idea for a social networking site?...

Hey all,

Happy New Year to you all, hope you're all having a good 2007 so far!

I'm reading all this stuff about putting articles on Digg etc but what if you don't have anything to do with the tech/news world? (which most social networks seem to focus on) I know there are social networks for miscellaneous things (StumbleUpon etc) but i'll be damned if I can find a suitable social network (bar forums) to promote my art related site!

So I was wondering; what do you guys think about an art related social networking site? For people promoting their art news/sites/articles/work getting to know one another and so on...?

Reckon it'd work?

Or is the social networking thing fading?

And if there are no art related social networks how can I promote a new one! Catch22 ??

Or am I just shooting in the dark with another crap idea? ...

 

IMO, your core idea...

...is really good.

Turning a good idea into a useful Web application, is much harder than coming up with the concept. When you say "social networking site", are you thinking of buying a commercial script, developing a custom one, or modifiying a free open-source package? Which one??

Answers to the above might help you get started.

 

http://www.deviantart.com/

 

Ronnie,

I think it's a great idea. Social networking isn't going anywhere. And the smaller the niche, the better IMO. If I were going to do that, I would target the art-related crowd on MySpace and other similar networks, then get them all interested in my new site. If it's done right, it would spread fast.

 

That's a very good suggestion.
Promoting on Art related groups on myspace will possibly work in getting this type of site popular.

 

I would say go for it, the link you provided looks great.

 

Targeting smaller areas is better then targeting everyone. Get links on art related websites if you could.

 

For art related site alternatively bebo & [SIZE=-1]Mojizu is good.
[/SIZE]

 

I would try and use an open source script but if worst came to the worst then i'd pay for a commercial script.

But yeah, my main rival would be DeviantArt which i'm on. They are the largest (if not only) art networking site but, in my opinion, has too much digital artwork, my idea would be for traditional media only, no Photoshop stuff.

I'll look more into it...

Thanks for the opinions.

 

Here are some free scripts for you:
http://www.drupalution.com/mods
http://www.phpizabi.net/?L=cms.infos.about
http://markaboo.com/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/scuttle/
http://www.pligg.com/

Covers myspace, del.icio.us, and digg (I wasnt sure what type of site you were thinking). Good luck.

 

If I HAD to buy one, at the moment i'm thinking of : http://www.phpfox.com
allows galleries, image rating, groups, SEO urls and even has spaces marked for ads.

(but hopefully I can get a free one )

 

I forgot this one: http://www.joomlapolis.com/

 

Thanks for the links but i'm looking more for a script that will allow news posting, galleries (categorised and allow ratings), articles, built in live chat... stuff like that.

So far i think that phpFox is my best bet... so something like that but free would be ideal!

 

PHPizabi seems to either already offer what you want or its in planning / development. http://www.phpizabi.net/?L=temp_static.features
Other than that, I dont think there are a whole lot other scripts out there.

 

I'm trying to draw on these interests on my site but I'm not being that sophisticated about it - it's something that I'm working on...

At present I just give users the ability to post links of their pictures (I have photography and art/crafts categories as well as others) and also a backlink. Other users can then rate the image and leave comments.

I think sites like 43things.com have got the idea pegged.

 

Help save the internet! Stop social networking sites before they start!

lol =)

 

Another contender and seems to be free :
http://www.boonex.com/products/dolphin/

oops, and add :
http://communityserver.org/
[ scratch Community Server, needs ASP/.NET. No good to me... ]

 

Installed Dolphin and it certainly seems to have plenty of features but quite a lot of it is really hard to reach like the 'About Us' page for example, you need to really dig deep just to put stuff on that one page!

I'm not lazy but i'd rather alter it without the chance of screwing the entire thing up!

Anyway, back to square one. It's costly but I think phpFox could well be the best so far, its down side seems to be that you can't alter certain types, like i'd wanted people to specify what they specialise in; oils, watercolour etc... seems phpFox can't easily do that...

What a pain...

 

Heh Ronnie,
There is a site
esnips.com. It has a bit of that quality, but not just with art, it has photography and other stuff as well.

 

i think its a good idea, however, non-digital art work is a lot harder for people to get on the web...