Morning folks,

just wondered if anyone could explain how hard it is to create a website on which visitors can create their own profile page (bit like Myspace) and also has a forum which visitors post on - (bit like Sheffield Forum)?

I don't have much website knowledge, but I do have a good idea. Just thought I;d ask you tech genuiuses for advice / info?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. :thumbsup:

it's very hard

I would probably use existing Forum sofwtare - vBulletin, phpBB, etc. and then build the 'profiles' part separately.

When I did a similar excercise some years ago that was the approach we took.

The only issue we had then was the integration of the Forum side of things so that there was a single sign on for the site and so that the 'look and feel' was identical across the site.

If I was charging someone to do it today you wouldn't get much change out of 3 grand; having done it once I know what a monumental pain in the rear it can be. :)

Best of luck!

wow, 3 grand. That's a handsome figure. Is that the kind of money Myspace / Sheffield forum must have paid?

wow, 3 grand. That's a handsome figure. Is that the kind of money Myspace / Sheffield forum must have paid?

I couldn't possibly comment on Shef Forum, but i'm sure a *lot* more than 3K has been spent on developing MySpace... despite how repulsive most of the pages look. But that's users for you... :)



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wow, 3 grand. That's a handsome figure. Is that the kind of money Myspace / Sheffield forum must have paid?

Can't comment on SF, or MySpace, but a lot of money has gone in to sites like Bebo, Facebook and MySpace to provide the flexibility and scalability.

3 grand is entry point stuff - working on the principle that if it took off you'd probably need to grow the software.

just wondered if anyone could explain how hard it is to create a website on which visitors can create their own profile page (bit like Myspace) and also has a forum which visitors post on - (bit like Sheffield Forum)?

I'd say it'd depend on the complexity required.

It would also depend on whether it was to be written from the ground up, or a hack attack on a couple of scripts.

It's not as difficult as you may think it is;).

I'd say it'd depend on the complexity required.

It would also depend on whether it was to be written from the ground up, or a hack attack on a couple of scripts.

It's not as difficult as you may think it is;).

It was the integration of the vBulletin (sorry, the hacking together of scripts) that took the time - particularly the look and feel. :)

I've recently been playing with a few scripts to create a special interest forum (amateur radio and short wave listening) and I've spent ages trying to get the damn things to do what they should do out of the box, let alone do anything clever. :)

Vbulletin is offering more of a myspace feel in its next release. Seems to be moving away more for what it offers best, i.e a forum.

Vbulletin is offering more of a myspace feel in its next release. Seems to be moving away more for what it offers best, i.e a forum.

That worries me. :(

I'm still to be convinced that the 'social networking' thing is going to be around in 2 years time - certainly not in teh OTT way that it is being used at teh moment.

I'd love a social networking site without the crap applications, the lack of a realistic privacy policy and such. Maybe I should write one myself. :)

I'm still to be convinced that the 'social networking' thing is going to be around in 2 years time - certainly not in teh OTT way that it is being used at teh moment.

Indeed. There're now far too many that it's quickly reaching saturation point. I'm waiting for the next ".com crash" where most of these will be wiped of the face of the net:D.


Maybe I should write one myself. :)

Go for it:thumbsup:.

Although I'd agree with JoeP about the cost of integration (having done it with phpBB :gag:), you can get a plain vanilla phpBB forum off the ground for basically the cost of hosting if you can cope with an install script and a bit of configuring. You do need a host that supports php and MySQL tho. phpBB (http://www.phpbb.com/) is open source so you can download it free.