Topic: Are We Wasting Our Time?

Are We Wasting Our Time?

maburker
Participant

@maburker

14 years, 4 months ago

We have posted a similar topic on mu.wordpress.org but, no one really gave us an answer. We have been in development of Chatterbing.com for almost a year now to create a true social networking platform. We have estimated around 5 years before the project is fully developed. Most of this time frame is due to the knowledge that we have and funding. Before we ask our simple question let me explain the whole concept behind Chatterbing.com. There are hundreds to thousands of sites on the internet that offer some type of service. What we want to do is create one site that users can use to get the same services. Below are some examples of what I mean. (Services that Chatterbing will offer)

Youtube.com – Uploading and Sharing Videos

PureVolume.com – Artist and Listeners

Facebook & Myspace – Social Networking

Sitters.com – Care Providers

I could go on and on all day but, these are just a few that chatterbing will offer. However we have been getting into some trouble with bridging wordpress with other software. So, my question is can wordpress be stable enough to do some of the above task? We have spent around three months with the wordpress and bp software. We barely have done anything to head us to our goal. I hope we’re not wasting our time with this software. If the site becomes popular than we will develop our own platform. One person said that people are doing what we’re aiming for all the time. Where is the proof. I haven’t came across one site that has been developed like we’re trying to do. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks

Viewing 6 replies - 26 through 31 (of 31 total)

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Donnacha
Participant

@donnacha

14 years, 4 months ago

I think Matt mentioned a figure of 10 million users (as opposed to blogs) a few months ago.

John James Jacoby
Keymaster

@johnjamesjacoby

14 years, 4 months ago

Out of the box, BuddyPress is designed for all elements to be created equal. Groups are no more important than friends are no more important than activity are no more important than forums are no more important than directories are no more important than… You get the idea… It’s up to a good theme designer and a great developer to make the functions of BuddyPress pop-out and turn a WordPress site into a meetup.com or linkedin.com.

All of the elements exist in the core and in external plugins to do it, it just has yet to be done.

Andrea Rennick
Participant

@andrea_r

14 years, 4 months ago

“Everyone here as actually looked at the idea not the possibility. I just wanted to know if wp and bp could handle a service like this?”

A lot of the people who have answered mentally skipped over the “is it possible” part because they know it is, the real question is “is the idea viable”, which it did sounds like what you were asking.

Also, some of the people answering in this thread are actively working on sites with members in the thousands… if not millions…

So the advice they are giving is sound.

Jean-Pierre Michaud
Participant

@nexia

14 years, 4 months ago

any project is viable until it dies…

what do you think, we can not provide you with the absolute answer, not even a glimpse of an answer… you have to TRY AND DIE IF YOU DON’T… nobody know if you have the best formula to make it work, nobody have any idea of how interesting your site will become in the near future… so asking this is not really useful, even the best admins here would never have a real answer to this question… or why would they answer you, they could start that site before you and be rich already…

the secret of success is to do it instead of letting others do it…

designodyssey
Participant

@designodyssey

14 years, 4 months ago

I’m with David and nexia. Try it. I think there is room for a site that groups social communities. For example, Meetup.com is a generic site that allows you to create a social gathering around say hiking. But once you join, you learn about gatherings around mountain biking. Because it’s likely that hikers may mountain-bike, by putting the two together you’ve added value. Putting them together makes it easier for people to find each other and interact. This is true with some sports sites as well. I could see that model working. Check out communityengine.org which uses Ruby. This is just a collection of communities based on the interests of the developer, but the concept could be expanded.

MU and Buddypress could get this stuff done but be prepared for extensive plugin development. If you have funding, that shouldn’t be that bad.

As for the viability of the service, the model lately has been grow fast through viral exposure of a simple, free service. Once critical mass is achieved, anything is possible (or so the model suggests). Monetization is almost secondary, so you need deep pockets (particularly to take on media). Protection from competition is based on size, installed user base and acquisition of content (e.g. videos).

I’d say go for it, but start with maybe 3 networks. I’m using Buddypress because I have background in PHP/MySQL and I don’t want to use Rails, but you might consider communityengine or something similar if you don’t care.

djsteve
Participant

@djsteve

14 years, 4 months ago

If five years is your goal – buddypress have be stable enough and have enough plugins to do all that.. but if you are concerned about wasting the last three months with BP, then I would have to side with you on the time wasting part.. I have spent a good chunk of time trying to use BP hoping to do the things it was supposed to do by dec 2008, a year later we still don’t have the basic functionality that was touted here.. The last post I read about photo albums was that it is no longer even on the drawing board (or something like that)..

You could save a few years of time by using boonex’s dolphin, or phpfox.. even some of the cheap tube scripts available today have all of the functionality that I believe you are looking for, right now.