Social Networking Platform

By fearitude on 4 Jan 2008 at 04:28 UTC

I came up with the idea to create an open source "Myspace", "Facebook", "Bebo" "[insert social networking site name here" type platform using the Drupal platform. It seems a lot of people are asking how to make clone sites, or add similar functionality to a Drupal website. I work for Leo Laporte, and I know he's been thinking about having a social networking site for TWiT users.

If enough developers have a little time spare, would you be interested in helping making this sort of Platform for the Drupal community...? We'd then release it free, run it on a domain I just bought (drupit.com) as a demo and working social networking site. I want to make it clear that although we could all benefit from this as the developers, the community as a whole would also. The project wouldn't be owned by anyone, and everyone could pitch ideas and once we have an alpha and beta version, people can start testing it.

Once they run it on their site, they can do whatever they like with it. No one gets paid for this, it's an OPEN SOURCE project. If you later want to give it to a client and charge for customisation, that's your right to do so. I'd love to know how many Drupal developers are available to help create this "one install" package. This would open up so many possibilities for users. I for one would also be using it on a local community site I currently have under development...etc.

Other platforms like Handshakes and PHPFox cost up to $700, which is fine if you want to profit off the site, but everyone should have the right to use an open source platform made easy.

The features I've been thinking about include things like:

*Bulletins
*Photo Albums
*Comments on Profiles (in a similar fasion to Facebook)
*Users can select from current Drupal themes for their profile?
*Add Friends
*Watch People
*Allow each user to have an RSS feed
*Twitter / Pownce / Jaiku like functionality on each profile with short messages
*Possibly integrate Google's Open Social?
*Allow users to post YouTube / Vimeo / Google Video...etc
*Import contact lists from Hotmail / Yahoo! / GMail / AOL / MySpace?
*Profile URL's such as "domain.com/username" or "username.domain.com"
*Local information such as weather, movie showings...etc on the user back end page (the first page they see, not their main 'profile')

Obviously that's a brief list of it's total functionality. We could work with other projects such as iJigg.com to allow Creative Commons and Open Source music to be posted to profiles, and users will still have the ability to add YouTube video's and such to their profiles. It would be great if we could allow the admin back end to enable and disable features as they go.

How practical do you think the whole project is? It could take weeks, or even months to get a fully working Alpha site, but please only volunteer if you have a little time to spare, maybe a few hours here and there.

If your interested in helping with the Drupit Project, please reply to this post, or email me / add me to Windows Live Messenger or Google Talk on - sascha [at] live25.co.uk

I look forward to working with anyone who can help and your feedback!

Best Regards and Thanks!
Sascha Lopez

Comments

Ambitious

Michelle

she/her

English

Wisconsin, USA

commented 4 January 2008 at 04:56

Sounds like quite a site. I've got my hands full with my own projects but I'm interested in seeing if this goes anywhere.

Michelle

--------------------------------------
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.

Wiki to get the ball rolling, and Digg to help promote it...

fearitude commented 4 January 2008 at 08:15

Ok all, I've setup a small Wiki at http://www.drupit.com/wiki and also posted a Digg article - http://digg.com/tech_news/Drupit_The_open_source_Social_Networking_Platform

I am very excited about this and can't wait to start working on it...

Thanks all,
Sascha

great idea

jimmyg164 commented 5 January 2008 at 18:37

i am working on a similar project, so i would like to get involved

have a look at my site, and come back to me with questions

www.mobbly.com

Rock on

luther.tyus commented 15 April 2008 at 05:59

Your site rocks im a novice and im trying to get my social network started. Do you have any helpful hints

Two most important things

minesotaa commented 7 January 2008 at 11:06

Is Lopez monitoring this thread or we need to post at the other links ?

The two most important things unique to SNW are "messaging" ( scrap/write-on-wall/profile-comment )
and ability of an user to create "groups" ( community/club ).

For the super site admin, the admin should have ability to

- choose profile comments appearing as a tabbed page or directly on the profile or both
with number of comments ( total,new) being shown on the tab or page header +
choose how many comments to show before the 'more' link appears

- Almost universally, for the super site admin there should be ability to
create categories from which users can choose to create groups. OG do not have this.
Also, by default profile should show the icons/logos of the groups the user is subscribed to with admin having ability to determine after how many groups "more" link appears, whether they are shown in list or grid( how many by how many) pattern.

For the user : Messaging
1.
if user b posts message on/for user a, user a should see a reply button below user b's comment - this should open a reply box, and when replied the message should get deposited at user b's page, without user a having to leave his page. One can see orkut ( how it handles scrap) to see what I mean.
This is perhaps the most attractive and convenient way.
Xoops and latest boonex has done this to some extent but still 'not there'
Drupal's guestbook module can perhaps do this and perhaps usernode profile comment also, but over the last one year or more there has been no such development.
2.
wall-to-wall (facebook) type of display of comments between two users
- thus when I see a message in my page it should have 3 options below it
---- reply -- delete -- 1:1
the last one opens a page that enlists exchanges between myself and that person only

For the user : Groups

The organic groups have plenty and yet very complex out of the box and also perhaps there has been resource consumption issues.

By default and out-of-box groups should have ability
- to have their own uploadable icon or logo
- to have their own simple forum ( not to be mixed with site forum )
- group album, group event calendar and group poll

Probably we can have a look at xoops module at http://www.xoops.org/modules/repository/singlefile.php?cid=97&lid=1668&c...
and at boonex ( this version is much better than past ones and probably gnu-gpl licsnd) http://www.demozzz.com/dolphin/demo/ ( demo is not the latest version though )

Another thing which is missing for a SNW in drupal is :

Setting privacy for album, blog, profile as a whole as : readble only by me | my buddies | all
This was discussed but without any resolution :http://drupal.org/node/203935

personally im not much of a

icemantaz commented 10 January 2008 at 01:19

personally im not much of a programmer/developer but i could sure help with any testing if needed as i have some hours to spare!

This is interesting!

yeeloon commented 11 January 2008 at 10:06

- yeeloon

I too

don@robertson.net.nz commented 15 January 2008 at 03:23

I was trying to do something like this using a lot of the Organic Groups modules and others. It got very complicated and slow. And why do people feel the need to invent there own classes for menu items?

I am actually now at the point where I am reconsidering Drupal - though I think a lot of the problems I am having come from the Localizer module - I need my site to be dual language - Khmer and English (and maybe French). I *know* a lot of problems are from the Category module - it seems to never display things the same way twice.

There is an open source Social Networking platform at www.elgg.org. It was proprietary and is a little idiosyncratic, but the latest release has gone half way to solving this.

Don Robertson
IT Consultant
Phnom Penh
don@robertson.net.nz 012 769 280

Don Robertson
Christchurch, New Zealand
don@robertson.net.nz
021 294 1542

SNS void

stagehand commented 27 January 2008 at 18:01

I've been in an earnest search for a platform to start a social network site. I am a professional developer doing non-PHP development, but have been involved in several different PHP based open source projects during my "hobby" time.

I have several sites that I have developed with Joomla! and naturally looked there for social networking components. They have Community Builder, but it lacks much of the functionality of common SN sites. It also relies on plug-ins to other Joomla! components which takes away from the seamless feel between components. It's also ugly without a LOT of customization.

I looked at elgg and all of the other open source options I could find. All are lacking and at best half way there as far as a complete solution is concerned. I've looked extensively at the commercial products, phpfox, handshakes, etc. Read forum posts and talked to people that run them. They appear to be full of security holes, very buggy, and support is generally questionable.

This search led me to Drupal and at first looked appears to have all the parts and pieces, and was excited with that discovery, so I set up a test environment to see if I could make it work. I'm only a few days into that project and while I am very familiar with Joomla! I'm struggling with the paradigm shift to the way things are done in Drupal.

Reading this thread I get the sense that my initial impressions were wrong and that Drupal has a way to go before it can provide a full featured SN solution. Is that a correct assessment?

I would say the need for a good solid full featured SN solution is HUGE. Looking at the commercial products its clear that the solution needs to be open source in order for it to be done right. The other major problem I see with the commercial products is the sites they produce all have a "cookie cutter" look to them.

I would love to lend my support to such a project, however I think its something that needs to be done quickly otherwise the boat will be missed. Please feel free to contact me on the matter.

stage

Drupal can do it...

Michelle

she/her

English

Wisconsin, USA

commented 27 January 2008 at 20:35

... but it's not a drop in solution. Someone once said that Drupal is like a box of Legos. All the bits you need to build a social networking site are there but it takes work to put them together. As the Legos improve, it will get easier and easier, but it's not going to happen overnight.

Some links you might be interested in:

My SN demo site
Drupit
SN group at g.d.o

Michelle

--------------------------------------
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.

Kudos

stagehand commented 27 January 2008 at 22:30

You've got things rolling in the right direction on your demo site, I plan to spend some more time there and your other links, I am always anxious to learn more. The analogy of a box of legos is a good one. I see a good SN solution as having these essential elements:

Individual member profiles that members may customize (the more customization the better)
The ability for members to create sub-groups within the site
Media Galleries at the site, group, and member levels
IM and Chat room (personally I care little for either but its something users demand)
Forum
The ability to create Friend lists
The ability for members to leave comments on other member profiles
Public/private switches
Needs to be intuitive so that users can easily figure out how to do things

As I looked through the modules list for Drupal, I found modules that appeared to cover all those features, but like you say getting them to fit together is the challenge, which in all honesty I enjoy challenge. At the moment though I'm finding myself overwhelmed just trying to figure out how to add an organic group lol. This is a humbling experience :-)

Assembly

Michelle

she/her

English

Wisconsin, USA

commented 27 January 2008 at 23:20

Yeah, assembly is a challange but it's fun. I think too many people expect just to run a wizard and have a SN site ready to go and Drupal just doesn't do that. If you want that, you're better off with a pay solution. I have to wonder, though, if the people who aren't willing to put in time setting up the site follow through with the time needed to maintain the site?

Michelle

--------------------------------------
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.

Ok, I'm closing the Wiki...

fearitude commented 29 January 2008 at 13:10

Ok, I'm closing the Wiki... To communicate it would be easier to use this thread:
http://groups.drupal.org/node/7968

Thanks!

okay. As a non-professional

xjs commented 29 January 2008 at 13:31

okay. As a non-professional web developer, I managed to build a social networking site using drupal. It's not complete, but does show drupal is capable of doing many social networking things already. I would love to see how your project goes, which could become a good test bench for various drupal modules. Thanks.
My site with SN features:
ispeakx.com

------------------------------
Social networking | Enhanced speech | Noisy speech

very interesting indeed...

STyL3 commented 4 February 2008 at 19:37

subscribe.

I am actually looking for a

mzubair commented 19 February 2008 at 04:33

I am actually looking for a module like that...it'll be awesome to see it!!

why reinvent the wheel!!!????

zilla commented 20 February 2008 at 06:24

the team behind elgg has been kicking ass doing this for several years now (curverider, the parent company, has gotten more funding) - see www.elgg.org for complete information. they have several huge installations in place (universities etc) and set up is super easy and it does everything that you're looking for and more...

If everyone that wanted what

silverwing commented 20 February 2008 at 07:06

If everyone that wanted what elgg has, then where would that leave Drupal in the social networking camp?

By asking for and creating social networking modules, Drupal grows, the community grows, and open source grows.

Nothing wrong with that.

~silverwing

_____________________________________________
MisguidedThoughts | showcaseCMS

Eh?

Michelle

she/her

English

Wisconsin, USA

commented 20 February 2008 at 14:13

In case you missed it, this is drupal.org, which is the website for the Drupal CMS. So that would be why we're trying to do this in Drupal...

Michelle

--------------------------------------
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.

i know, i know...but...

zilla commented 20 February 2008 at 14:31

what i was trying to say here is that if ALL that person wants is that basic utility without the cms then elgg may be a better choice...just like if all somebody wants is simple content voting they oughta go with pligg...

i do totally agree that getting that functionality into drupal is much more interesting (particularly for drupal users like myself who want it and are unwilling to not use drupal for certain sites)...

it seems like the big roadblock for this with drupal 6 is organic groups with new fine-grained controls along with friends/buddy and all of that...but that appears to be on the roadmap, right? doesn't civiccrm touch some of this?

I think you're missing the point...

Michelle

she/her

English

Wisconsin, USA

commented 20 February 2008 at 18:09

This post is about an initiative to build an install profile / module set for people who want to use Drupal to build social networking sites. So when you say "why reinvent the wheel" and "go use software X if you want that" it comes across as trolling. If that wasn't your intent, I apologize for jumping on you.

OG for 6.x is in progress, I believe. But I think Drupal 5.x will be the choice for SN sites for quite some time. SN sites are module pigs and there's so many still not ported.

Michelle

--------------------------------------
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.

I sometimes wish

silverwing commented 20 February 2008 at 18:16

Sometimes I wish that Drupal had a "port" window - a couple weeks after the version is complete that themers and module..rs can work on porting with the final Drupal version before the big announcement and hoopla. (The release is a big deal, but most people have to wait because those one-or-two modules just haven't made it out yet...)

I can dream.

Anyways, MIchelle, thanks for you work with Drupal. I've been following what you've been doing and all I can say is that I'm impressed. Thanks!

~silverwing

_____________________________________________
MisguidedThoughts | showcaseCMS

thanks

zilla commented 20 February 2008 at 20:08

i certainly wasn't trolling...and i'm waiting for organic groups as well, figure it will be within a few months, maybe earlier, who knows...

all i'm saying here is that trying to make one app do everything is a great idea, and these are drupal forums, but in some cases you just need the right tool...one option is to use mods and repurpose into a social networking site and then never exploit the real cms features, or alternatively do a more thorough review of site needs and perhaps wind up away from drupal...

my understanding is that it can and has been done, many times - with drupal. in fact, in my opinion the bulk of big networking sites are really just like bulletin boards on steroids to me - so naturally i'm watching progress on 'advanced forums' coupled with organic groups as well as notify and subcriptions and comment notify (all drive users in and out)...messaging module is apparently working on 6 (per the dev), and i suspect within a year somebody will package it all like civicrm style and users will rejoice...

subscribing...

kwgossett commented 24 February 2008 at 06:51

subscribing...

Haha.. seriously, if someone

techguy10 commented 6 March 2008 at 19:45

Haha.. seriously, if someone wants to use another software platform than go for it but don't post about it here, we don't care what you do, obviously the people here feel that Drupal is the best way to do this.

I actually tried elgg just

techguy10 commented 1 April 2008 at 17:57

I actually tried elgg just out of curiosity and well all I can say is if you want to go that route and shun drupal go right ahead but you will be coming back because its very unusable and lacking in features, I don't understand why people work on projects like that rather than join in with Drupal which already has such a good framework.

Is this project still alive?

The_cobra666 commented 29 February 2008 at 10:43

Is this project still alive? I'm intrested!

I'm in full support of this

techguy10 commented 6 March 2008 at 19:39

I'm in full support of this project as well. I'm not much of a programmer to where I can develop modules but I'm actually going to start right now on trying to do a social networking site with the available modules so I'll post updates.. thanks to everyone who posted the links to example sites as I am going to be spending a lot of time studying them.

Example site

Michelle

she/her

English

Wisconsin, USA

commented 6 March 2008 at 19:43

I've got a lot of social networking modules up to play with on http://socnet.shellmultimedia.com/

Michelle

--------------------------------------
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.

Terrific ideas. I went to

kindafun commented 22 March 2008 at 05:43

Terrific ideas.

I went to drupit.com but it looks like it's just a fresh install. Perhaps there is a transition occurring?

Its been like that for a

techguy10 commented 1 April 2008 at 17:55

Its been like that for a while, I think the project is dead

social networking

jwilde commented 14 April 2008 at 15:37

Hey,

We've been using drupal for the last 4 years to build social networking applications and communities for businesses, mostly internal ones. Michelle is right about them not happening over night as well as maintaining them. You also need to be thinking about optimizing and scaling - performance. I can see a profile that gets the basic process started but I doubt that there will be a simple, out-of-the-box solution.

Most of the pieces already exist here on drupal and drupal groups to accomplish almost any type of social applications. Yes, social networks are a lot of work and require knowledge of drupal, php, jquery, and server side packages. Oh, then you have the user base cultural issues to work through. This takes up to 80% of your time. So, the software is only a part of a solution.

This applies to any social application: collaborative tools, e-comm social sites, etc. - even MS sharepoint is challenging out-of-the-box.

Kind regards,

Jim