongoing actions since they kicked WL off their platform have only shown that Ning’s intent has been to (1) grow a bunch of networks using a professed “open” stance, (2) leverage the volume brought in through this “openness” as market clout and revenue to then capture the momentum back into a a closed stance (sorry folks, you don’t really own ANYTHING about your network — ha, ha, ha!).
This is a strategy that has been around for years - get others to buy into your business model so you can leverage them as assets to your business growth, then dump the whole thing - grab the value back for yourself and move onto a new business model that now wedges out your original supporters.
Also - with regard to Socialgo - look/feel issues. It’s called BETA. The elements of look/feel and growing functionality are building. The reality is that the technology prowess of Ning is not good - hence all the shifts/starts/stops. There is not a big technology hurdle - a tech asset advantage — that prevents Socialgo from completing the development work necessary to match and advance beyond Ning’s rather rudimentary functionality.
Ning network creators BEGGED and BEGGED and BEGGED for some of the features that Widget Laboratory offered. Ning’s refusal to offer many of these features were not because of extra burden on the network infrastructure — instead, it was typically to hold elements of the networks captive, or push people to create more and more unique networks rather than being able to build real communities within one network.
Socialgo (along with the Widget Laboratory partnership) has a different view - and there is the rub. The goal is not just number of networks - it is also network usage, community building - and the ability to have this network interact with other websites.
For instance, I want to integrate my community with my association website. Ning doesn’t want to move in that direction - Socialgo does. An interconnected world is a great opportunity for social networks — to become the fabric that links many elements of the web together. I want to build my community on a platform that embraces my desire for true openness - so that I can integrate my community into all the facets of activity within my web-based offerings. Trust me - that is NOT where Ning is going.
So — give Socialgo just a little time. Look/feel will grow up a bit. Community tools will grow. And - most importantly — what I own today for my community - I will own tomorrow. Socialgo knows that the best way to keep customers is not to put a rope around them — it is to give them what they want. Smother network creators with a good product that embraces the way THEY WANT TO DO BUSINESS so that there is a shared expansiveness and an integration between all elements of the web offering.
As someone who just recently had to start a network I was faced with the decision between ning and socialgo. As I charted for my self ning’s development over the recent pass I came to the same conclusion as above:
“(1) grow a bunch of networks using a professed “open” stance, (2) leverage the volume brought in through this “openness” as market clout and revenue to then capture the momentum back into a a closed stance (sorry folks, you don’t really own ANYTHING about your network — ha, ha, ha!).”
In fact since you wrote this things have got worse - they shut down php access.
Heck you can’t even have a two column home page on ning!
The only thing is, I hope socialgo won’t follow in their footsteps down the road…
THE FOLLOWING IS NO JOKE. OF COURSE - THE ‘EVIL GENIUS’ WILL ATTEMPT TO ARGUE AGAINST MY POINTS - AND WILL SIT BACK SMIRKING AND PRETEND THAT THIS KIND OF PR IS JUST FINE BECAUSE EVEN NEGATIVE PR IS JUST FINE. BUT I ASSURE YOU, THE TRUTH IS NOT GOING TO BE ‘JUST FINE’.
Wow! More “Guarantees” from WidgetLaboratory. Thats neat. I’m still waiting on my 100% satisfaction money back guarantee. Or the code that was supposed to be made public, according to widgetlaboratory.blogspot.com on Aug 23,2008, so I could use what I had already paid for.
What follows was the 1st promise of many that has yet to be delivered by WidgetLaboratory - “All of WidgetLaboratory Source Code will be made publicly available and free to anyone to use under a Creative Commons License. We have created an easy-installation pack that will allow any Network Creator to use any of their previously purchased products on their own networks as before, and make any and all modifications and changes they wish, subject only to our retention of authorship rights and credit.”
The only code that was actually released was, the WhoIM, which was great, except we could no longer pay to remove the WidgetLabs advertising pop up every 5 messages. So, I couldn’t use it.
WidgetLaboratory is not the forthright, benevolent entity it wants to appear to be. In the time it was running on Ning, you wouldn’t even believe the things Spencer Forman and ‘The Lab’ pulled. I was an interested observer/customer of WidgetLaboratory - and I documented everything. If anybody wants to hear about them - I’d be glad to post everything I ever screenshot, copied and pasted and filed away about The Lab. Oh yes - I have detailed files, many from the customers themselves, about how WidgetLaboratory deals with customers and handles business. It is one big, bloated, ugly, monstrous file. So just ask if you’d like to know to truth.
From the countless things I’ve seen, WidgetLaboratory doesn’t know how to ‘just be cool’. It doesn’t understand how to just sit back and give out a good vibe. It does not garner respect based on its merits. Instead, WidgetLaboratory and it’s mean-tempered frontman tries to weave its interpretation of reality into something in its favor - and does not allow it’s customers or prospects to think for themselves.
This whole Ning / WidgetLaboratory thing went down in August, and like an ousted bully in elementary school, WidgetLaboratory still bashes Ning and makes fun of them - posts photoshopped pictures of Nings CEO and employees - and uses propaganda to try to flip the truth (pretty professional right?) on an almost daily basis.
In keeping up with WidgetLabs current blog, even a few of the people joined the new site on SocialGo are beginning to tire of the rants and Ning-bashing. In a recent comment about another nasty blog by Spencer Forman, by a WidgetLabs/SocialGo member - well, hey, I’ll just post it here for you all to read.
SocialGo/WidgetLabs member says - “Hum, someone needs some anger management. I mean the daily ranting about Ning is getting quite annoying. If SocialGo and the Lab is so great, just concentrate on that and nothing else. The proof is in the pudding, NOT the whining!
Evil Genius says - “Someone has to whine for all those stuck on Ning who can’t … we’re happy to oblige. If it bothers you so much you are welcome to stop reading… that seems to be what Ning wants you to do.. no? Enjoy!”
This very uncool - one-sided method of communicating to ones own customers doen’t jive in my book. And should not in anybody’s book. What it does is make glaringly obvious that this person I am handing money to, who has stewardship over the marketplace and accepts payment for products and services, does not listen to me - does not value my word and will not stop ‘talking’ and simply prove their worth to me.
You know something - I don’t see anybody at Ning even mentioning WidgetLabs anymore. It is so long-forgotten, it’s not even a negative buzzword. New Ning users won’t know WidgetLabs ever existed. Old users - have moved on.
So I ask WidgetLabs right now - “Why are you so arrogant to presume that YOU need to whine for other people? Basically, who died and made you God?
I know personally I don’t need your words put in my mouth. You need to move on. You got your company thrown off of the worlds greatest ready-made social networking platform - and you’re upset and spiteful about it because you thought you were on top of the world. And you saw dollar signs in every Ning user. And after-the-fact, after you get swept out the back door for reasons that make sense to the people who did business with you, you keep on whining.
But the whining is for YOURSELF. Don’t make assumptions. Thats dangerous. You whine for YOU. Not for the people you are trying to convince are ‘prisoners’ on Ning. They don’t feel bad about their situation on Ning. They don’t need WidgetLaboratory to show them the light. They don’t appreciate being spoken for.
The way WidgetLabs handles themselves is so bad, it got them thrown off of Ning. It got TechCrunch to publicly lambast them. It has created hundreds, if not thousands of angry customers. It turned previous supporters into ’shocked-that-they-didn’t-know-the-truth’ ex-Lab users that don’t care or remember about it anymore. It shocked the internet world that such audacity actually exists; that regardless of the negative connotations, WidgetLabs continues to publish self-incriminating caca.
Truthfully, I feel sorry for SocialGo. You got duped. You fell for The Labs charm - which doesn’t last very long. One needs only to look at the trackrecord of WidgetLaboratory to see that it is one of the worlds most reputation-destructive forces in social networking. Which is why Ning got rid of it quickly. Before it spread and became an even bigger detriment than it was already.
In a nutshell - here are the facts. WidgetLaboratory was kicked off of Ning for:
Handling business badly.
For showing no desire to work with, budge or bend to the requests of it’s host platform.
For creating substandard applications that threatened the integrity of the Ning platform; which I might add is somebody else’s investment and is worthy of protecting - despite the threat of nasty 3rd party developer vengeance.
For publicly displaying personal and confidential documents to all of Ning in attempts to vindicate charges against them.
For incessant ranting, rumor-spreading and slander against people at Ning and users of the Ning platform.
For a lack of respect for Ning - and the obvious problems that brings. The simple respect that ALL 3rd party developers - regardless of subject or application should show the host. I would expect Ning to handle things as they did as I would expect Adobe would remove a Photoshop plugin developer if it did not live up to the standards needed to conduct business and operations as usual.
I can go on for quite sometime. So we’ll save more for later.
IF ANYBODY FEELS THE URGE TO TRY TO ARGUE AGAINST THIS LETTER, I MUST TELL YOU THAT ALL OF THIS IS FACT. IT IS NOT MY OPINION. I DID NOT ATTEMPT TO MUTATE THE FACTS INTO SOMETHING THAT WOULD SUIT MY FANCY. I AM NOT A FAN OF PROPAGANDA AND AFTER WATCHING MONTHS OF THIS GO ON, IT’S TIME TO DROP THE TRUTH ABOUT THINGS.
Wait for letter #2. It gets even better.
@networkcreator, I got my sourcecode in August, not sure what you are talking about? It was at this link http://ningina.com/laboratory.zip, and they gave it to me immediately when I asked. But now I can not even use it because ning closed php and webdav
Dear “NetworkCreator” -
To be clear, no - you do not represent my views. You do not need to continue to visit WidgetLaboratory if it does not represent your views. It’s kind of a simple concept - just don’t type in “http://www.widgetlaboratory.com” into your web browser. With your views, you’ll feel much better to focus on you rather than them.
And to be most clear, you made the following statement, “But the whining is for YOURSELF. Don’t make assumptions. Thats dangerous. You whine for YOU. Not for the people you are trying to convince are ‘prisoners’ on Ning. They don’t feel bad about their situation on Ning. They don’t need WidgetLaboratory to show them the light. They don’t appreciate being spoken for.”
My network is being held prisoner at Ning - they lied about the very core tenets of their offering and now are holding many networks hostage from their rights to their OWN DATA. I am very pleased that the basic laws of competition will now be lived out as Socialgo and Widget Laboratory provide me with options again.
Spence - feel free to rant away. Ning cannot threaten to close your network (as they have others) anymore - as you will be on Socialgo, who will respect your ownership. Ning cannot remove your postings from their own message boards (as they once regularly did of anyone who would have difference with them, or issues that needed resolving, or comments on the progress of Ning).
“NetworkCreator” may not be happy with you. I invite him to not use your services - issue solved.
Well, isn’t that interesting, maybe that was only for “special” customers or the ones that had a legitimate claim with paypal. I never received any such link, or file, otherwise I would have been running it on my network since August. PHP still runs on Ning as some of my other custom php code is still working and my scripts4ning scripts are still running.
WebDav was not closed until this week. If he had made that public (like he did the Who IM code) I would have still had my functionality I paid for and needed still!!!!!!!
you sound massively bitter
I just don’t know why would anybody use ning or socialgo ? create your own platform and you can do what u like when u like without being controlled by anybody……..i just cannot beleive anybody wastes their money on these jokers when you can pick up a decent script for a couple of few hundred dollars………
As a SocialGo user and someone who has been using it for several months now, I cannot emphasise how brilliant the platform is and how the customisable options have given me results that I never expected.
Janet Fans, a social network for Janet Jackson fans, has gone from strength to strength and continues to grow. It is a perfect solution for a fan-based community such as mine. Visitors to the site keep coming back and I expect to see a massive growth in membership in the coming months as word spreads.
The platform is much tidier than its counterparts and the people at SocialGo are extremely helpful in answering any questions and solving any problems I encounter.
Robin - “they flat out lied about the ban”, is a bit over the top. I don’t see that at all. I read all the emails. And while I agree that the tone of WL’s emails were unfortunate, I fail to see the lie. They said that Ning didn’t give them notice. TC seems to feel the fact that there was a conversation means there was notice. But nothing in Ning’s communications said, please do the following X things or we will turn you off by y date. Imagine your lender repeatedly called and complained about the way you were paying your mortgage but didn’t tell you how to fix it. Then one day they just get tired of you and locked you out (don’t worry their are laws against that). Bottom line complaining about things is not “notice”. I don’t see a lie.
The real question is whether Ning supports 3rd parties or not. While I can see that WL pissed the folks at Ning off, I see no evidence that WL broke the letter of the terms of service, or did anything particularly evil despite their nicknames and email tone. WL is just two guys who created some really cool stuff that many on Ning’s networks enjoyed - and which exposed HUGE flaws in the Ning architecture including its inability to sandbox 3rd party code, and in Ning’s ability to manage 3rd party relationships - most real companies know that not all developer relationships are easy, and an experienced team should have handled this better. Even more embarrassing for Ning is the fact these two guys regularly delivered more cool functionality to Ning users than Ning was able to itself, even with all of their VC money.
Ning is a very well funded company who should be held to higher standards then 2 guys trying to make living. By dismissing this whole incident because you didn’t like the tone of WL’s emails you have completely missed how badly Ning screwed up.
NetworkCreator - your rants are no better than WL’s. Take a deep breath and stop doing exactly what you espouse to hate about them… especially using a handle that appears to officially represent Ning.
@networkcreator
Muggzzi = Forman
Scammers unite!
Interesting - you think I am Spence? Interesting — just because I happen to agree with him?
Then, I’ll need a gender change. . . .
Simply expressing my views - and will continue to do so. Tom=delusional, jumping to conclusions, conspiracy theorist?
I dont go to social networks, i only use phone/IM, and read blogs thru RSS. I read every post and every comment on this blog. You are in MY world now and you sound like a typical comment-shill.
Muggzzi is an idiot. He has wayyyyy to much time on his hands…
hmmmmm….
Sounds like someone we know? (Starts with an “S”)
BTW, Spencer is the epitome of loser and will remain unsuccessful in his life. People like him always do.
Trust this, IF Spence and his company was doing well, he would have other things to do by now. But he’s got all the time in the world on his hands, because the Ning-MoneyTrain kicked him off and went bye-bye.
I love it.
Flamer: A flamer is simply an individual who believes he or she carries the only valid opinion. This leads him or her to personally attack those who disagree.
Shhhhhhhhh…. you’re gonna hurt yourself.
Oh no, I am just so scared of you! You are so big and strong.
Well Ning has shut down WebDav and access to PHP. So they’ve changed their model and are now relying on OpenSocial. Not sure how it’s going to work.
Ning has also removed forums from the Network Creators site. And they’re heavily moderating comments. If you read through some of the comments on the developers forum, they are mostly positive. That’s because Ning moderates and removes negative comments.
It’s their platform so they can do whatever they want.
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SocialGo has a nice product, and competition in the space is good for everybody. My only concern is that they entered into a formal relationship with a couple of guys who have already shown the world their lack of professionalism and business acumen (cough cough - borderline personality disorder).
It shows a disturbing lack of vetting or judgment on the part of SocialGo’s management, and I can’t imagine that a good result will come out of it.
BrightThings and their new product SocialGO may want to dump these clowns, all they seem to be doing is creating a negative impression of what would otherwise be a solid product launch.
The SocialGO founders have a solid background and a competitive looking product, which is now being sullied with this bickering.
@Huckleberry
Well said! Ning got rid of a cancer and for some odd reason, SocialGO decided to adopt that cancer!
I think that they will regret that decision soon enough though, the “evil genius” guy is already parading himself as if he was the CEO of SocialGO! LOL
Greetings from The Lavatory - my name is Spencer Foreskin.
Just so you know I am, errr, I mean, my company WidgetLavatory is the best thing to hit the interweb! If you don’t know this yet, you will eventually. And even if you disagree, that won’t matter because sticks and stones can break my bones. but words will never harm me. Ooooohh. Sticks, Stones, Bones, I’m getting all warm in my lower parts.
So anyway, the truth is, I am sad sometimes for the people who are stuck using that horrible pile-of-crap Ning. Because they are not around for me to pickpocket, I mean, not around to grovel at my polished toenails and tell me how wonderful I am. This does on occasion make me cry big crocodile tears. And that ruins my eyeliner.
I always planned to get thrown off of Ning. Yeah. Because I’m slick like that. I wanted it from the get-go. You know why? Because ain’t nobody gonna hold me back. I’m a bucking bronco and I can’t be corralled. I’m a rolling stone. Like a drifter I was born to walk alone.
Ning didn’t know how to cook Bratislavan sausage. So I found another host to latch onto. These guys are from Europe so they know how to make a good kielbasa. I love to put sausages in my mouth.
So I’m gonna keep on keeping on. I hope you all bring your business to my new company, I mean, the platform I found where I could easily con my way into good graces despite my untarnished reputation. Because I want your money. In fact, before you make any more financial decisions, make sure you’ve saved a few grand for me. Because each dollar brings me closer to realizing my dream of becoming a woman.
This is The Evil Genius - Spencer Foreskin signing off
I was unfortunately an employee of Lehman Brothers European operations in September when they put us in to Administration. Me, along with around 4500 London-based staff and the remaining 20,000 staff globally, were in limbo for a long period after that.
It was a really strange time for everyone and no-one, including the senior management in London, appeared to know how to resolve the situation. The bankruptcy was filed for on the Monday morning (approx midnight Sunday EST) and the Lehman dream was over.
Most of my colleagues spent the proceeding days in a state of shock; sat at their desks, frantically trying to reach out to recruiters who had started to assemble en-masse in Canary Wharf to pick out the talent.
But I felt that I should be doing something more than competing against my colleagues to secure another job. I knew the path ahead was going to be uncertain but I had an overwhelming desire to try and find another way of accommodating the people that had potentially just lost their jobs.
So on the Thursday (18th Sep) I came up with the concept of http://www.creditcrunched.org whilst commuting in to London on the train. I had recently hooked up a really bright and web-savvy business partner for an interest outside of Lehman and mentioned the idea of having a platform that could try and cater for the people being axed in the City. She immeidately arranged a meeting with the team at Social Go and within an hour or so after meeting them, http://www.creditcrunched.org had been born.
It’s primary purpose: to bring candidates to recruiters; allow recruiters to advertise jobs and try and beat the scuffles in Canary Wharf; create a platform for people to blog their experiences, thoughts and views; amongst many other features.
Now: it’s growing reasonably and serving it’s primary purpose of assisting people where it can in the credit crunch. I can sympathise with the guys who are running the troops site as it’s taking up huge amounts of my time and will start to cost from January. But without a shadow of a doubt, it’s been a hugely rewarding experience thus far and it’s all down to the guys at Social Go: Tom and Alex. May I wish tem all the success for their New Year roll out!
get cool templates for your SocialGO networks
http://socialgotemplates.com
These are all great comments, but you guys have it all wrong. Make the most out of your group at http://www.collectivex.com, the most productive group engagement tool on the web with the absolute best ease-of-use there is to offer. Social networks are out, Groupsite are in! None of you will be disappointed.