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I have need for a Facebook type application that can be extended to present news and then encourage community members to comment on it.

Could anyone recommend a platform, ideally not PHP based? Is Open Social as bad as Wikipedia makes it appear!) EssentiaESP looks interesting, but information about the tech architecture is well hidden.

Thanks, Puk

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5 Answers

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ideally not PHP based

I think we need some clarification on this point. Is it that you don't like PHP? Don't have server that runs it?

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Personally I don't care - but my dev partner - he don't like. And as he has a track record of building good SEO functioning sites for major brands I'm just doing what I'm told! – Puk Dec 10 '09 at 16:23
I explored the compiled v interpreted issue with a few tech architects. If it is a technical argument then it is a decision between fast to write language like Python, Ruby on Rails, PHP, Java (this can be the benefit of being interpreted) versus fast to run like .Net (the benefit of compiled). For my purposes I want which ever is fastest to market. The fact that my development partner is most comfortable with .Net makes this the fastest route to market. It turns out not to be a simple technical choice. In other circumstances, in my opinion, the Pinax option would have been more attractive. – Puk Dec 14 '09 at 12:04
This is a very fair assessment, and really solidifies your choice. The right tool for the job always trumps any other response. Thanks for the extra information. – Strozykowski Dec 14 '09 at 20:37
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Maybe you want to try Pinax?

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Cheers I'll check it out. Does anyone knwo what this forum is built on? – Puk Dec 10 '09 at 16:25
It is built on Python + Django – jpartogi Dec 10 '09 at 21:11
Pinax is looking interesting! Does anyone know the implications of extending its functionality? Its licensed under MIT licence. Best raise a new question. – Puk Dec 11 '09 at 7:20
With MIT License, you can do whatever you want with it as long as you keep the original authors name. There is no restrictions. – jpartogi Dec 12 '09 at 6:34
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I was going to recommend Drupal, but that's PHP based. I'd highly recommend talking about this with your partner. This issue isn't so much what your partner likes, but where you can find talent for a reasonable pay. PHP is a widely used language, that runs on most platforms, that a lot of people know.

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Apparently the PHP antipathy is down to it being an interpreted language, we didn't discuss the disadvantages of this. When we have had a chance to I'll update this thread. At this point though I'm taking it on faith. – Puk Dec 10 '09 at 18:11
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Is your partner looking forward to build a web app with a compiled language? If so, you might want to consider a new partner ;) – Olivier Lalonde Dec 10 '09 at 22:04
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You could create a Ning network. See: http://about.ning.com/product.php

If you pay something like $40 monthly, then you'll get it with no ads and you can put it on your own domain.

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EssentiaESP is built on the top of php. We have plans to open up the codebase to gather contributions from the open source world. ETA is still undecided. Some of the open sources sites running on EssentiaESP is jasperforge.org, forge.openbravo.com....

Thanks, Jobin Thomas

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