Jerry --
while I think that weblogs would foster adoption, the other exceptionally important issue (which no one has yet addressed to my satisfaction, anyway) are the lack of reliable, _inexpensive_ hosting facilities that will allow an OpenACS installation to run.
By "inexpensive", i mean a shared server with DB access, for $30.00/month or less. Having access to such a server encourages experimentation with a variety of applications, as seen with products like phpnuke and the plethora of php-based products that are trying to be "frameworks" like OpenACS.
People are using them because it's easy and cheap to play with them.
Before the flames come crashing down upon me, the $30 price point _is_ possible to achieve with a high degree of reliability, at least with apache and mysql. (wolfwater.com has been running on such a setup for several years with minimal downtime. check out pair.com for details).
My sincere hope is that some enterprising person will prove that it can be done with opennsd and postgresql (the postgresql is the vexing piece -- it's almost impossible to find a low-cost postgresql provider.)
