Does anyone have recommendations on what software/CSS/Script/etc. to use to develop a social networking site like a MySpace or Facebook?

I'd like to develop my own private one for use for my church. I was thinking of using Wordpress but is there something better suited?

I need something that works like it where people can add messages, login and have their own avatar or page.

If anyone has done this similarly, please post examples and/or stories of your experiences developing as well.

Thanks!

Googling "online community software" will return many results.
But as I always say you might want to look in a customized solution, to avoid the unnecessary load of a generic cms.

I have found this by a poster here http://www.phpfox.com

Thanks for that tip steve_arm!

Have you or anyone else reading this used PHPFox? That looks quite robust.

Anyone else use a commercial product? how about any free ones?

I'm looking for opinions and/or any examples out there.

Thanks!

Check with http://www.phpizabi.net/, it is free!

Ning.com does pretty much everything for you, it's free and hosted, so you only have to worry about members :)

PHpfox is good but i'd get a coder to customize it.

Ning.com is good. If you want without the ads you can upgrade but with a fee though.

Joomla Community Builder is basic and good enough for what you need. Integrate with Gallery2 and you got yourself a CMS with photoalbums, people connection, extended profile, blogs, etc.

Certainly not as feature rich as commercial software.

I had just purchased phpFox portal. What a joke! Their source is full of bugs and their technical support sucks! You wait hours or even days to hear back on your e-mail and when you do hear back the problems have not been resolved! I've had my site up 2 days and I still can't change the logo! The site didn't send out verification e-mails and it didn't send out e-mails from the admin to the users of the site. These guys have the combined technical skills of a monkey! They don't know how to admin their servers and they can't seem to even fix their own code? They built it they should be able to fix it right? Doesn't seem to be the case here folks. I got ripped off...I'm sure they won't refund my money so please don't let the same thing happen to you.

php fox is a good social networking site. If you get experienced people in CSS, PHP and Mysql then you can customize it to the max extent.

Sometime back I was looking at http://www.boonex.com/products/dolphin/

i dont think phpfox is lowcost.PHPFOX is garbage.and company does not deliver or provide any type of REAL customer service.

i dont think phpfox is lowcost.PHPFOX is garbage.and company does not deliver or provide any type of REAL customer service.

Pretty much what I have heard. Joomla and community builder seems to work for small communities and Ning is another alternative. I once setup ning just for a trial and began to have people signing up with no advertising. Look into whether you can customize as well. Some of these hosted solutions do in fact allow you to custom code.

Hi,
your newbie Ken Right (dmitry rudakov)is a Russian scammer who works for Abledating/ ABK-Soft and they spend their time downplaying other scripts such as phpfox, and telling people how great Abledating is.
Go away Dmitry

ABLEDATING/ ABK-Soft is a Russian Scam

You might want to check out in2community.com. You can build a social network on your own site by inserting a line of code into a dedicated HTML page - and it's free. I am in the same predicament as you, for my foodie website - I don't have any development experience or the funding to pay someone to build it. They are currently accepting beta applicants - I am just waiting for my invitation to get started.