This was originally an email to a friend looking for a platform to set up a small blogging network, I suggested Ning via Twitter and followed up with some more detailed thoughts. I’ve edited bits to make it a little more general.

I'm running two sites on it now, Sydneycyclist and Melbournecyclist although I don't have much to do with the layout or the day to day on the Melbourne one.

What's good about Ning, especially for what you want to do.

• Privacy - you can set up it so new members need to be approved, you can also only allow unapproved members to see the home page.
• Groups - you could set up sub groups, if you wanted to be able to set up say a Sydney group or anything else you can.
• Events are cool, you can set up an event, invite people to it and collect RSVPs
• Customisable user profiles - people can skin their own page however they like.
• Photos / videos etc, may not be as useful to you, but if you had a meetup it's a nice private place to post pics and comment on them. There are some nice touches like geotagging photos against Google maps.
• Front page is customisable, you can pull in RSS feeds, move around forum posts / gallery / any number of text boxes etc to your hearts content.
• Decent messaging system between members
• The activity bar lets you decide what sort of events show up, and you can do custom announcements

As for negatives, there isn't anything too bad about it. The front page can get a little slow and sluggish if you're pulling in lots of feeds.

There are also some limitations around the way the home page items work.
For example, when I put a forum box on the home page, I can have it display latest posts, or featured posts. What would be awesome is to be able to have the latest posts, plus any sticky / featured / announcement posts. I could do something by pasting in a link to an announcements text box though (just thought of that, I might go play with that idea).

There are times when a discussion partly fits in a group, but could also belong in the main forum. I've tamed my OCD and stopped worrying about that.

It costs a few bucks a month if you want to point a custom domain name at it.

All in all though, I like it. I never would have gotten those sites off the ground without it. A few of my members have gone and started their own networks for other interests too.

It's free and easy to set something up to try, although I will say that if you want to do that, give it a few hours to get your head around. It can be a bit overwhelming when you get started.

Check out the Ning blog, it has lots of inspiration.