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Ask HN: Launching a niche community - coding choices

8 points by sagacity 16y ago

We're preparing to launch a niche social network for Media Professionals later this month. Since this is going to involve mainly professionals, we're planning to offer only serious usage type of functionality, at least in the initial phase (e.g. profile builder, forums, group formation, private and group messaging, member directory etc.). While we already have most of the features working now (with proprietary code, stable and working satisfactorily), we're wondering if we should ditch this in favour of a ready-made SN platform such as ning - or some other one. What do HNers suggest? Which way should we go? Roll our own or go ready-made? If ready-made, why, and which one? Please share your views. [Those interested can check it out - pre-registrations already on: http://www.AllMediaPeople.com ]

sagacity 16y ago
Clickable link: http://www.AllMediaPeople.com http://www.AllMediaPeople.com
revorad 16y ago
If you already have something working, why would you ditch it? If you are expecting to spend most of your time doing non-coding stuff to get your site going, then going with a readymade solution might be a good idea. But then you are at the mercy of the provider if you want to iterate fast and add new features. I'm wrestling with the same question for a project of mine, and although I'm tempted to go with a readymade solution, I fear it will come back to bite me sooner than later. So, even if I go with the readymade option, I will do it only as a way of vetting the idea and quickly move to my own codebase once I get some traction.
natgordon 16y ago
I launched a site using Community Engine which is a Ruby on Rails plugin - http://communityengine.org/ http://communityengine.org/ I've looked at launching a community site on Ning. It sounds like your team has coding chops. I was frustrated with Ning because if you wanted functionality that was out of the box and you were able to create it, at the time you couldn't add it to the site. I'm not sure if that's changed.

8 points by sagacity 16y ago

sagacity 16y ago

Clickable link: http://www.AllMediaPeople.com http://www.AllMediaPeople.com

revorad 16y ago

If you already have something working, why would you ditch it? If you are expecting to spend most of your time doing non-coding stuff to get your site going, then going with a readymade solution might be a good idea. But then you are at the mercy of the provider if you want to iterate fast and add new features. I'm wrestling with the same question for a project of mine, and although I'm tempted to go with a readymade solution, I fear it will come back to bite me sooner than later. So, even if I go with the readymade option, I will do it only as a way of vetting the idea and quickly move to my own codebase once I get some traction.

natgordon 16y ago

I launched a site using Community Engine which is a Ruby on Rails plugin - http://communityengine.org/ http://communityengine.org/ I've looked at launching a community site on Ning. It sounds like your team has coding chops. I was frustrated with Ning because if you wanted functionality that was out of the box and you were able to create it, at the time you couldn't add it to the site. I'm not sure if that's changed.