OSC is a TOTAL nightmare. PHPFox 1.1 is only a very bad dream. I will be looking more closely at 1.5 this weekend although as of right now it is transitionary and does not have all the features and numerous hacks/add-ons for 1.1. It does seem to be getting there.
I wouldn’t say phpfox is the ‘favorite’ but just seems to have the largest user base and has a reasonably good support system and open code. Others here provide one of a number of variables but not all the essentials it seems.
Well I emailed slinky’s comments to Webscribble and they replied with the following. They still seem like a good front runner.
Feedback Submission
Thanks for your interest in webNetwork! I have read through the forum post you sent and the comments made by this person sound like he/she is not a customer of ours. The majority of the comments are quite misinformed and misleading, I will address them individually below.
>1) It's encoded with Zend which means you've got to deal with copy >>protection issues. From what I read earlier, their dating script >requires that it constantly ping their site and if the WS site goes >down, so does your admin section. In addition, they used to have a >forums area that apparently was taken down so now if you buy the >script, you're on your own. I'd personally prefer the phpfox method of >having several dozen others trying to accomplish similar things help >out in the same way we do here.
80-90% of the source code is available. This includes all of the source code for the frontend, and most of the source code for the admin area. You can add almost any feature you want with the code we have available. Some things you will not be able to change are things like our copyrights in the admin area ONLY (you can change the copyrights on the frontend that you visitors will see), the look and feel of the admin area ONLY, and email/support links in the admin area ONLY. The rest you should be able to change. We encrypt part of the source code for antipiracy purposes.
>2) Every "module" costs money and it's not like they have extensive >features. The integration of an external forum only works with phpBB >and you get to pay $50 more just for that privilege. Search by zip >code? Add another $50. Add live chat? $100. Now you're sitting pretty >at $400 just for the basics and you don't even have a basic classifieds >system. PHPFox gives you all of those and more. Yes version 1.1 is a >horrific mess in comparison to this script and 1.5 only offers some >improvement. But if you're willing to wait a little while longer and >toil with 1.5, it's possible that you might find good rewards.
Our basic software without any plugins blows any competitors out of the water. The modules are optional and add enhancement not every social networking webmaster would need. The comparison he made is extremely one sided. Although we do charge for modules, we offer free lifetime updates on the software unlike phpFox who charges yearly. We provide a free installation with every purchase, phpFox charges $50. You can remove the reference to our company, while you must pay $75 to phpFox to do that.
>3) I couldn't find any reasonably useful search function. Sure there is >an eye candy dropdown on the top menu but all you can do is search >with keywords, not by sections, etc. With many files/videos, good luck.
It looks like this person didn't take a look at our demo. Every section (film, music, videos, photos, etc.) has a regular and advanced search. It seems as if he didn't look beyond the quick search at the top of our page, but our searching capabilities are certainly much more advanced than he makes them sound.
>4) Templating uses functions and I don't know how they are implemented >and what you can get to due to the encoding. For example, if you look >at the search form you'll see that the html file contains just {SEARCH} >in it. This means that you may or may not be able to hack the contents.
Our templating system is extremely easy to use and customizable. This person simply isn't familiar with it and made baseless assumptions with this point. Those variables are all either stored in other HTML files, or in some rare cases in unencrypted (source code available) PHP files.
>5) Thumbnailing seems to stretch out photos. Some are better able to >make use of dimensions that aren't totally square and just resize >them >so they don't stretch. Not that most don't suffer this problem but I'm >noticing it all over on their demo. The thumbnails look good on some >pages because they are displayed in the right dimensions but stretched >on others because of the template requiring a square box. This can >probably be be fixed but prepare to make changes across the board.
Thumbnailing is handled differently throughout the site, but there is some stretching in a few sections. This can easily be changed with a simple modification to the source code in a few files.
>6) Did I mention that their profile search doesn't allow you to search >just for profiles with photos? I'm sure you can hack this but, again, I >don't know how easy this is to work with under the hood or if you can.
Although we don't currently have a photos only search, that is something we'll be adding in the next version. The code is available for you to modify if you'd like to add that functionality earlier.
>7) Profiles - Other than the eye candy interface, exactly what can a >user do with his/her profile? All the ones I browsed showed a few >characteristics, a guestbook, list of friends and that's just about >all. I logged in for an account and found that you can't create your >own pages. Right now it only acts as a modification of their dating >package except you can put up songs for your band - if this is what >you're using the site for.
Users can post almost anything in their profiles and this is quite easy to see by simply looking at our demo. You can post HTML into several sections of the profile. If you're familiar with how MySpace works, webNetwork allows very similar functionality in terms of what you can do with the profile. webNetwork is by no means simply a modification of webDate and this comment underscores the misinformed opinion this person wrote on the forums. webNetwork was built from the ground up using almost none of the webDate code.
Although reading forums is a good way to narrow down your choices, I would strongly urge you to take reviews of people who are not our customers with a grain of salt. If you take a thorough look at our online demo I am confident you will be convinced our software is the superior choice by far.
That was it 
Good work although from what they wrote it seems like I was right on target. I love marketing people. 
It seems like an ok product but know what you’re getting and understand the limitations. Doesn’t thrill me other than the eye candy and templating.
Telling me that 80% of the code is available is not exactly encouraging at all. Not answering the issue of the copy protection didn’t thrill me either, especially about the issue of pinging their site regularly and potentially locking you out of your own site. I only found out about this because others complained about issues with their dating software. To me these are pretty big issues and why I might consider phpfox, buddyzone (i think is open) or one of the others.
Telling me that their basic package blows everyone out of the water… that was helpful. 
FREE installation! Golly gee, for most of us here that is a major plus. Free updates is nice but that is all dependent upon just how much development is really going on - if at all. Nothing really helpful here. Fact is you DO have to pay for a lot of the basic functions, even though they did a nice job on the ones they have.
I did look for advanced search. And that would be where? http://www.webscribble.com/products/webnetwork/demo/
Templating variables may be available and might be in php files, as I guessed – “or in some rare cases in unencrypted (source code available) PHP files.” So I was right. Variables can be stored in PHP files but you and I have no idea (or guarantee) whether they are part of the open 80% referred to above. I’ll assume that for templating they are generally available or at least most of the ones you should need are.
Seems like I was right on target again with thumbnailing.
Right on target again. They don’t have a pretty basic and obvious feature. “Although we don’t currently have a photos only search” Modifiable but someone has to do it and unless you know how… this means that probably you’ll need to hack other areas from my experience.
Aha - the script offers functions “similar” to myspace. Don’t they all. I certainly didn’t see anything close to the customizability you get with myspace. Don’t get me wrong, I hate the lack of uniformity and prefer this approach. Problem was that I didn’t see much flexibility to do other things with the page that you can do on other software. It’s different, more organized but with more limitations. For me this works more like that other encrypted one that looks nice that I can’t remember (most people think it looks more business.)
So making a long story short, you’re probably looking at more than the $200 investment and only 80% or more of the source is open and you’ve got to rely on their site being up all the time. Not a life threatening issue but not what is comfortable for me. There won’t be a perfect answer for everyone but I’m not enamored of this script as is, that’s all.
But is it free software? I’d rather shell out $1000 and know what I’m getting than have “free” software with strings attached.
Just because it’s not encoded doesn’t mean it’s open source.
maadmac I was a customer. I bought web date and even a professional web developer I hired was shocked at the state of the coding, plus the lack of customer support ONCE YOU’ve PURCHASE. Oh but they were mighty helpful prior to buying the webdate software, after purchase, if you were lucky to get any kind of response they were unhelpful, customer service dept. didn’t seem to know the product and were also rude!
They couldn’t even be bothered to send out emails telling customers to upgrade to the latest version and if you leave a ticket in the customer area be prepared to wait until doomsday for a response. Once they have your money, they run for cover.
I only bought it on the say so of someone who advised me from another forum. It obviously worked for him, it didn’t for me. As slinky mentioned, you’ve gotta love marketing people!!!
OK, I have now read the whole topic but I am less or more in the same (starting) position. I think that your experience could help many people out there but it is too difficult to make a safe conclusion with all these posts.
Could you please explain the situation about the 2 most important things: (1)which scripts are for dating communities and which are not
(2)which of them are stable enough and which are not
After these, we can talk about any further characteristics…
And also, does anybody have a idea about the script is used in these communities:
http://www.purevolume.com/
http://www.projectopus.com/
I heard PureVolume is custom but the structure and the way it works is VERY similar to Jamroom (www.Jamroom.net ?) … The other site wouldn’t load for me.
Project Opus uses drupal.
Well, Jamroom(.net) looks like a good solution for music communities. Is there any other suggestion?
Could someone help me with drupal in order to make a site like Project Opus? (bbdiop[at]gmail[dot]com)
And the winners are?
Well, I was just about to ask what people knew about this one and how it compares to the competition: http://web4future.com/
Site momentary closed under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code
And the winners are? Seems like either Drupal or PHPFox.
After reading this thread, I don’t think by using PHPFox you would have a win. Sounds like a nightmare to me. At least drupal has the foundation of something good.
Maybe everyone is barking up the wrong tree. Isn’t it about time some of the more knowledgable members in this thread got together a think-tank and brainstormed a new concept in community websites.
The big thing I have noticed is sameness…lets get together and think outside the square.
Alicia (Public Version) released.
Download it here
Please all of the experts, let us know if its worth giving a try for some one who is just getting into the SN sites.
Thanks!
Also whether it is useful and worth trying for singles/matchmaking sites, and not SN only.
Great stuff, slinky! Looking forward to what you come up with.
As I type here i am uploading to my server the OSDate script. Wow, it is a big script/upload! It took winrar ages to even uncompress the downloaded file.
Once uploaded, I am gonna mess with the script tonight a bit and see what it can do, and how it looks/can be adapted.
Aye, PHPFox and Dolphin were never my cup of tea either…dolphin looked relaly nice, but I just didn’t have much faith in it beyond that. phpFox was good, but I was never convinced, and it seemed a bit pricey for my liking.
I might tweak OSDate a bit - to see if it could be adapted for a property listings type website.
dont run after someone to do something for you. everyone is scammer in myspace advertising until he is giving you the thing FREE. just buy myspace bot like from http://www.apnapakistani.net/myspace and do all on ur own. they r really cool guyz and keep me updated with myspace hope so with you too.
have a nice day!
I’ve decided to spend a few thousand and develop one from scratch and potentially integrate with other well developed scripts, end of story. This is too much of a pain and quite frankly phpfox is taking too long for me and may never be done. Plus there is the hell of working with it and finding a designer who does more than create pretty psd files for it…
Whether it’s any consolation, over 50% of the demo sites are not functional. The ones that are lock you out of seeing what is going on without registering, not a great sign. While it does some things really nicely, like a super clean front page and profile, the rest doesn’t really impress me and there isn’t a whole heck of a lot to do on their sites. SEO is non-existent. Considering where it has been, I’m not looking for greatness to come from this software nor timely bug fixing.
Another reason why I’m just going to spend a few thousand and create a custom job that may integrate vbulletin and another script and create the rest myself.