JAMROOM
Site Description
http://www.thechocolatelife.com
I started on Ning back in mid-January 2008. At the time it was pretty much the only white-label game in town. My community grew pretty quickly and before I knew it I was stuck. Data lock-in and my members weren't even my own. With the announcement of Ning v3 and the forced migration off of v2 I was put between a rock and a hard place. So I started researching options and found Jamroom.
What a breath of fresh air, let me tell you. First off, the developers are in the forums all the time and they are directly answering our questions - as are other members of the community. When problems are identified they get fixed and updates are posted very quickly. Keeping the software updated is easy and transparent using the System Updates function.
Because Jamroom is open source, I am able to dive into the code and make small tweaks, or big ones. It's not as easy as dragging and dropping feature modules but I am not stuck with limited configuration options or paying through the nose for API access. There are many third-party modules to enhance functionality and a lot of them are free or very low cost.
I am also getting used to the dashboard that really provides me with useful information. Error logs! Who's logged in when and where they visited! The ability to change a member's email address and reset their password for them! Too many small things to mention here. I am feeling empowered to help my community in ways that I never was with Ning.
And the searching capability? This is an area where I have a lot of experience and I was astounded to discover that that the JR search capability delivered serendipitous discovery of content in my site. I love using search in JR. I hated search in Ning so much I replaced with a custom Google search box which was, frankly, little better. But on JR? I use it as much or more as the navigation links, it's that good.
Making the switch was not without its rocky, desolate, stretches, but a lot of that had to do with the fact that Ning's export archives are a wretched mess. (Why should they make it easy to leave?) The JR team has done yeoman's work to tame that beast and are very patient at figuring out how to overcome problems in the source JSON and importing the data.
JR is not perfect, but the team listens to what we users have to say. Lots of very important changes - quite large and very small - have been made over the past couple of weeks to help ease the work in making the transition to JR. Not just for me, but for other Ning creators looking for a new home for their communities.
There is something of a learning curve to JR but it's very manageable. There are still many small tweaks I want to make, but at least I know that I can make them! And if I think the tweaks are cool enough, I can package them as a module and contribute them back to the community.
One thing I did not expect is that sitting down in front of my JR site I am energized to write again. The base template designs are open with lots of white space and minimal distractions. I don't feel cramped by the layout and the buggy editor and truly awful CSS and the words flow a lot more easily because of it. I don't hate sitting down and writing as I did when sitting down in front of my old Ning site.
And that has me excited for what's going to happen next.
Thanks Team JR.
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