Invite members without becoming friends

[Yumi Nakanishi]

Hi,
We are creating a Ning network for our students. How do I invite the students without friending them? I noticed that the inviter is automatically friends with the invitee. I don't necessarily want to be friends with my students.
Thanks,
Yumi

[judibea]

Hmmm---this is interesting. Let me first state that I didn't even realize that the creator of the NING could opt to not friend so my response is based on assuming that there isn't any other option. Here goes:

Anytime I am using a NING with students I consider "Friend" merely to mean "friendly with" and meaning I will respond to and look at what this person shares. I am assuming I am wanting to share with students and have them do likewise around the specified purpose of the NING. This issue should be clarified in the NETIQUETTE tab that I would suggest you add to any NING you create. Make the purpose clear and the guidelines for usage clear. Explain that guidelines you expect for "friending". Do watch out for the "send message" feature that allows a student to direct a message to another and thereby bypass your "watchful" guidance in maintaining a positive NING environment. A virtual environment just like the physical environment of the school calls for us to maintain the purpose and positive/meaningful engagement.

[Yumi Nakanishi]

Hi,

Thank you so much for your response as I'm just learning about the Ning network. We have decided to create a "master" or "admin" account which will alllow us to invite students without personally being friends with them; the admin will be their friend. I like your idea of having a Netiquette tab. Could you share your tab or where can I see a good example of one?

Also, in my basic exploration of "friend" on Ning, it looks like there is no difference between friend and member in terms of access to everyone's pages. The Ning friend seems different from a Facebook friend. As I understand it, a friend on Ning is like a favorite or filtered list of members. Please clarify if I am wrong.

Thanks again,
Yumi