"Must have" features for a social networking site

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thomjjames's picture

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping to spark abit of a debate here with the following question.

With so many feature rich social networking sites out there now what are the "must have" features every social network should have??

be great to know what everyone thinks, i'm working on a list of my "must haves", i'll post it when it's done.

cheers
Tom


http://adrenalinehub.com
http://blogyoursprog.com
http://tomswebstuff.com

Comments

User & image location tagging

raintonr's picture

One of the things I really like about some sites out there, FB in particular, is the ability to tag areas of images.

One of the other things is that a tag can be a user, instead of a member of a taxonomy.

Drupal as part way here with community tags but at the moment does not make the link between the freetagging taxonomy and a site user. It would be great to extend the freetagging taxonomy with an option box or something, "include username tags in this taxonomy".

This, used in conjunction with images.module to get a section of image tagges & later shown on the image would be ideal.

What is good about community tags is that it's taxonomy don't have to be users. It would be great to be able to point at part of a picture of Paris and tag "Eiffel Tower" (lame example, but you get the idea).

I like how when I got go

ericatkins's picture

I like how when I got to Facebook.com I can see what everyone in my social network is doing. They update their status, they post notes, they make comments, they add friends, join groups, etc.

The mini-feed is what hooks most Facebook users. I spawns conversation and interaction.

Having a similar feature in Drupal would be a killer feature for a social networking site. It needs to be more than what tracker offers.

The tracker is all about a node. I would be great if a tracker was all about the users and what the users are doing.

I don't want to interact with nodes. I want to interact with users.

--
Sojourn Church - the Hushed Casket

Very well put

Walt Esquivel's picture

I agree very much with your comments.

Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing

Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing

I posted an issue about this

christefano's picture

I posted an issue about this very feature to the Log Watcher issue queue. Unfortunately it was marked as "won't fix" but if you read my post and feel the same way, please reopen the issue.

Privacy options

Azhar Drupal Malaysia's picture

Its cool, but it should be an option where a user can opt, if this is invading his/her privacy, then he/she can shut the feed off

I dont want my `friends' to know every bit of what I am doing, BUT if I want, I can

This Facebook `feed' is actually news feed on what the people connected did - it was mentioned disapprovingly in

http://blogs.zdnet.com/social

Another MUST HAVE - CUSTOMIZABLE USERPROFILE

MySpace and Friendster following suit, each profile can be customized the look and feel

Facebook is less customizable, but this suits its image as the network for educated and university and professional users

In Drupal, this can be done with user-profile.tpl.php

I'm with you on the idea of

coyote-dupe's picture

I'm with you on the idea of being able to allow users better control of what they show, and to whom.

I think that users should be able to:

  • Add people to friends-lists (and have the ability to have more than one friends group, so they can show things to some people but not others.

  • Add users to a "blocked" user group, so that not only does that user not get access to see their profile/nodes/etc, they also cannot send that users private messages, buddy list requests, email via contact form, etc.

  • Have complex profiles that allow them to make some information private except to certain groups, while leaving other information public.

On another note:

  • Customizable look and feel. It is currently possible for users to be allowed to select a different site theme in Drupal. but not really customize their pages (like MySpace and LiveJournal do). On the other hand, this means that users cannot make completely putrid-looking home pages, as they often do on MySpace. It would be nice if users could at least select some custom colors, etc. to personalize their blog/profile/etc.

good site

andrewblack's picture

http://adrenalinehub.com is good site.. si it from drupal? how make this site like that?

check css

benovic's picture

an easy way to check if its a drupal site is to check where the css comes from... and, yes, it is a drupal site.

ehh well, and here: you can even check what modules had been used:
http://adrenalinehub.com/modules_used.php

i am developing a similar site to that at the moment. mine is not graphically as perfect as this, so its even good for me to look at that :-)

How do you check where the CSS comes from?

Walt Esquivel's picture

Thanks in advance.

Oh and thanks for the URL for the modules used on that site.

Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing

Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing

Must haves

gestaltware's picture

1) Integration with other social networks... no matter how small or focused the community you're supporting, it needs to integrate with the wider world (aka Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, etc).

2) Automatic import of contacts/friends from standard services (above, plus email), adding to friends/buddies if already a site member, sending a "Try this out" email if not.

These two are non-optional in my opinion for any social networking site. Love to compare lists if you have the time.

I totally agree with that,

thomjjames's picture

I totally agree with that, the way the web is going/gone information from your social networking site needs to be freely tranferable/importable/exportable between sites. look at facebook and all the major players they all offer a way to import or export you content/details.
are there any drupal modules out there offering anything along these lines?

Tom


http://drupalsn.com/user/thomjjames

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