I've spent years checking open source community applications (PHP and Java) then had a look at myspace , yahoo and Liferay . The community concept I've developed is a space where users can ask questions, blog, submit threads and chat using their own personal chat room. I am still looking for the best Ajax framework to make it more interactive and intelligent. Was it worth the effort? Cheers
Only time will tell.. What you have done is very similar to the community site I created on Drupal, although for a very different audience/niche. My site was successful enough to be featured as one of Google's Adsense Success stories after it was online for only about 9 months. Based on my experience and the likes of Myspace, it's clear that "community" + content = success. your script looks good, and it looks like it does a lot more than i have been able to do (although, i am admittedly a n00b) .. How long has the site been up? how much traffic is it getting? WAS it worth it ??
Social site is great these days if you have one with many users bases. It take s time as well as MONEY i.e. the MONEY to invest to make it well known in the first place such as Press Release etc. However, with all been said, a very robust and useful framework i.e the site, is the beginning. Without a strong framework, it is useless to invest $$$$ in the advertising for no one would really like to use it. cheers,