All In One : Forum - Blog - Social Networking

[shaneod]

Hi lads,

Great site, lots of useful information.

I've a fair bit of experience of working with Wordpress and phpBB [usually 2] but I'm looking at developing a site where I'd like to have a forum, blog and a social networking section, ideally rather then having these as seperate entities on the one site does anyone have any experience of working with a solution that allows you to have the one log in across the three different sections of the site.

I know Expression Engine allows you have an integrated blog and forum. It seems a nice system.

I've also found KickApps which looks good and also Community Server which looks a good system, just wondering if anyone has used any of these before i investigate them further.

Thanks,

Shane

 

[mneylon]

Shane

Have you had a look at the latest release of Movable Type?

It can easily run a forum and blog with social networking elements

Worth having a look at anyway

Michele

 

[shaneod]

Thanks Michele, I'll look into it now, I haven't looked at Moveable Type for a long time.

PS: Use your hosting all the time!

 

[mneylon]

Thanks Michele, I'll look into it now, I haven't looked at Moveable Type for a long time.

Mt 4.2 Pro is a HUGE change and brings some really really nice features

I use it for all my personal and business blogs, though I haven't had a chance to do much with the social networking side of it as yet

PS: Use your hosting all the time!

Good!

 

[nevf]

Movable Type gets a number two from me. Nice handy system.

also look @ joomla!. Plenty of extensions. That you can build it up with. You'll either love it or hate it when you first see it.

Hope it all goes well for you.
~Nev.

 

[mneylon]

I'd be very wary of Joomla, as its security track record is pretty dire

 

[shaneod]

Joomla is another one i haven't looked at for some time, I thought it was more a content management system then blog and/or forum solution.

Looks like I've quite a bit of research to do!

By the way when i said "I'm looking for", of course i meant to say my client is looking for ...

Thanks for the help Nev.

 

[nevf]

I'd be very wary of Joomla, as its security track record is pretty dire

Meh, well yah, it's track record hasn't been the best, but if it's kept up to date, then it's generally very secure. it's only when you start letting it fall behind that it really becomes vulnerable.

But at the same time, if I was designing a banking system for AIB in the morning, Joomla! wouldn't be my first choice.

Thanks for the help Nev.

Your very Welcome.

If it's for a client, then I would say Movable Type is pretty good in terms of uncomplicated, easy2learn interface. Also, now that I think of it, this probably isn't what you're looking for, but have a look at ELGG.

 

[garycocs]

Hi Michelle,
Did you look into the community building side of Movable type more? It's all very vague and the impression I got was they will have facebook connectivity and community building features but with the enterprise edition at a cost?
Thanks
Gary

 

[mneylon]

Gary

Check out their forums - you don't need the Enterprise version to get it

 

[shaneod]

I kinda prefer PHP based stuff, i'm more a designer then programmer but I've got fairly used to PHP over the years.

Anyone any experience with Drupal? .... again looks like a fairly nice system ... Are there any good review sites where someone you trust has reviewed each of these in depth?

I checked out the KickApps in some depth - as linked to above - and it's not going to work for my project, it's hosted on their servers, which is ideal if that suits but I doubt i'll be able to go in and hack lumps out of the code etc. Also the whole thing seems slightly confusing, or maybe i'm just stuck in my ways.