Community Building Questions

[scriptboy]

What programs/scripts are used to create this kind of community that has a members area and other things?
I was just checking out sites and came across www.kiwibox.com and was wondering if people would take a look at it and see if they could Identify what program they use. Also who would be able to put together a site like this? What would it cost? Any webdesigners/companies that people could recommend that are PROFESSIONAL and on the reasonable priced side?

[Aes]

This entire site is built with PHP and MySQL.

Both are known as Server-Side Scripting Languages (well -- MySQL is a databasing program [think Microsoft Excel on a website -- only not graphical and much more powerful]).

Basically, both allow the ability to use complex and dynamic webpages, created on the fly, and extremely interactive with its users.

Some links that you may find userful are here:
http://www.webmasterbase.com/article.php?aid=228&pid=0 (great article that will get you started [all you need to know is HTML]).
http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/PHP/ (good resource if interested in learning PHP)
http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/MySQL (good resource if interested in learning MySQL)
http://www.php.net/ (PHP's official site)
http://www.mysql.com/ (MySQL's official site)

Those are just some starting places -- take a look and you'll see what PHP and MySQL (as well as other server-side languages) are all about. See you around the forums!

[Jeremy W.]

The second part of your question: Who would be able to build something like this (professional yet reasonably priced) is a difficult one to answer.

Your best bet is probably to contact members individually or to check out the sites of members around here as it isn't appropriate for us to advertise our services inside a community setting.

Nearly every serious web design and development company could do something on this level it is mearly a matter of balancing expertise and price in your case, as well as weeding out the "I think I can" companies.

[scriptboy]

I figured that it was created with PHP Mysql. Is there a commercial program that will create databases for member/ and have all the good stuff like free email, send greeting cards, chat, forums...that kind of stuff

[Jeremy W.]

There are many community building tools around. Actually, one of the advertisers here at SitePoint offers a rather good-looking (I haven't personally tried it) product:

http://www.communityarchitect.com/cg...=SITEPOINT-CA3

.community architecht I believe it's called.

[scriptboy]

Can anybody point out anymore of these types of services besides community architect?


Is there a place that would list these types of software programs/services?

[Hierophant]

We use vBulletin which at its current price is a steal. If you were to hire me to build the equivalent of this package you would get 4 hours of work for the same price...

vBulletin also has an add-on called vBPortal that will add on a links and download section as well as an interface to DMOZ and several other goodies.

Other programs include Back-End, PHPNuke, SlashDot, phpWebsite and many others. You can find these at www.hotscripts.com along with thousands of other resources.

There are also scripts for file management and creating download areas, scripts for managing free homepages and much more.