I want to start a online community for students. It will involve features like profile, friend list, forums and articles all manged by members. It would be something like orkut and myspace but for university students. Can anyone recommend any nice free php scripts for this. I don't mind pay scripts but it should give free trial for some days so i can check all its feature. Thanks.
you can try this http://www.dzoic.com http://www.joovili.com but they are paid Also pay a look to this site http://www.zillr.com it's hybrid of facebook , myspace and orkut
I have looked and tried all the different social networking scripts paid and free as well as www.phpizabi.net and really that's the best you can get for free. The best out there is the phpfox but that cost around $400 but well worth it. Also i have the most members using the site using the phpfox script versus the others i have. I have handshakes as well and that one i would have to say is the next best one. This is my site using the phpfox www.FriendWise.com it has all the features you listed as well as many more and they had a recent update with a lot of added features but haven't installed it yet.
Well i can't speak for the other scripts out there but i did install phpizabi and it was fairly nice; however in the end i went with phpfox and i've had nothing but good experiences with it so far. Sure it has some way for improvement but they all do. Lots to pick from out there just do your research and if you're going to integrate other things into it the way i did; i.e. phpbb, coppermine, video hosting, etc..then make sure you have enough skills to get you through or have access to good, reliable, dependable and cost effective development resources that can pull you through. www.castnshoot.com
Thanks richos & arnoldq, I will surely try phpizabi, I would have go for phpfox but i have funding problem becuase this site is for students and it will be a non profitable site and i can't pay $400 from my packet. I have heard about Dolphin Community Builder, Have anyone tried that?
You can find a pile of open source social networking scripts here: www.best-php-scripts.com under social networking category.
I know there are plenty of free open source social networking scripts, But i need some honest review from DP members, who have tested them.
i've read alot about phpfox and phpizabi on other forums, as well as here on DP. i haven't tested either one myself, but from what i've read neither programs scale very well at all. if you're planning on a small community of just a couple hundred or so members, then they might work well for you. if your goal is 1k+ members, then you could run into a big problem. supposedly phpizabi and phpfox are both resource hogs and with too many members signed in at the same time, your server's CPU usage will quickly reach it's peak. this is especially true for shared or VPS hosting environments. again, this is just what i've read from the many different forums and articles out there. i haven't tested it myself, but i thought you should be aware of the possibility.
Hi, I don't normally self promote but you did ask for what we do have. You can start a free online community with forums, blogs, videos, photos, music, articles etc.... at www.thevillage.com. You can use all or some of the features. You can also make your community (or village as we like to call it) private or public. It's not a downloadable script but it is free. Don't pay for hosting, scripts or anything else. We use the same streaming media service as Facebook, MSNBC, and MetaCafe the streaming media will run much faster than if you did it on your own servers. Let me know if anyone has any questions, good luck with your project. Sample communities: www.riptube.com www.breezinthru.com (no content on there yet) nyrangers.thevillage.com
Thanks xill for your thoughts. teamdesign, I am looking for some kind of script that I can run with my domain name and have full control over it.
i have tried version 5 and version 6. v5 isn't being distributed any longer and if you can find a copy of it good luck finding a hosting company that has the requirements to run it. dolphin version 5 requires php version 4 - it WILL NOT run on php version 5 at all. dolphin version 6 is brand new, just released last month. VERY UNSTABLE and security on the product is a joke. unfortunately i bagged both attempts. very nice features but version 6 is barely out of the womb so to speak. btw, i am still shopping.
Anyone tried Handshakes of http://www.dzoic.com, The admin demo looks superb with lot of features. The price is on higher side $350 but i think it worth it. Have anyone tested here?
i have used all the script as has been discussed above . professionals go for custom made. others go for phpfox and some dzoic (it has some issues of its coding/zending). for college many have customized buddyver2.0 and using it it works well. using video will consume a lot of bandwidth heavy traffice will require VPS hosting. donot use dolphin . not ready for production use.