Social Networking Software - Is any of it any good?

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Permalink Reply by Adam Brooks on December 29, 2008 at 8:37pm

i have been looking for the same. let me know what you find, adam

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Permalink Reply by ben ullman [budesigns] on December 29, 2008 at 8:55pm

Aw, sorry to hear that about Elgg. We are about to test that out at work for an internal collaboration site. I'd like to hear some of the specific challenges you found.

We were considering these:

Elgg
"Create your own social network, quickly and easily. Elgg allows you to take full advantage of the power of social technology with elegant, flexible solutions for organisations, groups and individuals."

Dolphin
Use flexible and powerful community software and implement your brilliant idea in real life. BoonEx software makes it easy to deploy and manage dating sites, social networks, online clubs, or virtual communities. We run community sites ourselves and we pass our experience to you.

Expression Engine
ExpressionEngine is a flexible, feature-rich content management system that empowers thousands of individuals, organizations, and companies around the world to easily manage their website. If you're tired of the limitations of your current CMS then take ExpressionEngine for a spin...

We're also considering Microsoft SharePoint, mainly because it is already in use, enterprise-wide. Even so, we're not liking the looks of it...

Also, you mentioned BuddyPress. The Charlotte BarCamp site is built on that. I believe Justin Ruckman designed/built it.

Drupal might be worth looking at, as well.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Keath [jakrose] on February 24, 2009 at 9:15am

Joomla also has a suite of social networking plugins. similar to what wordpress is doing with buddy press.

I think Ning works well for certain networks. If you want a super dynamic site, I hear elgg is the way to go. When the buddypress community gets built out I see it as a superior solutions as well.

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Permalink Reply by Buck Lawrimore on December 30, 2008 at 7:46am

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Ben. I mean I have spent hours and hours and hours scouring the web via Google, visiting hotscripts and php.resourceindex, trying demos, and NOTHING is right. It either looks like crap or is buggy. I have joined the elgg user group on Google and there are just tons of complaints. It really should be in alpha mode because it has so many problems. Join www.clto.com and try it out before I take it down.

Drupal is awesome in its potential but also its learning curve. It is not intuitive. I have used it a few times and it is very flexible, but it's like learning a new programming language. There's that guy on Twitter who works for UNCC and adores Drupal - can't remember his name - big bushy hairdo in his photo - you might talk to him.

But as the elgg guys point out, their program is the only one built from scratch for social networking. It's just not ready for prime time. The guys doing it are quite young and they don't even have a support forum, which is very frustrating to lots of users. Let us know if you take the plunge with something and how it goes.

Thanks
Buck


ben ullman [budesigns] said:

Aw, sorry to hear that about Elgg. We are about to test that out at work for an internal collaboration site. I'd like to hear some of the specific challenges you found.

We were considering these:

Elgg
"Create your own social network, quickly and easily. Elgg allows you to take full advantage of the power of social technology with elegant, flexible solutions for organisations, groups and individuals."

Dolphin
Use flexible and powerful community software and implement your brilliant idea in real life. BoonEx software makes it easy to deploy and manage dating sites, social networks, online clubs, or virtual communities. We run community sites ourselves and we pass our experience to you.

Expression Engine
ExpressionEngine is a flexible, feature-rich content management system that empowers thousands of individuals, organizations, and companies around the world to easily manage their website. If you're tired of the limitations of your current CMS then take ExpressionEngine for a spin...

We're also considering Microsoft SharePoint, mainly because it is already in use, enterprise-wide. Even so, we're not liking the looks of it...

Also, you mentioned BuddyPress. The Charlotte BarCamp site is built on that. I believe Justin Ruckman designed/built it.

Drupal might be worth looking at, as well.

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Permalink Reply by ben ullman [budesigns] on December 31, 2008 at 5:29pm

Buck Lawrimore said:

Join www.clto.com and try it out before I take it down.

Done.

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Permalink Reply by Buck Lawrimore on December 31, 2008 at 5:34pm

Thank you!
Buck

ben ullman [budesigns] said:

Buck Lawrimore said:

Join www.clto.com and try it out before I take it down.

Done.

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Permalink Reply by Buck Lawrimore on January 4, 2009 at 8:18pm

I am now running dolphin from Boonex.com and am thrilled with how great it looks, the ease of modifying etc. I encourage all smcharlotte members to please register (free) and enjoy this new social networking experience. I really need new people to populate the site, so if you will take 5 minutes to do that, I'll be glad to return the favor any time! Register at Charlotte Online - www.clto.com - thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Richard Preston on February 24, 2009 at 2:40am

I'm wondering why you didn't use Ning. Did you just want more control by hosting it yourself?

When I started doing research on social networking web apps, I was planning to create my own web application until I saw Ning and saw that it does everything I was planning to do already and just using Ning saved me a lot of time.

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Permalink Reply by Buck Lawrimore on February 24, 2009 at 8:53am

Thanks Richard. I had the domain clto.com for a long time and wanted to put it to good use as a Charlotte Online social networking site. Thanks for joining!
Buck

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Permalink Reply by Milton Hamilton on October 28, 2009 at 9:40am

I'm pretty new at the social networking software, but I have brought up my first site and have plans on bringing up 15 more in the next 6 months. After doing a lot of research, I settled on Dolphin community builder. It's highly customizable, has great features and lots of addins for free and more for purchase. I'm very satisfied with it so far. It ran perfectly from the first install. I'll be bringing up my Charlotte site tomorrow. Working on the install for it now.

http://www.boonex.com/products/dolphin/
Site up and running - www.trianglefullfigure.com
coming up tomorrow - www.qcfullfigure.com

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Permalink Reply by Buck Lawrimore on October 28, 2009 at 10:50am

I had clto.com on Dolphin but it got hacked and completely ruined. My experience has been that any free software is vulnerable to hacking. So be prepared for your Dolphin site to get destroyed at some point.

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Permalink Reply by Milton Hamilton on October 31, 2009 at 10:25am

Thanks! Sounds Iike I better make sure the backups are running with a good verification!

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