<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- generator="GROU.PS" -->
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"
	xmlns:georss="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#">
    <channel>
        <title>Turk Blog Yazarlari Blogs</title>
        <description>Turk Blog Yazarlari syndicated data</description>
        <link>http://grou.ps/blogyazarlari</link>
        <lastBuildDate>Tue, 14 Feb 2012 06:15:29 +0100</lastBuildDate>
        <generator>GROU.PS FeedCreator</generator>
        <item>
            <title>Blogger: Facebook Bağlantılarında Öne Çıkarılmış Resim Kullanma</title>
            <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggerDestek/~3/LcesSJH9fz8/blogger-facebook-baglantlarnda-one.html</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Bu yazı; <a href="http://www.hitadam.com/" target="_blank">hitadam.com</a> 'dan
<b>Hit Adam</b> tarafından <b>Blogger Destek</b> için yazılmıştır.<br />
<br />
Facebook beğeni ve paylaşımlarının blogumuza ne kadar faydalı olduğunu hepimiz
biliyoruz.<br />
<a href=
"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nxff-U4vjMI/TxgDZniS_2I/AAAAAAAACUo/F15Ixs0BuHs/s1600/facebook-and-blogger.jpg"
imageanchor="1"><img alt="blogger-facebook-baglantilari" border="0" src=
"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nxff-U4vjMI/TxgDZniS_2I/AAAAAAAACUo/F15Ixs0BuHs/s200/facebook-and-blogger.jpg"
title="blogger-ipucu" /></a><br />
Eğer birazdan anlatacağım ayarı yapmadıysanız facebook bağlantılarınızda
önizleme resmi olarak konu içidenki resimler kullanılır veya konuya resim
eklemediyseniz bağlantılarınız çok şekilsiz görünür ve bence 2.plana
itilirsiniz.<br />
<br />
<br />
Şimdi sizlere facebook bağlantılarınıza nasıl öntanımlı resim
ekleyebileceğinizi anlatacağım.<br />
<br />
<a name='more' id="more"></a><br />
<br />
Öntanımlı resminiz sayesinde tüm bağlantılarınızda sizin belirlediğiniz sabit
bir resim görüntülenecek. Ama konu içindeki diğer resimlerde aktif olacağından
istemezseniz bağlantıda farklı resim kullanabileceksiniz.<br />
<br />
1. Temanızda aşağıda verilen kodu bulun(koddaki boşlukları silin).<br />
<pre>
<code>&lt; head &gt;</code>
</pre>
<br />
2. Daha sonra yukarı bulduğunuz kodun <i>hemen altına</i> aşağıdaki kodu
ekleyin.<br />
<pre>
<code>&lt; link href='http://www.siteadi.com/resim-adresi-jpg' rel='image_src'/ &gt;<br /><br /></code>
</pre>
Baştaki &lt; simgesinin sağındaki ve sondaki &gt; simgesinin solundaki boşluğu
silin.<br />
<br />
<span><span>http://www.siteadi.com/resim-adresi-jpg</span></span> yazılı alan
yerine bağlantılarda görünmesini istediğiniz resim adresini yazın.<br />
<br />
İşlem bu kadar arkadaşlar, yapamadığınız bir yer olursa sormaktan
çekinmeyin.<br />
<br />
Teşekkürler, iyi bloglamalar...
<div><img width="1" height="1" src=
"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5638808403464756247-8624343737877065805?l%3Dwww.bloggerdestek.com"
alt="" /></div>
]]></description>
            <pubDate>Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:48:35 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>GROU.PS is seeking Customer Support, Finance and Marketing superstars</title>
            <link>http://www.emresokullu.com/blogs/item/groups-is-seeking-customer-support-finance-and-marketing-superstars</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Interested in joining the dynamic and young startup environment of a highly
ambitious Silicon Valley - Istanbul based startup? Keen on learning new stuff,
evolving continuously, experimenting with the latest social technologies? Join
us... GROU.PS' Istanbul office is seeking its exceptional teammates in the
following fields:
<div>
<ul>
<li>Finance: understand balance sheets? able to execute our well planned
financial projections? willing to communicate with and manage our US and
Turkish accountants? experienced in accounting for more than 2 years? have
background in finance from one of Turkey's top universities? Join us. This is
the place for you to blossom. You may be our future CFO.<br />
<br /></li>
<li>Marketing: understand Google AdSense, AdWords? familiar with landing pages,
A/B tests? keen on experimenting with affiliate marketing plans, coupons, price
discrimination strategies? interested in sales? love social media? GROU.PS is
all about people's passions, affiliations and interests. Join us to execute and
contribute to our well defined growth plans. (<a href=
"http://grou.ps/groudotps/wiki/item/head-of-international-content">http://grou.ps/groudotps/wiki/item/head-of-international-content</a>)<br />

<br /></li>
<li>Customer Support: build a team of interns to help us assist our group
founders with live chat and rich documentation. Fluency in English,
understanding of social media and good communication/leadership skills are a
must. (<a href=
"http://grou.ps/groudotps/wiki/item/director-of-customer-support">http://grou.ps/groudotps/wiki/item/director-of-customer-support</a>)</li>
</ul>
<div>Please send your resumes to hr@groups-inc.com</div>
</div>
]]></description>
            <pubDate>Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:16:43 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Yonja'dan Haber Var... (is firsati)</title>
            <link>http://www.emresokullu.com/blogs/item/yonjadan-haber-var-is-firsati</link>
            <description><![CDATA[We are looking for a top level product manager to design and deliver a new
(non-Yonja) major Internet product in the Turkish market. This project (still
in stealth mode) is one of our top priorities after new round of financing from
Tiger Global. Please share this opening broadly in your network. Your help is
much appreciated.<br />
<br />
Key attributes we are looking for<br />
<br />
- Product marketing / management experience<br />
- Internet / social media domain knowledge or experience<br />
- Excellent communications skills; ability to message and position a product
effectively&nbsp;
<div>- ideally 4-5 years solid experience post university&nbsp;</div>
<div>- these are as important as above: strong team player, self-motivated,
strong work ethic!&nbsp;</div>
<div>- basic conversational English along with fluency in Turkish<br />
<br />
The position is based out of our Istanbul office and will be a key leadership
role in the company. Competitive salary and company benefits.<br />
<br />
To apply for this job: <a href="http://www.yonjamedia.com/job.jsp?id%3D52001"
rel="nofollow">http://www.yonjamedia.com/job.jsp?id=52001</a><a target="_blank"
href="http://www.yonjamedia.com/job.jsp?id%3D52001"></a><a target="_blank"
href="http://www.yonjamedia.com/job.jsp?id%3D52001"></a></div>
]]></description>
            <pubDate>Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:07:48 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>17 Subat 2011</title>
            <link>http://www.emresokullu.com/blogs/item/17-subat-2010</link>
            <description><![CDATA[17 Subat 2011 ulke tarihine gecmesi gereken bir gun, ama gecmeyecek.
Hicbirinizin ruhu bile duymayacak... Bugun Turkiye cok onemli bir degerini
yitirdi, ama malesef kimsenin haberi dahi olmayacak.
<div><br /></div>
<div>Osman Tuncel, Galatasaray Lisesi 133 devresinden cok sevdigim bir
kardesim, arkadasimdi. Malesef onu bugun kaybettik. Su yukardaki paragraf bu
kaybin onemini tanimlamaya yetersiz kalir. Kendisi devrenin en caliskan, en
azimli insaniydi: mukemmel bir matematik-fen yeteneginin yanisira tarihe olan
meraki, caliskanligiyla, daha o yasta (lise caglarimizdan bahsediyorum)
universitelerde tez diye gecebilecek koca bir Kibris arastirmasi kitabini
kaleme almis, etrafinda ben de dahil onlarca kisiyi bu calisma icin organize
etmisti. Cok iyi bir arkadas, dogal bir lider, yardimsever bir insan ve buyuk
bir yetenekti. Vefatinin ardindan devre arkadaslarimin email listesi / Facebook
uzerindeki haykirislari da hep ayni sekilde oldu; Osman seni cenazende degil,
10 sene sonra Turkiye'nin basbakani olarak gormeyi bekliyorduk... Rauf
Denktas'dan, Erdogan Tezic'e kadar 50'li yaslarinda Turkiye'nin bircok onemli
ismi, 18'ine girmemis Osman'imizin bu calismalarini hayranlikla yakindan takip
ediyordu.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Osman akilli bir milliyetciydi; onla olan Kibris sohbetlerimizi
unutamam... Turkiye'ye hizmet etmek istiyordu, bunun icin gerekli donanima
sahipti, bunun icin Turkiye'nin en iyi kaynaklari - lise ve universite olarak -
ona bahsedilmisti. O'nu Kongo'da buyukelcilikteki gorevini surdururken
kaybettik. Hayatin karanliklari onu orda yuttu.&nbsp;</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>2001 Turkiye'nin en agir ekonomik krizinde mezun olmus, universiteye
baslamis, kelimenin tam anlamiyla buyuk bir enkazi devralmis bir jenerasyonuz.
Ne dogru durust bir egitimi herkes alabildi, ne de universiteden ciktiktan
sonra yeterli istihdam olanaklariyla karsilastik, ne de ise baslanilan yerlerde
cok olumlu bir kultur vardi. Bu sorunlarin bazilari sadece Turkiye'ye ozel de
degil.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Bu dunyanin Osman'a ve Osman gibi "talent" lara ihtiyaci var. Ama malesef
talent burada underrated. Guclu olmali, umidimizi kaybetmemeli ve isigi biz
tutup kendi uzerimize cekmeliyiz. Bence yapacagiz. Hakkini helal et Osman;
basimiz sagolsun.&nbsp;</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>PS: Email listemize dusen bir video... Osman'i bize hatirlatacak:</div>
<div><br /></div>
]]></description>
            <pubDate>Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:08:13 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>POLL; please respond</title>
            <link>http://www.emresokullu.com/blogs/item/poll-please-respond</link>
            <description><![CDATA[<div><strong>You have a question related to your job, and you want to ask it to
your professional peers; where would you do it?</strong></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>...</div>
]]></description>
            <pubDate>Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:47:27 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Facebook Beğen Butonunu Blogger'a Ekleyelim</title>
            <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggerDestek/~3/Uec4-Xn1gHU/facebook-begen-butonunu-bloggera.html</link>
            <description><![CDATA[<img border="0" height="80" src=
"http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_9W15rc-u7mA/TDHL4TzTMYI/AAAAAAAADBM/tUSwjwh_SXU/s200/facelike.jpg"
style=
"float: left; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 2px; margin-top: 0px;"
width="80" /><br />
Facebook'daki Beğen butonundan her blog sayfanıza birer tane yerleştirmek ister
miydiniz? Bu yazıyı okuduktan sonra çok kolay. Bunu yapmak için iki farklı
yöntem mevcut. Sırası ile bu yöntemlere bir göz atalım.<br />
<a name='more' id="more"></a><br />
<b><span><span>1) iframe Yoluyla</span></span></b><br />
Sıradan bir kullanıcı için en kolay yöntem bu yöntemdir. Çünkü basittir. Ancak
uygulamasının basit olduğu kadar görünüşü de basittir. İkinci yöntemin üstün
özelliklerine sırası gelince değinelim, şimdi gelelim birinci yöntemin
uygulanışına.<br />
<br />
İlk olarak blogumuzun yönetim panelindeki <b>HTML'yi Düzenle</b> sayfasına
giriyoruz. <b>Widget Şablonlarını Genişlet</b> seçeneğini aktif hale
getiriyoruz. Daha sonra şablon kodlarımız arasında <b>CTRL+F</b> yardımıyla
<b><span>&lt;data:post.body/&gt;</span></b> kodunu buluyoruz. Hemen altına da
aşağıdaki kodları yapıştırıyoruz:<br />
<pre>
<code><br />&lt;b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &amp;quot;item&amp;quot;'&gt;<br />&lt;iframe allowTransparency='true' expr:src='&amp;quot;http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=&amp;quot; + data:post.url + &amp;quot;&amp;amp;layout=standard&amp;amp;show_faces=false&amp;amp;width=100&amp;amp;action=like&amp;amp;font=arial&amp;amp;colorscheme=light&amp;quot;' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' style='border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:40px;'/&gt;<br />&lt;/b:if&gt;<br /></code>
</pre>
<br />
Şablonumuzu kaydettiğimiz zaman, tamamdır. Bu adımları tamamladığınızda
yazınızın altında şuna benzer bir görüntü oluşacak:<br />
<div><a href=
"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9W15rc-u7mA/TDHJSA3teHI/AAAAAAAADBE/XcQCQm9oT4Y/s1600/like1.jpg"
imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src=
"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9W15rc-u7mA/TDHJSA3teHI/AAAAAAAADBE/XcQCQm9oT4Y/s320/like1.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Bu bitti, devam edelim.<br />
<br />
<b><span>2) XFBML Yoluyla</span></b><br />
<div>Bu yolu kullanarak Beğen butonunuzu daha işlevsel bir hale
getirebilirsiniz. Bu yöntemi uyguladığınızda ziyaretçileriniz yazılarınızı
beğenmenin yanında yazılarınıza bir yorum yazıp facebook sayfalarında
paylaşabilirler de. Bunu yapmak için blogumuza bir facebook app id almamız
gerekli.&nbsp;<a href=
"http://developers.facebook.com/setup/">http://developers.facebook.com/setup/</a>&nbsp;adresine
girerek oradaki gerekli bilgileri doldurun, ve Create Application butonuna
tıklayın. Unutmamamız gereken bir ayrıntı, Site URL kısmına yazacağımız blog
anasayfamızın adresinin sonundaki / işaretini unutmamamız gerektiğidir, yoksa
site İnvalid URL hatasını veriyor. Örneğin:</div>
<div><b>Site Name: Asosyalbebe<br />
Site URL:&nbsp;http://www.asosyalbebe.com/<br />
Locale: Türkçe</b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Bilgileri doldurup Create Application butonuna tıkladıktan sonra açılan
sayfadaki App id'yi bir kenara yazıyoruz. &nbsp;Daha sonra&nbsp;şablon
kodlarımız arasında CTRL+F
yardımıyla&nbsp;<b><span>&lt;data:post.body/&gt;</span></b>&nbsp;kodunu
buluyoruz. Hemen altına aşağıdaki kodları ekliyoruz.&nbsp;</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<pre>
<code><br />&lt;div id="fb-root"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;<br />&lt;script&gt;<br />window.fbAsyncInit = function() {<br />FB.init({appId: '<b><span>app id niz</span></b>', status: true, cookie: true,<br />xfbml: true});<br />};<br />(function() {<br />var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true;<br />e.src = document.location.protocol +<br />'//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js';<br />document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e);<br />}());<br />&lt;/script&gt;<br />&lt;div&gt;<br />&lt;fb:like action='like' colorscheme='light'<br />layout='standard' show_faces='true' width='450'/&gt;<br />&lt;/div&gt;<br /></code>
</pre></div>
<br />
Kod içerisindeki kırmızı ile belirttiğim kısımdaki <b>app id niz</b> kısmının
yerine tırnakları silmeden az önce almış olduğumuz application id'nizi
yazıyoruz.Ve şablonu kaydederek bu işi bitiriyoruz. Görüntü şu resimlere
benzeyecek:<br />
<div><a href=
"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9W15rc-u7mA/TDG7yA6vbzI/AAAAAAAADAk/e7v_izDsbxQ/s1600/yontem1.jpg"
imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src=
"http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9W15rc-u7mA/TDG7yA6vbzI/AAAAAAAADAk/e7v_izDsbxQ/s320/yontem1.jpg" /></a></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><a href=
"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9W15rc-u7mA/TDHIMxgLaJI/AAAAAAAADA0/XMEhw1qvWqg/s1600/like-button.jpg"
imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src=
"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9W15rc-u7mA/TDHIMxgLaJI/AAAAAAAADA0/XMEhw1qvWqg/s320/like-button.jpg" /></a></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Beceremediğiniz, zorlandığınız kısımları yorumlarda belirtebilirsiniz.
Sağlıcakla kalın efendim. Butonu denemek için hemen aşağıdaki örneği
kullanabilirsiniz.</div>
<br />
<b>Kaynaklar:</b><br />
<a href=
"http://www.asosyalbebe.com/2010/07/facebook-begen-butonunu-bloggera.html">http://www.asosyalbebe.com/2010/07/facebook-begen-butonunu-bloggera.html</a><br />

<a href=
"http://www.tymsh.com/2010/06/25/sitenize-facebook-like-begen-butonu-ekleyin/">http://www.tymsh.com/2010/06/25/sitenize-facebook-like-begen-butonu-ekleyin/</a><br />

<a href=
"http://www.bloggerplugins.org/2010/04/facebook-like-button-for-blogger.html">http://www.bloggerplugins.org/2010/04/facebook-like-button-for-blogger.html</a><br />

<div><img width="1" height="1" src=
"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5638808403464756247-5609254776540549513?l=www.bloggerdestek.com"
alt="" /></div>
]]></description>
            <pubDate>Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:24:35 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Thoughts on Ning Exodus and GROU.PS, SocialGo, Spruz, Grouply &amp; others</title>
            <link>http://www.emresokullu.com/blogs/item/thoughts-on-ning-exodus-and-groups-socialgo--grouply-amp-others</link>
            <description><![CDATA[After Ning's decision to discontinue their free networks, nowadays I've seen a
lot of blog posts and tweets from community owners, questioning which free
platform to go with. Many of them are comparing solutions such as&nbsp;<a href=
"http://grou.ps/" rel="nofollow">GROU.PS</a>,&nbsp;<a href=
"http://grouply.com/" rel="nofollow">Grouply</a>,&nbsp;<a href=
"http://spruz.com/" rel="nofollow">Spruz</a>,&nbsp;<a href=
"http://socialgo.com/" rel="nofollow">SocialGo</a>,&nbsp;<a href=
"http://webs.com/" rel="nofollow">Webs</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=
"http://buddypress.com/" rel="nofollow">BuddyPress</a>. As the founder and CEO
of GROU.PS and an avid community manager myself (<a href=
"http://www.eylem20.org/" rel=
"nofollow">http://www.eylem20.org</a>&nbsp;<a href=
"http://www.barcampistanbul.com/" rel=
"nofollow">http://www.barcampistanbul.com</a>&nbsp;<a href=
"http://www.socialbeans.org/" rel=
"nofollow">http://www.socialbeans.org</a>&nbsp;and of course;&nbsp;<a href=
"http://grou.ps/groudotps" rel="nofollow">http://grou.ps/groudotps</a>) I'll do
something pretty unusual and join this conversation directly. Here&nbsp;I'll
share with you what I think of and know&nbsp;about each of those do-it-yourself
social networking players that are being widely mentioned.&nbsp;
<div><br /></div>
<div><em>Disclosure: You may think I am biased and you'd probably be right...
But my only purpose here is to be sincere about the market conditions, give you
some insight aside from technical speculation which you can probably find
anywhere, and let you know where my company stands exactly. Yet I still
recommend that you to look at more independent sources as well.&nbsp;</em>
<div><br />
<strong>BuddyPress</strong><br />
BuddyPress is a fairly new project but it was created by the same good folks
who created the most popular blogging platform, Wordpress. It is a software
solution, so unlike hosted/cloud solutions, it requires you to have your own
servers and run it from there, continually update and be careful about the
conflicts that might occur with your patches and plugins. Which means it's for
advanced users and it costs you money. If you are strictly looking for a hosted
solution though, I'd recommend that you go with them. The other players
are&nbsp;<a href="http://elgg.org/" rel="nofollow">Elgg</a>&nbsp;(which has
also recently launched its own hosted solution) and&nbsp;<a href=
"http://pligg.com/" rel="nofollow">Pligg</a>&nbsp;(which I heard just a few
days ago).&nbsp;<span>I know some of the folks behind BuddyPress (at
Automattic); they are very nice people and they have funding that makes the
software a safe bet for the long-term viability of your community. They are
much more experienced in online publishing than any of us, too, but the
software is not as mature as that of more established players like Elgg and
Pligg.</span> <span>At GROU.PS, we are strong believers in the cloud (i.e.
hosted solutions). Running stuff on your own servers costs not only money but
time and effort. There's a longer learning curve as well. I'm an open-source
addict, and I love how customizable BuddyPress and similar players can be
because of their open-source nature. Actually, that's why GROU.PS started its
own open-source initiative two years ago. But at the end of the day, we
evaluated our resources and decided to stick with one thing—but do it so
perfectly that we would deliver the best of both worlds. At GROU.PS, we have
the vision to create an eco-system similar to -- or even broader than
--</span>&nbsp;<a href="http://developer.force.com/" rel=
"nofollow">SalesForce</a>'s&nbsp;<a href="http://developer.force.com/" rel=
"nofollow">AppForce</a>&nbsp;platform. Our&nbsp;<a href=
"http://grou.ps/groupsdev" rel="nofollow">Developer</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=
"http://grou.ps/templatedevelopers" rel="nofollow">Template
Design</a>&nbsp;<span>platforms are early examples of that. Expect to see
tighter integration and more opportunities to make money from your knowledge on
the GROU.PS platform soon. Such an extensible cloud-based solution not only is
much more practical but would solve many of the incompatibility and crash
hassles that occur in the open-source world.<br /></span><br />
<strong>Spruz</strong><br />
[update: Spruz has brought new limits to its service, only 100 members allowed
in the free package]<br />
<span>Spruz has done some pretty impressive stuff. It managed to sneak into the
Ning network with a toolbar add-on called&nbsp;</span><a href=
"http://skysa.com/" rel="nofollow">skysa</a>,&nbsp;<span>and then created its
own alternative platform, which today is called Spruz (and looks like a quick
and dirty hack), using the knowledge and expertise it gained from skysa to
steal networks from Ning. This strategy gave it a huge boost over others in the
importing process. Independent stats confirm that, too: Alexa shows stunning
growth, and Compete and Quantcast indicate that GROU.PS and Spruz are the
fastest-growing networks since Ning’s big announcement. This growth of Spruz is
fascinating, considering that GROU.PS had already been Ning’s biggest
competitor for a long while; showing the same growth as us as a new player is
indeed a good job. Spruz remains the fourth player, though, right behind
SocialGo.</span>
<p><span>I really dislike a few things about Spruz, though, and I should state
them here:</span></p>
<p><span>1) The look and feel are pretty poor, although the templates are
fairly customizable. I know that style is a subjective matter, but try it for
yourself. Look and feel are critical to creating a sense of belonging within
your online community. They are what makes your members feel at home.
Otherwise, why not use Facebook Groups to start your own social
network?</span></p>
<p><span>2) Spruz is new but is already starting to have technical issues.
Scaling to thousands of social networks is not an easy job. We remember that
from our early days in 2008. Scaling requires a lot of experience and
investment.<br />
3) A personal concern of mine is that some of its templates are exact copies
from our library. Granted, some of those templates are open source, and
imitation is OK to some extent—but copying our default template is not the
friendliest thing you can do.<br />
4) One thing that I recommend all community managers look at is the financial
stability of the platform they choose. Hosting millions of networks is an
expensive job. Spruz is secretive about its funding and corporate status.
Choosing a platform is like choosing a business partner: you need some
transparency.</span></p>
<p><span>5) In a blog post, Spruz declared that it would cut costs by removing
unused communities and by not serving videos. Not serving videos or files and
saving on bandwidth is understandable; bandwidth is expensive. But losing that
functionality is serious. And removing unused communities is kind of a silly
argument because that does not really cut many costs.</span></p>
<p><span>Apart from these points, I find Spruz' community management very
successful. It seems very responsive to people who want to build their
communities there.&nbsp;<br /></span></p>
<div>[Spruz' response can be found in <a rel="nofollow" href=
"http://www.emresokullu.com/blogs/item/thoughts-on-ning-exodus-and-groups-socialgo--grouply-amp-others#comment_1851490">
comments</a>]<br />
<br />
<strong>SocialGo</strong><br />
I first heard about SocialGo, I guess, in mid 2008. Their platform is
noticeably different for those who are familiar Ning. You may consider this
originality and hence a plus.They are surely spending the most money in between
these companies for advertising. I even see their ads on GROU.PS. They invest a
lot of money in Google Ads. They should be financially more secure compared to
some of the other hosted DIY social network companies that I mention here;
their investors include the founders of Eidos, a big video game
success.&nbsp;</div>
<div>But the current results show that there's not much traction on SocialGo,
people tend to use other platforms instead. A personal note, it never appealed
to my tastes either. And perhaps the fact that almost every single thing in
their admin panel is a premium feature must be annoying for the group
founders.<br />
<br />
<strong>Webs</strong><br />
Webs is a very old and pretty stable web site creation service. I know one of
their founders and investors, they are pretty committed to what they do and
they are right now one of the best web site creation services out there.
However, &nbsp;DIY social networking is not their core; it's an after-thought.
Their DIY social networking platform is built on top of their existing web site
creation platform as a patch - and that shows in the product itself with very
weak social graph features, no real benefits of friending/following etc. That's
why DIY social networking sounds like a me-too thing that they've done to
justify their valuation in the heydays of the social networking.</div>
<div>All the tweets and blog entries I come across show weak signs of interest
into Webs. I think that's a result of the weak social graph features I've just
mentioned. People, when they sign up, realize they're not on an online
community but rather a web site creation service.<br />
<br />
<strong>Grouply</strong><br />
Grouply has a special place for me. 3 years ago, when Grouply was about to
launch, GROU.PS was already up and running, I was introduced to them by my
advisor who told me that we might be doing something similar - probably
concluding from our names. Anyways, I emailed back and forth with their
founders, I always enjoy meeting the managers/founders of the competitive
companies, compare notes and see what we can do together to create a healthy
competition environment. At that time, GROU.PS was totally a 1 man show with a
single advisor, I had no funding, I was just a 23 years old guy who left his
homeland with the dream of creating the world's best online community in
Silicon Valley - where the software dreams come true.&nbsp;</div>
<div>However probably this extremely idealistic character of mine made Grouply
founders consider me as a potential hiring candidate rather than a competitive
service provider - which I wasn't OK with of course. Months later they've
launched a service which was pretty different than DIY social networking, it
was an aggregator for Yahoo Group and Google Groups. But after receiving a huge
number of spam complaints, it didn't take too long for them to change their
product. Just last year, they came up with a DIY social networking offering,
which is of course, in terms of product, years behind what we offer; as a
result of starting being pretty late to the game.&nbsp;</div>
<div>I can see that Ning's decision pushed some community managers to try
Grouply as well, but the traction doesn't seem large yet.</div>
<div><br />
<strong>GROU.PS</strong><br />
According to all independent sources GROU.PS is today the largest competitor of
Ning. And again, early results show that GROU.PS and Spruz have become the
biggest winners of Ning's decision to kick off free networks (even though
GROU.PS has no leverage such as skysa) But I think there's much to see in this
area; so everything can change. What I can observe people create their networks
to try the platforms but many haven't come to a final conclusion yet. And I
think that makes sense. Platform choice is a very important decision and needs
to be made carefully.&nbsp;<br />
GROU.PS is a content agnostic platform that aims to monetize this space by an
asymmetric business model. That means, unlike Ning, we won't sell software,
that's not our plan, we will instead charge brands and advertisers. Asymmetric
model works pretty well in Google, Facebook and Twitter. On the other hand,
services like eBay, Amazon, Salesforce use a symmetric model (a la Ning) where
they charge directly those who use their service.</div>
<div>We also believe in revenue share. We know you, as an organic content
creator, usually are not motivated by money to create that content and get
people around. But you'd love to see the benefits of your efforts and/or create
a budget for your community. GROU.PS aims to do that (and already does it to a
some extent) and cut a commission to pay the bills.</div>
<div>This kind of a business model requires us to be very careful about our
costs and there comes our competitive advantages. GROU.PS' development team is
pretty large yet it is based in Turkey. That allows us to create a great
product at a much lower cost than our competitors. As for bandwidth costs
(GROU.PS provides enormous amounts of bandwidth and storage space for its
users) we have a stealth mode product that we will announce soon - and you'll
see how we're able to keep the things going by some truly innovative methods. I
think you should definitely keep those financial arguments in mind while
choosing your platform of choice.</div>
<div>People usually criticize GROU.PS for not being stable and I understand
that. Indeed we did have periods of time when the service was on and off and
our early adopters showed great patience - which we really appreciate and will
never forget (even in our pricing) But we gained so much experience at that
time that I am proud to say, today we are operationally very very stable. As
for the product stability, we're getting better at it too. While having a team
based in Turkey is a competitive advantage in terms of cost management, it was
also a drawback in terms of software engineering experience. Nobody can beat
Silicon Valley's experience in software engineering. But we have an office in
the heart of Silicon Valley too, and that helped our small team quickly gain
the same experience as their peers in Silicon Valley and today we have a very
talented/gifted team and software engineering methods that allow us to deliver
you a very stable product. However, we still keep the beta tag in our logo,
because our product is not at the place where it needs to be yet. Our product
vision continues to drive us further and further, stay with us and you'll see
some very cool stuff coming up. Of course, some rare instances of instabilities
are possible due to&nbsp;continuous&nbsp;release and other agile methods that
we follow - but we'll keep that very very low.</div>
<div>I think another thing that I need to discuss is funding. GROU.PS has done
a lot with very little funding. But, although I'm not able to get into details
yet, you should be confident that we're about to announce something soon that
will give us a long runway to accomplish the big vision that I have very
vaguely outlined here.</div>
<div>All in all GROU.PS is like Japanese cars. these are our baby steps, you
see a great product, great innovation but you hear about some instabilities;
but that's about to change; GROU.PS does not just keep innovating but is also
creating a truly amazing product with superior stability than anybody else. We
are committed to keep our business model asymmetric (which means free for our
group founders) and innovate in terms of business as well.</div>
<div><br />
<strong>Final Notes</strong></div>
<div>Well I know that this post has been in favour of my company, but that's
because I truly believe in everything I say here. I invite other CEOs/product
managers to post their own thoughts in comments or as new blog posts and I
promise to publish links to their posts from here - for the sake of objectivity
and giving a very well deserved say to them too</div>
<div>I anticipate that Ning's decision to kick off their free networks will
result in many international networks to leave. That will make Ning more US
focused. But I believe, people, in time, will choose the best product in the
market - no matter what, no matter where they are. Gina Bianchini, ex CEO of
Ning (and a terrific person whom I had a chance to meet), once said in an
interview that she believes Ning is gonna remain number 1 in this space because
the network effects will speak and keep the status-quo - her examples were
Facebook and Twitter's points of displacement. With all due respect, I don't
agree with that. First, DIY social networks consist of networks that are
isolated from each other, network effects take place within our micro social
networks not through the entire network itself. Second, even though the network
effects were to take place, don't forget that Friendster and MySpace were
number one before Facebook took over the throne.</div>
<div><br />
Like this article?<br />
Please <a href=
"http://twitter.com/home?status%3DGROU.PS%20vs%20others.%20What%20is%20the%20best%20Ning%20alternative?%20http://bit.ly/9wqy71"
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<div><br /></div>
<div>BONUS MATERIAL:</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Feature by Feature Comparison Sheet</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>GROU.PS Growth Figures</div>
<div><img align="none" src=
"http://grou.ps/wysiwyg_files/editor/emresokullu-20100706040016-esokullu.png" /><br />
</div>
<div><img align="none" src=
"http://grou.ps/wysiwyg_files/editor/emresokullu-20100706040045-esokullu.png" /><br />

<br />
We care about our communities. After observing a lot of education communities
moving to our platform; we've decided to create 2 new templates for the
education community. Here are the screenshots:<br />
<br />
<img align="none" src="http://grou.ps/images/tss/200/scholar.jpg" />
<img align="none" src=
"http://grou.ps/images/tss/200/blackboard.jpg" /><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
</div>
</div>
]]></description>
            <pubDate>Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:03:53 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>GROU.PS now syncs with Yahoo Groups</title>
            <link>http://www.emresokullu.com/blogs/101614</link>
            <description><![CDATA[<p><br /></p>
<p><a href=
"http://grou.ps/yahoogroups.php">http://grou.ps/yahoogroups.php</a></p>
]]></description>
            <pubDate>Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:20:33 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>GROU.PS now syncs with Yahoo Groups</title>
            <link>http://grou.ps/emresokullu/blogs/101614</link>
            <description><![CDATA[<p><br /></p>
<p><a href=
"http://grou.ps/yahoogroups.php">http://grou.ps/yahoogroups.php</a></p>
]]></description>
            <pubDate>Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:20:33 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Notepad Chaos v2</title>
            <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggerDestek/~3/Y3NA_kdxYbQ/notepad-chaos-v2.html</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Merhaba arkadaşlar, daha önce en çok indirilen en çok beğenilen tema ünvanını
taşıyan Notepad Chaos'un 2. versiyonu yayımlandı. Bu versiyonda temaya bir
sütun daha eklenmiş ve sağdaki sütunların altına son yorumlar eklentisi
yerleştirilmiş. Bu versiyonda ilk versiyon kadar iddialı görünüyor. Evan
Eckvard tarafından tasarlanan tema <a href=
"http://bloggertemplates.info/"><b>Blogger Templates</b></a> tarafından
Blogger'a uyarlanmış.<br />
<br />
<div><a href=
"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sF9F5_nDfgc/S4v_nM_zgGI/AAAAAAAABu4/FmcNsy6Regg/s1600-h/Notepad-Chaos-2.jpg"
imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="226" src=
"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sF9F5_nDfgc/S4v_nM_zgGI/AAAAAAAABu4/FmcNsy6Regg/s400/Notepad-Chaos-2.jpg"
width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div><a href="http://btemplates.com/download/1824/">İndir</a> - <a href=
"http://notepadchaos2.blogspot.com/">Demo</a></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><img width="1" height="1" src=
"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5638808403464756247-6777782415135489881?l=www.bloggerdestek.com"
alt="" /></div>
]]></description>
            <pubDate>Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:59:42 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
    </channel>
</rss>

