Ning vs. Dolphin/Ray

Hello,


I have a client who would like to start a social networking site.

I'm comparing open-source apps first, and found some good ones, but I don't know if they'll be perfect for her needs.

Dolphin with Ray widgets - Looks great, like the professional install availability. Needs VPS at about $39/month.

Ning - Its easy to use and hosted, but, its expensive if you want all branding and etc. removed. Looks like $33/month if you remove alllll the ways its branded, and there are bandwidth/storage limits.


Features we would really like to have:
1) Membership needed to have access to the site.
2) Easy smooth install.
3) Ability to plug in any html/flash widget/code such as the Ray instant messaging widgets, YouTube videos, Google Adsense, or whatever.
4) As low cost as possible.


I'm leaning toward Ray, but I don't know if it will allow YouTube/Adsense, and don't know how I would set up a membership payment system. The membership payment system is right now my biggest concern with any of these options.


I'm really just starting to look into this, I'd love to hear from anyone who has some guidance.


John

 

dude just check the clipbucket http://clip-bucket.com it is very good Youtube clone with hell lots of features. and again it is free.

 

I've just found out about Boonex's Dolphin literally just a few minutes ago.
Looks pretty interesting though.

 

there is no comparasion b/w ning and other off the shelf scripts. Most of the scripts are a nightmare to maintain and develop for.

Do search around on the forum for reviews and ull know what i mean. If you have time and patience drupal is the best bet for now.

 

Anything to do with Boonex, Dolphin/Ray etc, is a nightmare to work with - more faults than the Pacific Rim. You'll be pulling your hair out over the time you wasted in a few weeks' time.

I never tried Ning before so can't comment on that, but if those are your two options I would go for Ning simply because it isn't Boonex.

 

I don't know Dolphin.

For ning, we are using www.myanmaritpros.com.
That site was hacked and banned most of the active members, including me at Sep 11.
Someone may get the the admin's password and did ban it. But the ning can't give us out the logs. who banned it and why did this happen.

We are even using premium services. own domain and google adsense remove service.
Finally, they did restore the backup of Sep 10.

And last week, one of our member was deleted. Not banned. He didn't delete his account himself.
But why that account disappear?
And the admin can't delete the members in ning. The admin can only ban the members.

So, if you are preparing to use ning.com, check the security risk first.
I do not recommend to use it.

 

How about phpfox, anyone tried that?

 

The ning is so rediculous now. The member's of our network are being deleted.
I'm waiting when will be my turn.

The members can't be deleted by anyone. If they want to delete, they need to delete theirselves.
How comes this?

 

I like ning, but it is hard to make it snowball. By that I mean getting members to join and interact with each other. Here is one ning site I recently built. http://oscillator.ning.comhttp://oscillator.ning.com

 

Today my group disappeared. No one can answer it. No log?????????