Comments on: How to Build a Micro-myspace

Question: How to Build a Micro-myspace

benjh — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 18:26:32 -0800

What Open Source web application can I install that would make a good online community? Looking to build an small online community web site for some people in a grouping. Looking for blogging functionality, picture uploading, and that kind of thing. Kind of like building my own micro-myspace.

Any suggestions on an existing open source platform to base such a project?

By: jbickers

jbickers — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 18:38:34 -0800

Drupal rules, in this regard, because of its strong group-building tools. But I found it kinda complex to configure, and not entirely intuitive.

I'd start with WordPress, then tinker with the (many) third-party extensions that give it more bite. It's really a great platform, simple and well thought out and robust.

By: sien

sien — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 18:45:49 -0800

As well as Drupal Xoops may be worth a look.

And check out the CMS for other options.

By: sien

sien — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 18:46:18 -0800

Ooops. That last line should be CMSMatrix for the link.

And maybe look up CMS in wikipedia.

By: baylink

baylink — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 18:48:41 -0800

I'm fond, as everyone around here knows entirely too well, of WebGUI.

It is pretty powerful, but pretty simple to get started with -- though installing it (while not as bad as previously) can be a bear.

You can get it hosted for between $10 and $30 a month (per domain), or installed it for free (it's GPL'd; written in Perl).

By: benjh

benjh — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 19:20:39 -0800

Is there a way to easily open Wordpress up so that other users can contribute blog entries while keeping the admin section fairly restricted.

I would love to be able to let people create their own blogs, that kind of thing, just can't seem to find the right software to pull it off.

By: unixrat

unixrat — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 19:48:31 -0800

Drupal can easily do multi-user blogs. I don't think you can apply multiple themes - customization like MySpace.

By: Señor Pantalones

Señor Pantalones — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:59:18 -0800

I wrote a long answer comparing drupal with others but deleted it to just ask you this: how messy do you want to get with the code? HTML? CSS? PHP? JavaScript? Is this on your own server or hosted elsewhere? Is that host running PHP 4 or 5? Does that host have ImageMagick installed? What MySQL version?

These factors will all make a big difference when choosing your cms. If you're the host, then are you prepared to install and configure the server yourself, or do you want this all one-click install?

By: anildash

anildash — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:13:39 -0800

Depending on the scale of community you're looking to build, LiveJournal pretty much invented this stuff. There are a number of communities built on the open source LiveJournal code that number into the millions of members. There are something like 15 million registered users across the LiveJournal-based services around the world. I work with the team that built it, but since it costs zero, I'm not exactly on commission for recommending it. :)

By: wheat

wheat — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 12:20:47 -0800

Drupal (another vote here) supports themes (quite a few of them nicked from Wordpress) and you can allow users to switch among the ones you provide. Not quite the same thing as MySpace, but not as ugly, either.