Alright, I've given Elgg a 1 year trial on a website that I built to test it out. And here's what I have to say about it.

When I compare Elgg to Drupal – or even Moodle/Joomla -- what I am seeing is essentially the KDE vs. Gnome debate. Both have pretty much the exact same features. Except Elgg's mission is primarily to focus on social networking. However, Drupal's user base is much larger. Therefore, after a year of using Elgg, I can say that it comes down to a matter of personal preference for the site administrator.

What I think that is great about Elgg is that it comes out of the box ready to use as a social network. Although, as I said before, both Ning and Elgg seem to be comparable in that whoever is setting up the network should choose if they want to have it installed on their own framework or have it run on a server somewhere else. Elgg, obviously, gives the administrator more control. However, within that, also more room for error.

From my experience thus far, I would most likely use Elgg for small groups or community sites. For example, this would be suitable for school and educational uses, like part of a classroom online element. Or, for a local community centre or something like that. Of course, this makes Elgg somewhat comparable to either using a Facebook group or Ning to organize the community. However, as I have stated above, what it really comes down to is allowing administrators a greater ability to control the website/community.

With the growing number of options made availble as add-on/extensions with other content management, the playing field has become much broader. However, what I think it comes down to is a matter of deciding what type of site is being built, and then going from there to choose which software will best suit the needs of the site. However, Elgg is by no means a be-all-end-all solution. Nor, do I think it is supposed to be.

What I think Elgg needs improvement on is 1) theming, and 2) more developers and support.

As I am a student, I have been trying to software in my spare time. So far it has shown itself as an interesting social networking option. However, I believe that it has a long way to go at this point before it can compete with some of the other more popular content management systems that are out there.

Another thought is based on integrating the software with these other content management systems. Although, I wonder if that is necessary or perhaps asking for too much at this point. Elgg seems to be more or less working towards its own stance.

Keep up the good work guys.