Last fall I launched The Chainlink Memphis on a new platform - Social Engine. I was hoping it would be the answer to The Chainlink's challenges with Ning. I bought server space and a license for The Chainlink (Chicago) so that it would follow closely behind Memphis. 

To give you a little history...

When I first bought The Chainlink, I realized pretty quickly the company that owned Ning at the time, Mode Media, let Ning sit without upgrades, improvements, and was terribly lacking in service and support. So I waited for a platform that had needed improvements, newer technology, better support, and a solid migration path from Ning to their platform so we can minimize how much we lose in moving to a new platform. 

My experience with Social Engine has been less than I expected and in formatting the site, it's a huge pain - the site refuses to acknowledge formatting source code I put in the pages so trying to figure out how to format the site took much longer than I expected. Lots of trial and error, some compromise, and generally (a few times) wanting to chuck my computer out the window (I refrained). But the site went live and while it's been a pretty quiet launch in comparison to Chicago (Memphis people don't seem quite as chatty as we are when it comes to bikes but they do visit the site, so there's that). Also, as you will see, it's not the same as Ning in the way it was executed. 

And something surprising happened December, 2016. Mode Media sold/handed over (not sure which) the site to a new owner. And the new owner has already improved downtime, support and service, reversed the plan to increase pricing, and announced a commitment to migrating the old sites (The Chainlink is on an old version of Ning) to the new version. 

So I've been weighing my options. My lukewarm feelings about Social Engine vs. the well-known and revived Ning platform. I figured with both sites live, it's a good time to ask what you think and a great time to check out the new Memphis site. 

So please, check out The Chainlink Memphis at http://thechain.link/memphis

and let me know what you think about the features and functionality. Now it's not really apples-to-apples comparison because as I mentioned, we are on the older version of Ning with a hope to upgrade within a few months, but it'll be good to hear what you think of Social Engine (the platform Memphis is on).

Once you check out the site, please fill out this brief survey and let me know what you think: 

https://goo.gl/forms/g8OnTXcCfhMwA1vv1

Thanks!!