Installation

First, the installation of the product. If you can't get it installed, it definitely won't be for you to use on for your social network.

Dolphin - Installed without any hiccups. It does a good job of checking your server for the proper prerequisites and the installation wizard was nice. The admin and frontend appeared to be functional immediately after installation.
phpFox - Installed perfectly AFTER we changed a few settings in our .htaccess file. Hmmm, if that was cryptic to you, then you can pay the phpFox guys $75 and they will install the product for you on your server. Pay for the product, and pay them to install it for you. But once the changes were made to our .htaccess file, all went smooth. Great wizard for installation.
Joomla - The installation wizard is good and you will have a working Joomla core installation once you complete the wizard. However, the core is only the beginning as you will need a few components added to the core to get a community site. Installing all the templates, plugins, components, and modules takes some time and all are installed using different menus. Each installed component, module, and plugin must be individually configured as well. The installation of the items works, but it is very tedious.
Drupal - The installation wizard for Drupal is good and is very similar to Joomla in that you have a core installation staring you in the face once you complete the install. You will have to install at least 20 modules to get a social networking site setup and each module is configured separately. Tedious process but Drupal is surprisingly powerful and flexible, especially considering it is free.
Ning - Not really much to install here. Just register on the Ning web site and start adding content to your social network.
Kickapps - The Kickapps install can be a standalone community site, or you can integrate it into your existing site. Kickapps claims to integrate with Drupal, Joomla, and they have an API you can use to integrate their code into your custom coded site. The integration with Drupal and Joomla was flaky at best and the API has name changes which is just downright unacceptable! Don't release an API in one version and change function/method names in the next version without warning. Big no no in software engineering!

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Comments

123

0 #30 Megan 2010-02-25 13:41

This article was VERY helpful. I hired a developer to use Joomla to create my social networking site. When he came back and told me phpFox would be better for my needs, I wanted to verify that. This did it for me! Thank you.

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0 #29 Renea 2010-02-15 16:05

I agree with everything in this article (except for Kickapps as I have no experience with it)

Avoid Dolphin. I admit that it looks appealing. But you don't know what you are getting until you have to get into the code. Its a nightmare.

Joomla or Drupal are the way to go in my opinion.

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+1 #28 Networker 2010-02-14 12:55

Would you consider comparing Social Engine Script in this article?
http://www.socialengine.net/
I have used Dolphin, PhpFox, and played a little with drupal and Joomla. and I agree with your results on them.
HoweverI would really like your professional opinion of Social Engine Platform.

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+3 #27 Sam D 2010-02-14 12:14

PHPFox is a great NO NO. Pathetic support & autocratic forum with a half-done script. Heaven for crappy modders

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+5 #26 Site Visitor 2010-02-14 12:03

Don't go to phpfox, they ban people for insane and unjust reasons for silly things like moaning or expressing lite disatisfaction of the product development. The staff that run their community forums are hypocrites of their own policies and the rules don't apply to everyone... Just whomever they feel like applying them too.

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0 #25 Ian 2010-02-05 21:12

How does SocialGo compare to KickApps? Anybody seriously study the two? Thank you

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0 #24 dingoman11 2010-01-29 08:50

This is an excellent article. Thank You!

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0 #23 Richard 2010-01-08 09:50

Boonex is a scam. If you pay 12 months hosting in advance and then you loose your debit card that the hosting was registered for renewal in TEN MONTHS TIME!
So this is 2 months in to your 12 month already paid hosting the direct debit is cancelled they then delete your whole site that has cost in building and advertising nearly $2000 est £1600 GBP ! as they are that stupid to think you would cancel hosting thats costs nothing after spending hundreds on building...SIMPLE WORD JOKERS LOOSERS...TRY CALLING THERE PHONE NUMBER IM SURE THEY RUN IT FROM MC DONALDS OR BURGER KING S PUBLIC LOO AS IT BLENDS WITH THERE SERVICE! sH17....PLEASE AVOID EVERCURRENT LIKE A ROBBER IN A SUIT ITS JUST ANOTHER BUNCH OF NO GOOD HUMAN CON ARTISTS! Boonex is a scam!

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0 #22 site visitor 2009-09-10 20:55

Thank you so much for the helpful article! I will agree that Dolphin comes with it's shares of headaches and to only buy it if you are a sadomasochist.

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