Need help with what Social Networking Script to use

Hi guys,
I am planning to make a nightlife community website where I go out take pictures of nightclubs and bars and make them look good

These pictures after editing, I add them on the website where different people can come and have a look

I also want them to be able to check what nights and events are on and have a facebook like system(a very simpler one like friends and stuff)

I have no clue how to code in php but did come across www.boonex.com where they have a social networking engine called Boonex. I havent tried it yet but I have also heard about Drupal and some more of these systems

I dont know which one is the best for me and I dont want start over again if its useless. I have 2 weeks to get this site up and running.
Any suggestions on what to use and what would make my life easy would be great. Please suggest as least coding as possible because it will take me ages to learn it

Thanks in advance

 

What are u looking for free or paid if free there are quite a few elgg,joomla,dupral and many others paid social engine,and joomsocial and many others

 

i dont really care to be honest..i'd like it free in the beginnin then if it works fine I wouldn't mind paying

Is boonex a good idea? I've seen their site and it looks quite like what I want but my friends have suggested that I look into other things specially drupal as its good but I want to do least programming

 

boonex is really f uped check this link i just came across and test the scripts and see which u like best but when i use open source i look for the script that is well supported and has many extendable features for example elgg

 

could you just reccommend me a good one as I dont really have the time to test cuz im a student and have exams coming up. I would like to make a website like tilllate(just google it as i'm not allowed live links yet :S). I know thats a bit too complex but similar stuff would help. Thanks for the help dude

 

http://elgg.org/

 

easy to use and some nice plugins

 

Below is the details of the website I want to make. I sent this quotations to a few different companies but they were way over prices. I want to concentrate on photos and events quite a bit here
The website I want to build is called partydose

Basic Requirements:

It will be a nightlife community website like tilllate but not as complicated as I do not have that kind of money or the knowledge.

The website should be able to host pictures of different events. These events are the different club and bar nights happening in Vancouver where our photographers out and take pictures after which they edit them and make the event look good so that when people visit our website to check out the pictures, they know that it was a good event/venue which they should check out sometime.

These photos can only be uploaded by our photographers who have a certain admin/moderator access but they should just be able to add pictures and download them from the website

These pictures can be added by forwarding the photographer to a different page where he has to select a particular date following which an events drop-down updates showing all the events that were on that day and if that event is not listed, the photographer can make an event on that day after which the page refreshes the list of events on the day

The pictures that are added to the website should be lowered in quality so that they load quickly in the user's browser. I would prefer that the pictures' quality is reduced before uploading them like facebook as it saves time for the photographers. tilllate reduces the pictures' quality but after they have been uploaded and thus it takes alot of time to get these pictures on seeing that we upload atleast 70-90 images an event.

Along with lowering the quality a company logo should also be added in the lower-right corner after they have been uploaded but the website should also keep a copy without logo for 30days incase any promoters or venues want them for their gallery. Thus, the photographer will need 2 options when downloading the pictures that have been uploaded i.e with/without logo.

After having uploaded the pictures, the photographer should be forwarded to a page where he can sort the order of the pictures, something like what it is in facebook where you can organise your pictures in what order you want people to see them and this order should be maintained even after the pictures have been downloaded from the website as it saves photographers from re-organising when uploading on other websites. In the organising section the photographer must also be able to select a main Event picture along with 3 other pictures to display with it.

Below is an example of one of my photo reports so that you have a clearer idea of what I'm expecting:

<a href="http://uk.tilllate.com/en/event/10233742"> Link </a>

These photographers are authorised by me where I just make an admin/mod account with their complete details and give it to them after which they can change their passwords and details accordingly (I will only be doing this if some of the extra features cannot be included due to my budget).
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Apart from these I would also like a calender feature where users can see what events are on at what venues and on what dates. I would also like a few advertisement slots.
The details of the event should be like facebook and a section of what kind of music is playing along with which artist or band would also be good.
(these events and venues will be put up by me or my photographers depending on whether I can have the extra features or not)

I should also be able to change the rights of a photographers according to the different features of the site

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Extra Features:

I would like people to be able to register to my website and log in where they can add friends, see their profiles and what events they might be attending and also send them messages and maybe write on their walls.

They should also be able to upload pictures but this time I no logo should be attached on their pictures
They should be able to comment on pictures and events that are happening i.e not only commenting on their friends' pictures and events but also being able to comment on pictures uploaded by photographers and events just in general or an album as a whole

If the website has users, they should be able to send an application to become a promoter or venue owner/manager on the website so that I can authorise them and they can put their listings down in the calender.

I should be able to change their rights as well ( i havent decided what rights yet but the basic ones for now that is making events and adding them on the site)

Some promoters and venues might have the same night everyday of the week for a while or something like that so they should be able to select such an option instead of going on the website all the time to add it.

If these extra features are added, I should also be able to change a photographers' rights to authorise promoters and club owners according to their hierarchy

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You can do everything you just said with Wordpress MU/ Buddypress and a few select premium pug ins from WPMUDEV (see sig).

You can also include Google Maps into your calendar, promoters can have their own blog to post events and updates, start groups, create custom profiles (with Video, Social networking profile links, Bio/Descriptions) , add RSS feeds from external sites, communicate via integrated forums, and you can add more functionality with plug ins if needed such as syncing with Facebook, and Twitter and much more.

You will probably need to find a good image plug in, and do some template customizations to arrange everything that you want.
You will also need a well coded Buddypress theme ( again WPMUDEV).

You can't do it without the premium plug ins, so you will have to spend a little money, but it will give you everything that you listed and then some.

 

Hey thanks for the reply dude..basically I dont know any coding and have never made sites before apart from HTML ones

So you're trying to say that I should download a wordpress theme and add different plugins to get this working?

Can you tell me how to set this up? and also how long would it take to achieve a site like this?

Also if I paid you, will you be able to make it for me?

Thanks

 

Well, it's not exactly as easy as downloading a Wordpress theme and dropping some plug ins. I'll be totally honest with you, if you have never done anything like this before, working with Wordpress MU is not something that you can step into and be successful with a few tips and tutorials, it's a little more involved than working with regular Wordpress.

Second, the premium plug ins are imperative to what you want to accomplish and the only place to get them is the WPMU developers community which requires a yearly membership, and still some customizations are going to be necessary, which means getting into the files and editing a few things.

Another thing that you need to consider is your hosting account. You can, but I don't suggest running MU on a shared hosting account. I highly recommend at the very least a VPS (Virtual Private Server), but for best results, Dedicated Hosting...again, another expense.

Could I do it for you? Of course, that's what I do, but I'm not going to sugar coat it. I charge a lot more to set up MU Communities than just a regular Wordpress site, but I am more than happy to discuss it. Just visit my profile for contact info.

Here are the 3 things that you need to get this done:

Wordpress MU (note: that WPMU and Single user WP will be merging into one platform shortly)
Buddypress
WPMUDEV

Keep in mind that this obviously is not the only option but to me, it's the most flexible and in the long run, easiest to run.

 

Can you give me a quotation as I do not have that much money. I'm just a student and have no job but I have little money saved up.

If that is too expensive, I would just like a website where I can upload photos for now and I can build it up later when I start making some money from it hopefully

I know its too much to ask but if you could give me a quotation for all the different features or atleast most of them it would be great

Thanks

 

I'll send you a PM shortly.

If budget is an issue, I still recommend that you use Wordpress and take what you do have and find yourself a nice premium theme.

You can use plug ins like Next Gen Gallery for your images, or find a theme that is designed to show case images. A good premium theme can run you anywhere from $30-$90...that may be a better use of what funds you have.

When the next upgrade comes out, which is any day now, you will have Multi user capabilities and upgrade when you are a little more financially sound.

It is also recommended that you learn how to use and work with Wordpress before just diving into a multi user community, particularly if you plan on running it yourself without the aid of any on call support from a service provider like myself.

Besides having it built, there is the expense of a decent hosting account as well.

Just to give you an idea, I have a Dance Music blog run on Single User Wordpress ( sort of the same niche as you are looking into) for over 3 years now. I think I paid $80 for the theme 2 years ago ( you could probably find something similar for cheaper) and made some slight customizations. You could run something like this on a cheap hosting account, until you are ready to upgrade.

Edited:
I forget to add that you can run the Buddypress plug in on Single user Wordpress and have use of some of the Community Features, but some of the other plug ins that you need will only work with an MU installation, and you won't have the capability to let your users have their own blogs.

 

Here's another option:
http://wp.mu/