What are your impressions of Ning?

The closest thing I have to a competitor for one of my forums is a community on Ning. To get an idea of what I was up against, I tried creating a community using Ning's tools, but found it too frustrating and slow. (Of course, it was early in Ning's existence when I tried this, so things might have changed since then.) Can anyone give me a run-down of what Ning is really like?

 

I hate it!

I used to visit a Social network daily that was powered by Ning; nice site, bad software.

Ning is good, though; just have to be careful with what you add.

 

That's what I wanted to hear. If the software is terrible so will the user experience be.

 

Exactly!

 

So do you think I need to worry about my cotton-headed Ningy muggin competitor?

 

Nah! (As far as them stealing users.)

As far as them being a general competitor, yes.

 

What if my content is way better, but the less-than-intelligent members haven't found their way to Ning yet so their content looks all professional-like?

 

Now that's a toughie.

Gonna give it some thought.

 

I hated anything on ning so far. So nah, you're safe

 

Well, I thought about it, and, to be frank, I really don't think that will play a big role in anything.

If your members are dedicated to your sites, then you shouldn't have any worries.

 

I'd say most have checked it out and decided they like my site better. But users loyalties only last if your site really IS better than the competition; there's little cost to them to switch sites.

 

Great point, Solilo.

I think you've answered your own question.

 

Ning looks easy enough to duplicate as a standalone site. I can think of three tools to use..

vBulletin with Blogs and CMS.
Wordpress Mu and Buddypress.
Drupal with Drupal Groups.

Though I don't relish being the programmer on a Drupal site. While the code is state of the art, its awful to follow in my opinion.

 

Okay, personally, I have never know what Ning is, let alone considered checking out any forum powered by Ning.

Based on that alone, I'd say you are safe. But that's just me...

 

Ning is good for me because I create profile pages on Disney-related social networks on there and cross-promote my sites

But, I'm not sure that I like the limitations on the Ning network.