Open Source Social Networking Web Template?

May 6, 2006 7:04 AM

I am not a programmer. I just know basic html and I design web sites in Front Page using tables. That's it. So, the question is, is there some sort of open source...thing...that will allow me to make a web site like myspace, such that members of a certain group of people will be able to come there and each sign up for an account, and make their own user page, and link to each other as they wish?

I think I have a really good idea for a web site that would be something like myspace or facebook targetting a certain subculture, but is this kind of thing just way out of my league? Thanks, o ye wise tech people.

posted by light bulb to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

You don't necessarily need to be a programmer to run a site like this, but from what I've seen you pretty much do need to be a sysadmin, and probably well-versed in GNU/Linux. At the very least, you're going to need access to hosting that lets you install your own programs, mess with your web server's configuration, and have major access to the database. Realistically, you'd probably want to have a server where you were allowed to do anything you wanted -- a server where you have root, in the Unix parlance. A Google search can tell you more; try searching for "server hosting." I've never used any programs like this, so I can't make any recommendations.

As far as actual code, the only thing I know of that gets close to fitting your needs is LiveJournal. The code that runs that site has been released as free software. There are other sites on the Internet that run it, like DeadJournal.

Good luck.
posted by brett at 7:19 AM on May 6, 2006

Have you looked at Ning? Also, there was a similar question posted recently by someone who wanted to develop an alumni site, but for the life of me I can't find it. But it might be worth doing a little searching.
posted by j-dawg at 7:37 AM on May 6, 2006

There are webhosts such as site5.com that include a program called "fantastico." Fantastico is an installer for lots of other software, so you can click a button and get a full installation of a content management system or blogging tool in a few moments.

I don't think it will install livejournal, but drupal and some others.
posted by craniac at 7:49 AM on May 6, 2006

Response by poster: Wow, I think I love Ning! Thank you.
You guys are really coming through. This is starting to look very possible. Keep it coming!
posted by light bulb at 8:04 AM on May 6, 2006

How to develop a social software application
posted by youarenothere at 8:19 AM on May 6, 2006

I feel as if there really is a lot of potential that ning isn't living up to; I check back up on it every once in a while and I always fail to find anything particularly interesting. However, if you have enough of a niche market and solid ways to get to it, I say go for it. Good luck!
posted by youarenothere at 8:23 AM on May 6, 2006

Here's that other thread j-dawg mentioned. It also looks as if Ning has some new premium features that give you much more control than previously, though it still seems as if you can't host your application on your own server.
posted by youarenothere at 8:27 AM on May 6, 2006

Ruby on Rails?
posted by cogat at 8:38 AM on May 6, 2006

Response by poster: Oh...I'd missed that bit about not being able to host it on my own server. That's a problem. The livejournal code looks promising too. The thing I wanted from ning was the cuteness wars, which looks similar to the kitten war web site, but kitten war's code is closed source.
Still, there's been a lot of progress here.
posted by light bulb at 8:59 AM on May 6, 2006

cogat: Ruby on Rails is pretty cool, and there are a lot of cool sites using it, but it's not an application; it's a framework for creating applications. It doesn't do anything out of the box; it makes programmers' jobs easier.
posted by brett at 9:19 AM on May 6, 2006

Check out Drupal + 3rd party modules (organic groups, for one)
posted by Good Brain at 11:13 AM on May 6, 2006

Drupal!
posted by phrontist at 12:25 PM on May 6, 2006