Open Source Social Networking, blah, blah, blah.

June 3, 2008 2:46 PM

Yet Another Social Networking Question: I'm looking for something that does well with different user groups.

I'm looking for an open-source or low-cost open platform to build a social networking site on. The dealbreaker that I've yet to see in any of the common ones is a strong "group" functionality.

I'd like to have profiles that are "teams", and profiles that are "fans", with fans having a different set of available functions (which could easily be determined using an ACL-type interface).

Anyone have a lead on something that they know will handle this?

posted by chrisfromthelc to Technology (6 answers total)

Ning. Drupal, if you want to roll your own.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:58 PM on June 3, 2008

Drupal Organic Groups. Ning, if you don't want to roll your own.
posted by jayCampbell at 3:03 PM on June 3, 2008

What you're describing is handled through a "roles" feature in most CMSs. I'll Nth the advice you look into Drupal, which has very fine-grained role-based permissions, and lots of social-networky modules you can add in.
posted by adamrice at 3:36 PM on June 3, 2008

Response by poster: I'll have to really dig into Drupal. I didn't see what I wanted at first glance, but the Organic Groups module is interesting.
posted by chrisfromthelc at 3:40 PM on June 3, 2008

Ning - if you are an unexperienced web developer and don't mind them getting ad revenue off of you.

Drupal - if you have experience developing sites, Drupal can do just about anything reasonable.
posted by CWitt at 4:17 PM on June 3, 2008

The Movable Type Community Solution has a really robust set of group membership and privilege features. I work with the team that makes it, and can point out some good examples of people using it if needed.
posted by anildash at 7:45 AM on June 4, 2008