I'm working on a new community website that is very similar to myspace.com. What do you think is the best solution for this task. From what I understand, this kind of website needs a custom made CMS that can cost thousands.

On the other hand, i'm a big believer in Open Source, so do you think Mambo is suitable for this task? or maybe another open source CMS that can be heavily customized to a community website? like Typo3, or plone maybe..

Like I said, I envision the website as something very similar to myspace.com or better yet, suicidegirls.com which is in my opinion superior in design and structure.

The core features are user profiles (like in myspace or suicidegirls) and a forum. Both features must be somehow integreted together. Also, the availablity of users to leave comments or "testomnials" on friends' pages . The website is free, so there's no ecommerce.

Thank you
Sam

myspace.com is a complete custom solution.
Very very large/trunkey project then 1 can think about.
My assumption is this myspace runs on more then 150 servers (webservers, adservers, db servers) they have more then 5K members online at any given time and goes upto 50000)

Its running on CFM with Microsoft SQL Server as backend.

If you might have checked there integrations, they have combined many other networked websites from Intermix (parent company) alongwith myspace
this includes there gaming sites etc.

In other words its a very very large network, formed into 1 single dating network called myspace.

If you plan to invest in such kind of endevour, your best bet is to buy an existing portal and further spend to enhance the same.

Starting from scratch will take years of work ahead.


Regards,

HotScripts has a good collection of Match Making scripts:

http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Match_Making/index.html

Good luck!

I believe that shatner wanted to start small and work his way up. I don't think that he was planning on creating a site to directly compete with myspace on that level.

If the above statement is indeed correct, I would recommend macmod for sure. I know that there is a component already out there to support your needs. Mambo also has alot of other components and modules that will assist you in creating a successful online community.

I know that this site may not be of similar standing, but I have created macmod.com using mambo and it has treated me very well.