The Social Network and The Sociological Imagination.

What is a good starter script for a self hosted social network with a business directory?

• I need suggestions for the best social network software to use as a basis for building a new social networking site. Here's a brief breakdown of what I need to set up. I want to set up a community that makes it easy for the users to find product and service providers that are tailored to our particular interest/niche. Underpinning the community, will be a business directory. Businesses offering services that target our niche will pay to be listed on the site. They will also be able to interact with users via the site. Users should be able to rate and discuss these businesses that list on the site. That said, the site will be more than just a business directory, but also a social network. The usual social media stuff like groups, and user interactions, discussions etc, will need to be integrated. The site needs to be 'local aware'. If for example, I am searching for a church choir or band to play at a wedding, I need to be able to find one that is local to me. Similarly, a user searching for a 'prayer' group will want to find one geographically close to them. Etc etc. I have searched high and low on the internet, and have not found a script or app that suits my needs. I am happy to find something that gets me part of the way there, but is extensible. Because the site will (eventually) be fairly custom, the only options are something that is self hosted. None of the hosted solutions will work, since they are, by definition, impossible to customize beyond whatever is allowed by the provider. There are directory plugins for WordPress and Joomla, but they totally lack the social networking aspect. On the Rails and Django front, all the 'base' social network bundles seem to be abandonware. This includes Insoshi, LovedByLess and Pinax. Development seems to have stalled on them. The PHP social networking scripts all seem to be clones of MySpace. I am looking for something with a very modern look and feel. While it is less than ideal, the closest of all that I have been evaluating seems to be Dolphin, by Boonex. Can anyone please recommend a good, modern looking, script that can be the a good starter for such a community network. Free or Commercial. It must be self hosted, and extensible though. I am tempted to go with a custom Symfony, Django or Rails solution, but am not sure whether our budget can stretch to pay for a totally custom development. Hence the request for a good starter script.

• Answer:

  I can't remember it's starts with an A - it's wordpress theme making company - has a good yelp looking theme