3 MYTHS about social network scripts YOU MUST KNOW !

Probably you are interested in Social Network ( snw ) scripts - so you
are reading this

Probably you believe that FREE, OPENSOURCE community is the best resource
for this scripts - I agree with you 100% and more.
You need not read further!

Probably you believe that BEST is to go with paid scripts and not 'free'
stuffs - if so I will urge you to read below :

Myth 1
"Good looks means good scripts"

some scripts like dzoic or socialengine
can be eyecandy BUT can be lacking in very basic snw functions
For example, dzoic have no profile comments or scrapping, without which
any snw is pretty meaning less.

Myth 2
''Good price means good scripts.''

Socialengine costs near $600 with all modules, dzoic near $350
Yet, VBB or IBB with their modules cost half the price and offer you
MORE SOLID features and support. For example take a look at Invision blog
and take a look at phpfox blog. You will have no second thoughts on
what to purchase.
Another thing is that these scripts like socialengine, dzoic have
never been tested on huge, robust real sites like drupal or joomla
or vbb or ibb - so that you never know how they slow down or perform
in real pressure situations!

Myth 3
''Buying is good as I get support too''

Apart from VBB or IBB most scripts are start ups, they have very little
number of developers. So most often you will hear
- wait for version x
- please get a developer from that xyz site and pay $xxx to get that done

With scripts like ( not in any specific order )
Joomla, joomal CB and Groupjive
Xoops, xoops Yogurt
Drupal, drupal OG
Boonex Dolphin
Elgg.org
you actually get all that you need.
You can actually TEST for yourself ALSO in a snap as all has pretty easy installers.
You may still need to do your tweaking or
get a developer ( very rarely as they have huge support community ) BUT then
since you are starting at $0 money wont pinch you. More important you can get your
things better done as these developers have been there for years and not
cropped up fly-by-night operators.

 

I agree that VB and IBB are good, solid scripts and are worth the money and investment. As for the rest of the pack, it is a real crap shoot. Yet. people still spend time, money, and other resources in the faint hope that they may get lucky. But like most games of chance, the risks are high and the only one that really makes money at the end is the House.

Rich

 

Well said Rich

 

Elgg.org and drupal.org new versions are coming, so those who can wait might wait

 

I still haven't seen (or upgraded to) the new vB...the social aspect of it didnt look too appealing to me, though.

Looks like I might give Dolphin a chance.

 

Really? Have you ever tested Dzoic Handshakes? It has profile commints since its beginning... See Dzoic Handshakes in my sig...

What are you talking about? I have a Dzoic site with 40 000 members, I know some with 200 000...

Really? Test for yourself as a single user? Put 100 users at the same time on any one of them on a single dedicated server, and come back to this thread with your experiences
Dzoic and the like have been optimised especially for social networks, which can easily have up to 100 users at any one time on the site with a SINGLE dedicated server. Sure, the others can certainly do it too, but with how many servers? Hosting costs matter! A hacked CMS like Joomla will crumble under that load...Check out Dzoic Handshakes, the best SN script in my sig

Good luck