Ning-based social network Furry United has closed after the termination of free hosting.

Founder Zenon Tigerpaw recommended users move to Furry 4 Life or the MyFur Network.

Update: Furspace also appears to be offline, while MyFursona is closing down this Christmas.

Social networking platform Ning is to withdraw free services, disappointing many non-profit educational and social groups, including furs.

Furry 4 Life, FurNation, Furry United, Colombiafur and The Furry Den are based on Ning, with F4L and FurNation already paying for ad control.

Zenon Tigerpaw, founder of Furry United, had two words in response to the news: "Oh shit." He later announced plans to move to a new host.

See also: FurNation relaunched as Ning site - Colombiafur moves to Ning

Spanish-language furry community Colombiafur has followed Furry 4 Life and FurNation onto the Ning platform.

Site founder Richard Wolf VI explained his objectives in a blog post [translated]:

We are looking for ways for the community to achieve stability; it is not an immediate process, but I hope to achieve it.

The first step is to establish an online community platform, trying to tame the fury of instant messaging with Ning's more stable decentralized system. The platform seems ideal, due to the convergence of services and great potential for user participation.

FurNation has been reborn as a Ning-based community, following the course set by social networking site Furry 4 Life.

The 14-year-old site has a long but oft-troubled history. Over the past two years, its community has faced repeated requests for server hosting funds.

The new owner, Reyedog, intends to revive FurNation's hosting on a separate server, as Ning's terms of service limit images to "tasteful nudes."