What are the best open source social network engines?

H

HairyHun

Masturbating Bandit
Oct 11, 2007
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Say you're trying to add a social component to an existing or new project and be able to customize it down the road with new features and integrate it with existing components. Short time-to-market is critical.

I've found boonex and elgg so far.

Any thought on the idea itself or the options you endorse?

Thanks
HH
 


I was just looking at phpfox today. Don't have much to say about it. A lot of modules in it, which would make upgrading easier, because you can just swap out modules. The database access is straightforward.

I've worked extensively with Dolphin 7. I don't like it and it's a pain in the ass. But it's straightforward to put together a module and there's a good tutorial for it. The D7 "chat" didn't work well for us.

I've worked with buddypress and I prefer it to Dolphin but if you don't like wordpress then you won't like buddypress.

Socialengine isn't open source but you can work with it. SE3 is end of line, but the templating is done through Smarty which I liked. SE4, however, uses the Zend engine which some people hate. (I like the MVC but it the SE4 implementation felt clunky).
 
elgg is a steaming pile of shit. Stay away from it.

Buddypress is solid and moderately easy to customize.

::emp::
 
IMO : Dolphin, Buddy Press and Elgg are complete trash.

If you are looking for a WP solution, try WP Symposium. It is in beta at the moment, but I have found it to be very stable and it integrates super easy via hooks, into any theme. I have installed it on ten different themes with no problems.

For a Non-WP solution: IP Board. The learning curve to skin it is steep for some people, but if you know some XML and basic CSS you should have no problems. IP Board is the shit. It is not cheap, but it rocks!
 
Buddypress, Elgg and Dolphin is the best. The Elgg was awarded with the top open source social networking site last year and as then the usability of this software was even improved. Best of luck..
 
emp said:
elgg is a steaming pile of shit. Stay away from it.
Click to expand...

Just go to the elgg site and peruse their lists of sites running the program - nothing even close to a website can be found there - all of them are desolate spam laden crap sites that look like the webmasters just abandoned them and forgot to unplug the server.
 
Elgg has just won the best open source social networking platform for the year 2008, so there is no doubt about the usability of this software. Overall, Elgg is a powerful software that offers blog, networking, community, collection of news using feeds aggregation and file sharing features. In fact, it is one of the most versatile pieces of software that offers almost everything you need to start a social networking site.
MySpace Layouts
 
Winning an award in the "Best Open Source Social Networking Platform" category is not a big deal owing to the fact that there is no continuously developed competitor.

I have been running social networks for a long time and here is my review.

Elgg - As stated above, a complete piece of shit.

PHPizabi - No Comments. Not updated anymore.

PHPFox - PHPfox is a resource hog. Despite its appearance, as you gather users, its going to slow down and turn really tiresome. Also, if you choose to go for the branding-free option, the whole deal can set you back by $350+, which is a lot considering the additional money spent on redevelopment of the script.

Buddypress/Symposium - Extremely worthwhile and can be easily worked upon by most developers. I am not sure on Symposium, but Buddypress is pretty stable.

--

At the end of the day, I chose to settle with a custom-coded option which I believe is the safest bet once your website crosses 15,000 active users.
 
It depends on what you want for your Social Network, honestly.

I would choose BuddyPress if you want a full Social Network in a box.

I would also go with just WordPress Multi-Site if you want multiple Blogs, and you can install the P2 Theme by the makers of WordPress themselves, Automattic. It is like Twitter. Automattic even uses P2 for their project collaboration.
 
ryanstreet said:
It depends on what you want for your Social Network, honestly.

I would choose BuddyPress if you want a full Social Network in a box.

I would also go with just WordPress Multi-Site if you want multiple Blogs, and you can install the P2 Theme by the makers of WordPress themselves, Automattic. It is like Twitter. Automattic even uses P2 for their project collaboration.
Click to expand...
I agree with him.
 
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