How to build a private social network with only admin-user communication?

October 15, 2009 8:49 PM

I'd like to create a self-hosted private social network where users can submit a photo and personal information. But when a user logs in, they should only be able to see and modify their own profile information, and they should only be able to see and communicate with the admin, not the other users. I'd like to use a CMS such as Joomla, Elgg, Drupal, or Wordpress (Buddypress?), but I'm not sure what would be the best approach.
posted by Josh Coe to computers & internet (5 comments total)

WordPress plus the Open Community plugin plus one of the role manager plugins should do it.
posted by Asparagirl at 9:48 PM on October 15

If you're not a developer, Wordpress will probably be the easiest way to do what you described. If you are a developer, I'd go with Drupal, which can do what you described with a bit of coding, and would provide a more modular framework for expanding functionality in the future.
posted by scottreynen at 10:10 PM on October 15

How is it a social network if you can only see your own personal info?
posted by RustyBrooks at 10:10 PM on October 15 [1 favorite]

If your users are technical people, then a wiki is likely a better choice.
posted by jeffburdges at 2:45 AM on October 16

Oh, apart from the sarcastic comment I was going to suggest Drupal too.
I remember trying to create a two-tier social network type site (just for 'fun') with a 'personal' profile and a 'business' profile, only certain users could see the 'personal' profiles because they had such high privacy settings- with a bit of tweaking it should probably be able to do what you're asking for. I followed tutorials and tips from drupal.org- so that may be a good place to start.
posted by sid.tv at 3:12 AM on October 16