TechCrunch: “[T]he reality of Ning is that it’s lost whatever coolness it had, no one uses it and Ning is going to have a very hard time getting people’s attention when they finally do roll out better functionality.”

+1 here. I got another update from them by e-mail the other day (they’re no longer in beta). I hit the web site, and the “showcase apps” that I see are nothing more than something I could easily whip up with a blogging tool. I know that there is more under the covers to what they’re doing, but I don’t see very good examples of their service flourishing within the community. If the adoption of a service like Ning is limited, then it is hard to get momentum as a user. I’ve looked at it several times, but I’m probably done with it.