Slinky, please don’t forget to post the link to your site here! We wanna see!(:
Will you have a colophon?
Slinky, please don’t forget to post the link to your site here! We wanna see!(:
Will you have a colophon?
I mind
Hi,
I’ve pretty much came to the same conclusion. My primary concerns about Drupal are:
The overall architecture. I found this site with some interesting articles on Drupal. http://www.rhinocerus.net/. This article, I felt was particularly illustrative about the issues publishers and developers may face: http://www.bodesigns.com/?p=12.
I am less concerned with the initial cost (though it may be substantial), than I am with the ongoing costs. The costs of ongoingmaintenance may far exceed that of the initial costs, because the product may be a) buggy b) not be backward compatible as it evolves c) poorly designed and therefore difficult to change, d) have limited developer support e) have poor documentation with esoteric nomenclature.
Overall, Drupal does not leave me with the warm fuzzies, and I feel like I would be trapped, once I start sinking money into it. I haven’t had a chance to look at Joomla yet, but I think it may have more appeal. On the otherhand, I am honing up my own development skills again (which is why I am here at Sitepoint), because ultimately I think I will build my website myself.
Rich
That article is mainly about difficulty in styling…
The learning curve with Drupal is well documented, but it’s also pretty clear that once you get the hang of it (or hire someone who has the hang of it) it can be done.
Valid points. Why not contact some of the teams who’ve developed the more robust sites using drupal, and ask about the difficulties? That’s what I did…and the responses contributed to interest in the platform.
I guess I’ll know soon enough whether or not it was a good decision…I’m FINALLY in the process of converting one of my sites to drupal.
Joomla is good and I like it for basic sites that want a good CMS. Joomla’s backend is so easy straightforward in my oppinion if you have a non technical client that wants to maintain there web site. But they are different tools for different types of sites. Drupal is based more for your community based web sites and offers you greater flexibility (that as you stated with the proper developer) you can accomplish pretty much whatever you are trying to do. Joomla is not really geared so much for that. Joomla is for the average user who wants to have a dynamic site they can update easily. But the thing that sets drupal apart is the ability to “make it your own” (with enough time and experienced developer). But with flexibility can come frustration if not created properly.
James
I can understand your worries about getting a site online and wanting to upgrade at a future date and the fears of compatibility.
But on the upside Drupal has one of the largest community bases I have seen and isn’t going to be going anywhere anytime soon. Most of the authors of any of the mods are quick to release upgrades to latest versions as needed.
James
I happened upon this thread yesterday, and read all 17 pages!
Although I have been on the hunt for the same type of social network script, I am not wanting one to use for a dating site, so a lot of the ones listed here will not work for my purposes as I wouldn’t be able to control the categories within a users profile section upon signup… however…
I came across one today (http://www.datecomm.com) while searching Freshmeat.net that IS for the dating arena, but where I can also over-ride the categories/interests and make it suit my purposes.
Hey guys.First of all, I appreciate all of the comments and really appreciate those of you who have gone to the site, looked at it, and provided feedback. Trust me, I don’t take many things personally. The challenge with Drupal is that there aren’t many skilled developers available to help create the site you are looking for. I used one of the largest providers out there and they charged $18/hr to begin with, then went to $60/hr - which is when I stopped. Others charged between $11/hr (they had to learn Drupal from scratch) to $70/hr. No matter who I paid, they all had difficulty getting things to work. It took a while (on my dollar) to learn that there was a bug in the login process which doesn’t let a subscriber log in because of the way cookies are handled.
Open source is great. I am a firm believer in it. However, the one big problem I’ve found with drupal is that they are always putting out new releases before the previous releases are very stable. This turns into big dollars for maintenance and for development. So, if you plan on going with Drupal, I advise that you be at least a moderate programmer in MySQL and PHP, and that you learn Drupal’s innerworkings yourself. This is the only way that you can avoid the dollar crunch, in my humble opinion. I am not a PHP developer and had to rely on others. If I had found PHPFox, Handshakes, BuddyZone, or Alicia beforehand, I probably would still have $8k to $10K in my pocket for other things. I am still feeling the sting of the Drupal bite.
Regards,
salexa
I checked out datecomm. I think they are still working on it because when I went to the mail section, I couldn’t find anywhere to compose an email. Maybe it was disabled for the demo. Either way, much more functionality on the items I mentioned above. Also, someone posted that I did not need to integrate PhpFox with Clipshare. I checked it out and there is a module which can be purchased. Thanks! I didn’t like the Buddyzone video section as much.
salexa
I definitely agree if I wasn’t a developer myself I probably would try to go the route of PHPFox or one of the other “out of the box” solutions. Drupal takes tons of “tweak” time. And alot of that (albeit small) setup and tweak time for each module, setup, integration, theming and customizing if you had to go through an outside developer would eat up tons of time.
But you don’t have to be an expert in PHP to get some advanced functionality out of it. If you can get a base knowledge of PHP I honestly think the curve is more on the side of just getting comfortable with Drupal and the way it works.
Oh btw for anyone who cares I got a mailing from PHPFox today that they just released a new stable version that should solve alot of the issues the previous version had. Previous version I tried had nothing but problems and never worked right and I still to this day never got an email or call back from anyone at there company answering my support questions. Which kind of another plus to drupal. Is it hard to learn: YES. Is there people out there willign to help you: YES. Is it going to go away in a couple years: Probably not. Fox on the other hand I paid a large amount of money for and never got any support for.
James
Run a search here at Sitepoint on DateComm…I seem to recall some ‘issues’ with them (along the lines of alstrasoft). I don’t remember the specifics, but I DO remember to stay away.
If you decide to get it, let us know what you think.
Re: PHPFox
I’m kinda bummed that there are so many problems with it. I’d love to take it for a test run with a smaller community, but I don’t want the headaches. Bummer…bummer…bummer… Are you guys SURE it sucks?
Hey if you can get past the initial installation and setup then I hope it works out for you. But before you make the leap go out to there site and read through there forums. Theres is page after page of all very angry customers who have posted to the forums trying to get support. Never once is someone from Fox posting back it’s a board of users trying to help other users. It’s kind of a joke. I only wish I had seen that before I paid my money. They never once replied back to any of my emails and yet I still get there mass mailings about a new product they released. Just seems like kind of a scary thing if you get a site going and end up having problems with it.
James
wow, I was away a few days, and came back to find 2 new pages in this thread! Yee-haaaa! I love reading the posts/ideas/script ideas, in here.
Sorry to hear of the poster who spent so much time and money on Drupal, only to abandon it and try something else. I know many in here love Drupal, but I must be honest and admit that I never warmed to it - always looked too square/boxy in look, and I always felt that customisation/development would call for major bucks, using skilled people. I like to be able to tweak things myself and not rely onothers.
My two faves are close to being updated. OsDate and Datemill are both looking good. Osdate is within days of final release…their demo (of their work-in-progress) has been online for a week or so. I think they’re near done with any bug eradication. Looking good.
My big favourite is Datemill. Dan, possibly the most straightforward/honest and decent bloke that I have ever met online, is close to releasing the new Datemill. From what I have seen so far, I think it may well be right up my street. It’s looking very good. i.e. for my needs anyroads.
Just to add something, I have emailed PhPFox on 5 occasions and have received a prompt response back every time (1 or 2 days). Of course one of my questions was if they would give me a discount if I paid for the software, installation, and the removal of their “powered by” advertisement. Their prompt reply was a definitve no. I still haven’t quite decided on them yet, but I just learned that they have a lot of modules from users that provide much more of the functionality I need to match my current site. They will cost me, but nowhere near what I have already shelled out for my current website.:injured:
salexa
Yeah that’s what makes it even sadder. When I initially contacted them about questions before I purchased the product. Quick responses within the same day. After I purchased, contacted regarding problems and no response for months. Coincidence hmmmm kinda hard to say :). But I’m thinking no.
LOL. Point taken. That isn’t too good.
Ditto that.
Hi guys, sorry I was away for a spell. I was nailed with a little illness that delayed development, add to it the fact that I NEED TIME. I was born needing an executive assistant, lol. I’m hoping that this week I’ll have the basics up and over the weekend will reveal a nice looking integrated site.
My challenge with drupal is the maintenance. I don’t know that building from scratch isn’t as good a solution as if I’m going to use drupal. What I like about others are a bit more rapid development, which is key for me. If all works out well with concept I’ll spend extra bucks and just develop the whole darn thing from scratch.
What can I say? First, thank you, thank you, thank you everyone on this board for all your insight and feedback on this subject. I’ve gone through the entire board over the last couple of nights and am swimming with all the information on here and out “there” on the 'net regarding SNS. I’m so thankful that I came across this site because I know I would have made an incredibly uninformed decision on a product that may not have given me what I wanted. I’ve determined after reading these posts that at least now I’ll make a reasonably informed decision on a product that still may not give me what I want in the end. Hey, I’m lazy… I want things to be easy and bug free out of the box.
I was leaning towards PHP Fox but hearing so many recent gripes about their bugs, angry customers on their forums and lack of support I’m not willing to shell out $300.
After reading everything over I’m going to check out Drupal. Fortunately, my boyfriend is a programmer and versed in PHP. I’m also versed in HTML and have started picking up XML and will now likely pick-up PHP so I’m not entirely dependent on his bouts of procrastination. So, my question with Drupal is: is it really 100% open source or do we have another instance here as with Alicia and their 15% when sold/otherwise funky licensing? I’m off to get details now so maybe I’ll answer my own question.
Kat – great site and I just subbed to your newsletter (100 lbs. of weight loss here)! How has Drupal integration been going for you?
Best,
SMS_BurnOut
I dont know but Drupal is not in my list, I do not actually want to get into a thing which I will have to assamble first to use it. That leaves me with 2 choices, PHP FOX or Handshakes. And I am so damn confused.
Why so many “paid modules” for PHPFox are out there? Does the basic application lacks in terms of features?
While the handshake does not have so many paid modules and the basic application seems quit rich in terms of features why do people always comment that “PHPFox” is better?
I am at the verge of buying one but I am still confused. WHY not HandShake when it has so many features? and WHY PHPFox when you will have to pay a lot more to come close to what Handshakes offer right out of the box?
Please Help!