Ning, the site that allows you to create your own social network, is going to discontinue its ‘free’ service and only have paying clients. I used to use Ning but changed to the Grou.ps platform about a year ago. I believe I made the right decision when I did so and now I really feel I made the right decision back then.
If you would like to visit Ning, click on the link below. However, I have a feeling that many social networks will be fleeing Ning and looking for alternatives.
Kevin's Daily Photo, Video, Quote or Link 
Another free alternative is mixxt.com, offering functionalities very similar to Ning but with some additions.
Some of the advantages are:
– Strong Community Management features (e.g., newsletter system, access control)
– Powerful sub-groups
– Full collaboration features including wikis, image albums, file systems, event-management and CMS
– Advanced customization
mixxt’s philosophy is different from Ning’s: it is based on White Labeled solutions for large institutions and enterprises, as well as Freemium services.
mixxt networks are especially popular among education, work-related and event networks.
Users wanting to import their Ning network to mixxt find a useful tool in our Ning importer (http://bit.ly/migrate-ning).
Give your own mixxt network a try for free here: (http://mixxt.com)!
Oliver,
Thanks for the comments on mixxt – will have a look,
Kevin
You’re welcome! Feel free to ask any questions! We are there to help…
Oliver
Things have changed and I no longer support Grou.ps.
See post at:
https://onetoday.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/grou-ps-free-but-not-really/