Anybody here experiemented with current open source CMS's for building what is termed "social networks"?

 

I'm keen to find out if it's worth going over the finer points of a CMS and working to build one that way or to just get my head down and write it up manually.

 

Also, what do you think are the limitations of CMS's for such sites, and by social communities I generally mean user interaction and part-user generated content.

I have never used a pre-rolled CMS out of choice, so I would opt for a custom script, due to the flexibility of the inputs, outputs, and so on.

My general view on Social Sites like MySpace and Facebook is that they are so big and quite possibly unbeatable if using an off-the-shelf scripts, you would need to create a Social networking script that offers something different and also have great marketing to get it noticed.

 

So many people are trying to create Social networking websites that the marketplace has come rather saturated, same goes for video sharing after the big YouTube boom.

 

If your going to do it, I would spend some time thinking of what you could offer that isn't being done yet from a networking website that people need, then go from there otherwise it's going to be like any other copycat site out there.

You make a good point Ben regarding the oversaturation of social networks. What I think people fail to realise is that the big names are already there, trying to overstake them is plain stupid, or would require alot of innovation and some blood tears and sweat.

 

An entirely new social network isn't really what I was getting at:

 

I think the issue is that now people are looking for some social features in websites beyond the old school forum/chatroom style. This is why blogs would be dead in the water without comments for example, so beyond just using wordpress features like commenting I think we'll see alot of social-net' type features expending into websites. Where flickr succeeds is in providing that extra bit of community, rather than just being an online photogallery. -Do you see what I'm getting at?

 

As for the initial question, perhaps I should have phrased it as, is it worth looking into CMS's in order to have some idea about how to create these features yourself? What people are able to do through a CMS, and looking to see what is missing from these CMS-created networks, in order to build something yourself.

I think that niche social networking sites is where we are headed. Facebook and MySpace were first to market (first to market successfully that is) but people are only on there to connect with one another, find long lost friends and relatives etc - but there isn't really any context to it - it is one big mass of people. So if you are trying to add social networking features or even your own social network to an existing site where people who have things in common interact then you are probably headed in the right direction - like what Kickapps, in2community, and Ning provide.

If I was to approach building such as site I'd probably be looking at a CMS like http://communityserver.org/ (as used by MySpace) or something like Drupal