Social Network - how hard is it to make?

Phpfox is too slow man and I do not use it ever more.
I have an great experience with this scripts because I run serveral dating and socialnetworking websites.
I used phpfox and it is very slow, because they do not use smartyphp and huge amount of files are there.
Joovili is the nicest there, but there is not much options inside admin backend.
Buddyzone is not recomanded, because i have read some of the bad things on this forum about that, but I have never used it.
I am using Dolphin, because it is free and I do pay only licence removal and you can see it on www.datingklub.com.

Here is a list of some socialnetworking scripts that may help you.

Open source:
http://www.boonex.com - Dolphin (Myspace, Youtube, ect all in one)
http://www.phpizabi.net - Phpizabi (Not a lot of functions, but it is free)

Commercial:
Phpfox - www.phpfox.com - MySpace like
Joovili - www.joovili.com - Same
BuddyZone - www.vastal.com/buddy-zone-social-networking-script.html - Same
SocialEnigne - www.socialengine.net - Facebook like, but not with lot of functions (fastest because it use smartyphp)
Ablespace - http://ablespace.abk-soft.com/ - Great product but expensive

Hope this helps - You also have a demo on their websites !

 

the problem with Ning is that it costs a freaking fortune (and $8/mo just to remove the "create your own network" link is highway robbery). If you want a successful social network through them, you will need all 4 of those premium services, which totals about $516/yr. with the lowest bandwidth option. I also don't think they have a paid user option, if you're going to create a dating site.

I'd rather host my own and be able to modify the entire site, instead of only some 80% of it. Unfortunately there aren't any good social network packages out there. I'm still checking the CMS forum here every day, hoping for a new one

 

Looks cool, I need something with a video system, thanks for the link

 

Just a general question on Social Networking Sites... I guess there is always room for more, but is it even worth investing your time and money?

 

Its not hard, its the competition that will get ya

 

Personally, I'd say no.

Unless I had a product or service I knew would pull in a specific crowd with specific needs, I'd go with some white label system...

 

I would look in the buy/sell/trade for one that wwasn't too expensive to play around with to see if the idea is right for you.