Are you trying to build your own social network? Are you at least contemplating the idea in your mind? Than you are looking for Elgg- the open source social network platform. It’s open source, which means it free and customizable. It also means that it gives you a solid foundation to work off of. Elgg supports a variety of different plugins that you will find helpful such as the “Open ID” plugin which essentially gives your social network Open ID support. The invitation tool works like a charm with Elgg, giving your social network the physical capability to spread like a “virus” to many many users. I must say that I recommend Elgg to all as it has worked so well for me and many of my personal projects.
Fresh out of the box Elgg contains these fundamental facebook like features:
- Find and make friends
- create communities
- upload photos
- Your Profile Page
With some additional features of course:
- Your own blog
- RSS Reader
There are a few plugins I suggest as well. These plugins have worked very well for me in my projects:
- Bookmark tool
- Private Messages
- Suggestions Tool
And my final thought to round it all up. Many people have been throwing up Myspace Clone’s for the past couple of years now to build their own social networks. I cannot emphasize how big of a waste of time that is. Elgg is built on such a better foundation than Myspace ever was. Plus it has more features. Due to the fact that it’s a major open source project you will see exponential growth in the system in the months to come. So if you are serious about creating a social network of your own, than use Elgg. If you are not, and are looking for a stupid quick fix than go ahead and do a Myspace clone like everybody else.
Building your own Social Network community is one of the most effective Organic Internet Marketing strategies today. It’s not easy to build the community, but at least now it’s easy to build the application thanks to the Elgg Developers.
Misja Hoebe
December 19, 2007
Thanks for the plug
I can only agree the Elgg community is thriving, and we’re looking forward to 2008 which will see lots of improvements in Elgg, making it the most flexible and open social networking tool available on the net.
Greg
December 21, 2007
Hello, I am trying to use ning.com to create my SN site. Which is better? ning.com or elgg.org?
admin
December 22, 2007
It depends on what your needs are Greg. Ning.com is sort of like blogger.com for social networks. You can easily setup a social network with ning.com on their domain name with a little control over presentation and that’s it. Elgg.org is actually an open source application where you can download the code, and literally setup your own social network with all of your preferences. So for example, setting up a social network with Ning.com is like setting up greg.wordpress.com as a blog with wordpress. Setting up Elgg on your webserver is like setting up WordPress on your own server. Am I making any sense?
Byron
April 1, 2008
i like facebook very much and i always wanted to sign up for it and this is my first time. Sincerly Byron
Byron
April 1, 2008
Of course admin your making much sense than i am.
nicole
April 5, 2008
yeah
Loyiso
May 14, 2008
no comment
Loyiso
May 14, 2008
i think ning is better
itsme!
May 30, 2008
I would love to do this for mi site!!!
I cannot download it though…
admin
May 30, 2008
On their homepage, click on the link that says “Elgg Classic” then that will take you to the original Elgg Homepage. From there you can download it. It looks like the guys over at Elgg are doing a makeover to their website and have not finished it up yet.
itsme!
May 30, 2008
Thanks!!
Vesko
January 30, 2009
Ning.com is better, plus this is way more complicated than ning.
YourAnswer
March 6, 2009
I think Elgg is a very nice application, I am running it and testing already using the questions plugin!
DontUnderstand
March 19, 2009
how can i do this?
Anton
May 19, 2009
A good comparison between Ning and Elgg (and Facebook) can be found here: http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/socialmedia/comparison.html
As you can see, managing files e.g. is not as good with Ning as within Elgg.
Shannon
June 5, 2009
How does it work?
Zaid
June 20, 2009
Hey admin
Please tell me where can i get guide step by step procedure to create social network using elgg and also can you tell me if bfrnz is created using elgg?
laurence
July 27, 2009
it to hard to make facebook………………….
Waseem
August 26, 2009
I want to create an application using facebook which can be used to make further applications, pages etc………..If there is someone to help me. Thnx
jordan
November 16, 2009
yes i do like it
Marley Goral
February 5, 2010
Making a facebook was hard
Brian Baulch
March 20, 2010
Thanking you very much going to create my self my very own facebook clone and call it smilebook, thanks again found your site on google.
Spanky
May 31, 2010
We need our own, private, password approval (for “friends”) free and open web server where OUR stuff lives and other need to do the same. You basically have your pulic page and your private one(s). There, all the things from FB can be done. Except crawling all over your PRIVATE data. Which would require a search warrant to get at (an then it would be encrypted). Again, only friends YOU approve can see it (the private pages).
This requires going and getting the free server software and setting it up. not as hard as is sounds. You could even do your own virtual server (another topic). All this on a spare computer, wall $29 tiny box or the computer your on now.
hasyrein
August 22, 2010
elgg is the best. you better try it first.