Mar 6, 2008 by Veiko HernecloseAuthor: Veiko HerneName: Veiko Herne Email: veikoherne@hotmail.com Site:http://veikoh.wordpress.com About: Veiko Herne is lifetime entrepreneur, currently working as Independent Consultant with over 30 years experience in IT and starting his activities in Internet since 1993. After establishing and managing one of the most successful IT companies in Estonia after the collapse of Soviet Union, he later managed worldwide interest to his analytical financial accounting and HR management software packages from New York until September 11th. He is currently living in Belfast, Northern Ireland.See Authors Posts (10)Social Networks
Starting to evaluate SocialEngine I was positively surprised how technically open and well programmed it was. It’s expandable with plug-ins and uses Smarty to customize its look and feel.
After the trial download I had Groups, Blog and Photo Album plug-ins included and their website says that Events plug-in is currently available which I was able to look from their website. Social Engine was developed by innovative Californian software company Webligo whose business mission is to brainstorm new innovative ideas to be profitable at early stage and sell those to larger companies who can fully realize their potential. Webligo previous project BlogHoster was sold UK based Splashpress media in 2007 and since 2006 they have worked with SocialEngine (www.socialengine.net). Webligo was founded by Alex Benzer and Charlotte Genevier, who met as Pasadena Polytechnic high school in 2000.
Installation
The installation comes as downloadable compressed file which you should decompress to your server. Files will be extracted starting “files” subdirectory which was little bit odd as I would expect to run my program from the virtual root I created for it.
You will get an email which contains your installation key and attached license.txt file. You should copy this file also to your server application files directory before starting files/admin/install.php otherwise it complains and does not start. That was an odd thing to do but I assume that when purchasing you will get just new license file and not an installation key. The license file was encrypted anyway so I assume they will send me a new license.txt file after a purchase.
After your installation was successful you should delete the install.php and installsql.php for security reasons files otherwise the admin module will start complain each time you log in to that module.
You should setup full rights (777) for uploads directories listed in installation instructions.
URL’s can be specified as normal filenames or subdirectory URL’s. The server requirements are php 4.3 or higher, My Sql 4.1 or higher and when image thumbnail creation feature is necessary the GD 2.0 support. Their professional installation service will cost $30.
Usability
The signup was extremely simple. First page will ask your e-mail, password, username, second page will ask some personal information like date of birth, home address and time zone which all are customisable by administrator. The next step is to upload your photo or skip this step and as final step you are able to invite your friends by sending an email to them.
System includes several security features like email verification and verification code images which can be switched on/off from administration module. Also features like “generate random passwords for users” and “users must agree terms of service” can be switched on and off using the administration module.
The login procedure is using email address instead of the username.
The main page includes recent system activities, online members, administrator notifications and news; user can update his profile, view friends, browse other people and change your status line.
In your settings besides changing your email, password, username and time zone you can setup what kind of activities you want to be shown in your recent activities list. The options are: When I log in, When I update my profile photo, When I update my profile, When I post comment to somebody’s profile, When I add a friend, When I update my status, When I create new album, When I upload new photos, When I post comment about a photo, When I write a blog entry, When I post a comment about blog entry, When I create a group, When I join a group, When I leave a group, When I post a comment to group, and When I post a group photo so there will be plenty to choose.
Exact message texts where customizable using the administration module.
Users are able to block other users and delete the account when deciding to leave the community.
Removing from online communities should be required feature by law as some of the software products are not allowing it and it’s very complicated to get yourself out of their mailing lists once signed up.
Other profile questions and features are fully customisable from administration module so the system can be setup to any specific community. This customisation feature was extremely powerful allowing creating new tabs and all types of HTML fields (including a date field), CSS style, search ability options, field parameters and even what kind of HTML tags are allowed in text fields or is it a link and even including the possibility to use field content validation functions.
Other users where able to post comments to the profile which owner can delete when necessary, send friend requests, report inappropriate person profile to the administrator or block this person.
Friendship setting where also very customizable allowing to setup parameters like who can invite users to become friends, should friendships very verified and how, administrator or users can setup their friendship categories and should the friendship explanation field be used.
I was able to send messages only to friends and didn’t find any way to configure it from administration module. So maybe this kind of SPAM protection was already programmed into the system.
Administration module allows you to specify subnetworks based on up to two required fields from membership profiles. Subnetworks are handy to limit mostly any action using the system.
The administration module allows also user levels creation with their usage rights.
User can subscribe email notifications for new messages and comment other profiles.
Groups, Blog and Photos become as additional plug-ins and needed to be installed one by one before they can be used.
From the administration module you can setup groups to be visible for public, setup group messaging templates, create new group fields and categories. Messages can be sent for group invitation, group comments and membership requests which can be set on in Group Settings by group owner. Inappropriate groups can be reported to the system administrator. Groups will have members and comments. When posting a comment you will be always asked verification code, a feature that I wasn’t able to switch off. Again this was the SPAM protection feature already built to the system.
When creating a group you can specify the group website, does membership require the owner approval, will this group included to search results, who can view this group and who can post group comments. You can also upload the group photo, create group photo album, send out group invitations and if you are familiar with CSS, you can create your own group style. Interestingly the group website field does not show as link on group page. Maybe it’s a bug or feature not yet implemented.
The Blogging plug-in was using fckEditor written in JavaScript which had some problems when I was playing with fonts, their sizes and colours to show my entries properly. It supports links, images, flash, smiles and special characters. Table tags support for proper page formatting has been always a feature what I had missed in those. I even was able to find a bug when clicking to Tab “Blog Settings” from Editor Tab it asks “user_blog_style.php” instead of “user_blog_settings.php”.
You can change your blog colors, fonts and styles from there by writing a CSS code. For average users less technical look and feel setup features could be more convenient for their blogs.
Members can comment your blog entries and it was a feature I wasn’t able to switch off but was able to delete inappropriate comments. The administration module allows specifying are all blogs visible to non members and the default e-mail text sent to blog owner when new comment is posted. Inappropriate blog content can be reported to the system administrator.
From the administration module you can setup are blogs visible to general public until they have made private and template to the blog comment email notification.
Photos are stored in photo albums and again you are able to customise your album look and feel with your CSS programming skills.
For each album you can specify who can view it, is it included to search results and who can comment it including “only me” options. So you can use the system to store and manage your personal pictures.
After uploading photos to your album you are able to specify which one is used as album cover picture.
Photos can be commented, but not rated and as the album owner you are able to setup who can comment your photos and delete inappropriate comments. Users can report inappropriate photos to the system administrator.
Photos main page will give you statistics including how many times it have been viewed and you can switch to your friends albums from there.
From the administration module you can setup are photo pages visible to general public and new photo comment email notification template.
The Events page starts from calendar monthly view showing events you created or signed to participate. When clicking on event there the pop up window will open with event details which was a new feature not previously used on other modules. Each event can have a picture, confirmed quests and comments. You can browse quest list, register to the event or report inappropriate events to the administrator. When event creator, you can also cancel the event.
When creating an event you are able to specify event category, when and where it takes place, who is hosting this event, is it invitation only based event, will it show up on search results, who can view this event, who can post event comments and upload the event photo. As a creator of event you are able to delete inappropriate comments.
You can also send out the invitations, create event photo album and again customize the event page view with your CSS programming skills.
Administration module allows specifying email and activity field templates, post announcements, invite users, and viewing system log and site statistics.
Somehow I wasn’t able to setup banner campaigns using their evaluation version. I assume it was the restriction rather than a bug and somehow my installed version missed the logout possibility even it was showing in the upper menu line when using the demo in their website.
Conclusion
SocialEngine has been most flexible and well programmed Social Networking platforms I have seen so far. Their website does not specify any clients or recommendations, but shows a sample of their program code so I assume their tactics is sell the product only to those who will value their skills. Their license costs $300 per domain (discounts for multiple domains available) and they are asking $40 extra for each plug-in.
Technical support has been implemented thru tickets and FAQ system however I had no need to use those as everything worked as expected. I would recommend it as a core to anyone and besides their continuing development on new plug-ins hopefully there will be also third party developers for those until somebody will purchase the project from the creators.
Social Engine does not have any membership subscription based billing functionalities built in.
——————————————— Veiko Herne is lifetime entrepreneur, currently working as Independent Consultant with over 30 years experience in IT and starting his activities in Internet since 1993. After establishing and managing one of the most successful IT companies in Estonia after the collapse of Soviet Union, he later managed worldwide interest to his analytical financial accounting and HR management software packages from New York until September 11th. He is currently living in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
———————————————
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44 Responses to “SocialEngine – a PHP based social network platform”
First look : Good. But trying to sell it now and looking for some better options. Installing plugin is a headache. No uninstallers also. Security issues cropping up. Groups have no albums or polls of their own. No Forum, no video ffmpeg support and sadly the blog module is very crude.
For those whom pricing matters, its the most costly script on earth :
· 1 SocialEngine License $300 US which means SE brandname, copyright etc is removed from your site
· Blogs Plugin + $40 US
· Photo/Video Albums Plugin + $40 US
· Groups Plugin + $40 US
· Events Plugin + $40 US
· Chat Plugin + $30 US
· Classified Plugin + $40 US
· Polls Plugin + $30 US
· Professional Installation Service + $30 US
Total: $590 US
“Possibly most famous Social Networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook are based on their core engine.” – This statement is best removed from this article. Linkedin and Facebook has been there LONG TIME BEFORE this company was formed. This is basically a facebook clone script selling at a rip-off price. Unedited scammy statements like this will bring bad repute to mytestbox.
I installed socialengine and its such a pain to install the plugins. Where do i need to upload the plugins. I uploaded in every directory that i have in my public_html but THe plugin never appears in my admin panel of the socialengine.
Why aren’t social engine providing easy manuals and clearify the folder to upload plugins…
They only tell us to upload it in our server…. (Everyone knows that) But where and which directory of the Server…
If we upload inside the publi_html I know its going to over write several alike folders like admin etc..
So where the hell to upload these pain in the ass plugins…?? Please HELP
So, could a basic html and cut and paste javascript programmer like me install and configure socialengine with minimal tearing of hair? Thanks for your insights.
Hello…I am not a web programmer/developer by any means but am looking to hire a website designer to create a website community idea that I have. One of my finalist companies says they will use SocialEngine to construct my website community. Its a professoinal community for businesses so I am very concerned with security. Does anyone have any input on any security issues with SocialEngine? Can it be hacked easy or can someone screw up my site if they wanted to if it was built with SocialEngine? Any comments would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you!!
most probably your Socialengine installation need to be tweaked, adapted to your needs.
And if you have good programmers they can do that for you (also check for security issues). In the end, you will need programmers to tweak your site…it can’t stay like that forever.
Checkout also Elgg http://www.elgg.org …it seems they came along well with the new release of their software.
Hi, upload all respective files from the local drive in to respective server side files (admin, images, includes, templates). then check in “View plugins”.
Following my 22 Sept comment. I installed SE on shared LInux hosting.
Wow, so simple, I worked through the readme install guide and it just ….worked as advertised. I’ve never had such a simple install. I guess its really well programmed and designed, no issues, no nasty bits, no need to go back to the developers. I wish all installs were so simple.
Just now comparing Social Engine to Elgg, Rayzz, and Boonex Dolphin.
I had recommended social engine to client but he was recommended Dolphin by someone else. Trying to justify my recommendation I also came across Elgg and Rayzz (he wants to have video galleries). I still like Social Engine but am impressed with what I see about Elgg (less so with Dolphin). There will be a lot of customization required. Between Elgg and Social Engine, which is the better platform to build on?
Elgg became a serious contender in social networking area. It’s hard to tell which one to pick. One is free, another one is not. Probably I would choose Elgg, but that’s me.
ive used dolphin, phpizabi, jomsocial, elgg, people aggregator, social engine… the only one where you dont have to fight your way out of the box is social engine.
dolphin- for dating sites
phpizabi- dont bother
jomsocial- pretend social network
elgg- free good but lacking decent mods too new
social engine- good all rounder and best of the bunch
For me I do not really care for any of the social networks you all commented about. I can develop my own social network and not waste any of my money getting there product. I am glad I am a web programmer and designer who can just develop my own.
Sorry for all you newbies hahaha…
I thought about developing my own, but you know, for me, the destination is more important than the journey. (I sure would get a kick out of developing bespoke though).
What I’ve concentrated on in choosing Social Engine is delivering the maximum features and benefits in the shortest period of time. SE has a good community behind it, commitment from the developers and input from a good number of customers to keep it fresh.
@Jerry
You’re right if you are a programmer. But even the programmers have a limited time and developing a social networking software isn’t easy and it’s time consuming (at least, it was for me).
But I would pay $2-$300 for a software which can save me a lot of developing time. I would spend that time customizing it, for example. And marketing. And on the biz side.
The same applies for blogs, CMSs and other type of software…
The script, for the most part is great, but still has several bugs (suc as login issues and sessions) that SE has ignored. In fact, SE’s level of support is absolutely horrible. You’d better be an expert at PHP and smarty, because support tickets, emails and bug reports are completely ignored. This company has the absolute worst customer service — do your homework before buying from Social Engine.
I’ve taken the time to get to know the support staff and have found that they are committed and responsive. One incident required a lot of involvement from them to resolve an issue and they didn’t let go till it was fixed..
I’ve submitted bug reports and they’ve been acknowledged and revisions are or have been worked on. My emails have been replied to. After the nominal 90 days support (with purchase) have elapsed you have the option to purchase further support which I would advise.
I would say that the support could be improved (when can’t it) I’d personally like live-chat, simple question, immediate answer.
I personally hate submitting tickets with anyone.
Do they have the worst customer service? absolutely not. I’ve had far worse service from far larger companies.
Drew, you are very much the exception. Take a look at the independent site socialenginemechanic.com, for SE clients, to get a feel for the high level of dissatisfaction with the SE team.
As for the paid support, the issue is they release updates to their core platforms and plugins several times a year. These “upgrades” tend to be full of bugs and not fully tested, creating new problems with existing installs. SE responds to clients only if they pay for support — clients should not have to pay $200 /year for ongoing support to address new bugs and problems created every time release an “upgrade.”
I do visit SEM and others and I have read these comments.
Ok. I’m in no way an SE apologist, if that’s the right word, I have no link with them nor do I owe them anything. I do so love my independence!
What I think we must be mindful of, in trying to be as objective as possible, is that there are so many variables that go to make a user experience and of course many of them are beyond the scope of SE to control.
e.g.
>>The hosting/server configuration. There are many things that can affect the operation of the software.
>>The accuracy with which the install was made by the customer – its not a self-installing program (shame) but a manual one with a a fair set of permissional things that must be attended to.
My experience was that it installed right out of the box so I’m a happy bunny.
Now, where I do agree with you is their upgrade policy. I’m numerous revisions behind and really don’t want to change based on what I read – I could be just paranoid however.
You talk about it not being fully tested. We all know it’s functionally impossible to test software. If it were possible, we wouldn’t be on SP3 for XP what with all Microsoft’s resources!
I agree there should be full revision testing for new upgrades, but then again how can you test on the multiplicity of hosting variations with all the various patches of OS’s, etc.
I’ve read of people using my version/variant that have had all sorts of problems that I’ve never experienced, why would that be?
I don’t specifically have an issue with paying for support. It depends on your perception and context. If you live in the world of the community development of open source s/w then you still have paid for support from developers and professional supporters or you can rely on the community. I do think its stonger to have a central focus for support from the developers.
I do agree with you that multiple upgrades each year is a bit irksome and I’ll bet most people don’t bother with every revision unless it has severe security implications.
Then again Microsoft has an update every month and web hosting control panel manufacturers do likewise.
Is the software tested? I’ll bet it is but is it proven? How can it be. Could it be better tested? Almost certainly.
Bench testing is great but throw users at it, then you’ll rally find out how it works!
This is Noam over at SocialEngine. First off, I’d like to thank everyone for the feedback. We are always striving to improve our quality of service and we certainly appreciate customer feedback, both through email and comments left on forums.
In terms of support, I’d like to apologize to those customers that have had a poor experience in the past. We had a sudden growth spike several months ago and there was a slight delay in expanding our support team to meet the new demand. We’ve since hired and trained several new talented support personnel and have received positive feedback regarding the current level of support. While there’s no excuse for slow response times in the past, we hope our current and future clients will give us a chance to show our dedication to customer satisfaction.
I can assure you that we strive to maintain the highest level of service and will continue to improve as SocialEngine develops. We have many new and exciting features in the works and we aim to be the best social network available. If you have any compliments or complaints, please don’t hesitate to contact us using the form on socialengine.net.
You cannot compare between the open-source GPL licence (Elgg, PhpIzabi, Dolphin e.t.c) and commercial license (Social Engine, Dzoic Handshakes, SKA Date). They are in a different category. Try to make a research which one is suit to your business. If you develop a social networking site for non-profit purpose (let say for charity and donation) than the OS GPL is your choice, if you want to make a commercial social network why don’t you subscribe for commercial license like SE and Handshakes?
The problem sometimes when I use the OS (GPL) there are many bugs, plus you have to take a risk of no warranty and website crash and it may waste your time to fix it.
As far as what I concern, the SE is good for you to invest if you want to make more money (of course you cannot complaint the higher price because they develop the script and its their right to setup their own price), less bugs and good support. Just invest a few thousands when you can make millions
With all these scripts available, I decided to toss them all onto one site dedicated to social networking software and open them up for user review. If anyone would like to post an objective review on socialengine, please post it onto below site.
(9 votes, average: 4.56 out of 5)
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March 14th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
socialengine is cool…I am making mods,templates and plugins for it..
[Reply]
March 20th, 2008 at 4:45 am
This solution seems well designed, but there are some missing functionalities like RSS agregator or tag cloud.
What about Elgg ?
[Reply]
March 20th, 2008 at 5:19 am
We intend to review Elgg as soon as possible. So stay tuned and check back with us! (eventually, subscribe to our RSS)
[Reply]
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:51 am
Are there any free CMS like this? I mean with functions like adding friends,making groups, forums etc?
[Reply]
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:48 pm
- http://www.phpizabi.net is one of them (free social networking software).
- http://www.boonex.com/products/dolphin is another one
And more below:
- http://www.elgg.org
- http://www.barnraiser.org
You wanted CMSs like Drupal or Joomla which should have functions you want?
[Reply]
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:55 am
I finally bought Social Engine because, from a technical point of view, it is easy to understand, thus to modify/customise.
[Reply]
dan
Reply:
May 7th, 2009 at 7:35 am
@STRlulu, whats your website? how do you find socialengine?
thanks
[Reply]
June 6th, 2008 at 6:20 am
What’s your website?
[Reply]
June 13th, 2008 at 12:31 am
I bought okphp sns:
http://www.okphp.com
It’s also a sn platform.
[Reply]
June 13th, 2008 at 1:13 am
Why not write a review about it? And we’ll post it here.
[Reply]
June 13th, 2008 at 1:25 am
it’s similar to socialengine, basic SNS features + APPs.
A difference is I can get all APPs without additional fee.
[Reply]
June 17th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
First look : Good. But trying to sell it now and looking for some better options. Installing plugin is a headache. No uninstallers also. Security issues cropping up. Groups have no albums or polls of their own. No Forum, no video ffmpeg support and sadly the blog module is very crude.
For those whom pricing matters, its the most costly script on earth :
· 1 SocialEngine License $300 US which means SE brandname, copyright etc is removed from your site
· Blogs Plugin + $40 US
· Photo/Video Albums Plugin + $40 US
· Groups Plugin + $40 US
· Events Plugin + $40 US
· Chat Plugin + $30 US
· Classified Plugin + $40 US
· Polls Plugin + $30 US
· Professional Installation Service + $30 US
Total: $590 US
[Reply]
June 19th, 2008 at 5:06 am
“Possibly most famous Social Networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook are based on their core engine.” – This statement is best removed from this article. Linkedin and Facebook has been there LONG TIME BEFORE this company was formed. This is basically a facebook clone script selling at a rip-off price. Unedited scammy statements like this will bring bad repute to mytestbox.
[Reply]
June 19th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
You’re right, I removed that sentence out.
[Reply]
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:31 am
where can i upload plugin in social engine 2.6
[Reply]
July 11th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I can’t install plugins. I logged into ADMIN panel and click view plugins…But There is no plugins..
What is the problem? How to solve this
[Reply]
July 31st, 2008 at 8:41 pm
There is currently a beta V3 release with tons of additional features. Very, very nice and stable compared to others in this price range.
[Reply]
September 5th, 2008 at 1:33 am
HI friends…
I installed socialengine and its such a pain to install the plugins. Where do i need to upload the plugins. I uploaded in every directory that i have in my public_html but THe plugin never appears in my admin panel of the socialengine.
Why aren’t social engine providing easy manuals and clearify the folder to upload plugins…
They only tell us to upload it in our server…. (Everyone knows that) But where and which directory of the Server…
If we upload inside the publi_html I know its going to over write several alike folders like admin etc..
So where the hell to upload these pain in the ass plugins…?? Please HELP
[Reply]
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:27 pm
So, could a basic html and cut and paste javascript programmer like me install and configure socialengine with minimal tearing of hair? Thanks for your insights.
[Reply]
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:01 pm
I guess so. If you read the documentation, this review and Google for some more I don’t see why you couldn’t install it yourself.
[Reply]
September 26th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Hello…I am not a web programmer/developer by any means but am looking to hire a website designer to create a website community idea that I have. One of my finalist companies says they will use SocialEngine to construct my website community. Its a professoinal community for businesses so I am very concerned with security. Does anyone have any input on any security issues with SocialEngine? Can it be hacked easy or can someone screw up my site if they wanted to if it was built with SocialEngine? Any comments would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you!!
[Reply]
September 27th, 2008 at 1:11 am
most probably your Socialengine installation need to be tweaked, adapted to your needs.
And if you have good programmers they can do that for you (also check for security issues). In the end, you will need programmers to tweak your site…it can’t stay like that forever.
Checkout also Elgg http://www.elgg.org …it seems they came along well with the new release of their software.
[Reply]
October 24th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Hi, upload all respective files from the local drive in to respective server side files (admin, images, includes, templates). then check in “View plugins”.
[Reply]
October 28th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Plugins, Tutorials, Mods And Discussions can be found at SocialEngineBase … The New SocialEngine Community.
[Reply]
October 29th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Following my 22 Sept comment. I installed SE on shared LInux hosting.
Wow, so simple, I worked through the readme install guide and it just ….worked as advertised. I’ve never had such a simple install. I guess its really well programmed and designed, no issues, no nasty bits, no need to go back to the developers. I wish all installs were so simple.
[Reply]
December 15th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
hi.
so how can i get subscription into social engine? anyone know please? or suggest another program thats as clean and simple as social?
thanks
[Reply]
January 6th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Just now comparing Social Engine to Elgg, Rayzz, and Boonex Dolphin.
I had recommended social engine to client but he was recommended Dolphin by someone else. Trying to justify my recommendation I also came across Elgg and Rayzz (he wants to have video galleries). I still like Social Engine but am impressed with what I see about Elgg (less so with Dolphin). There will be a lot of customization required. Between Elgg and Social Engine, which is the better platform to build on?
[Reply]
January 6th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Elgg became a serious contender in social networking area. It’s hard to tell which one to pick. One is free, another one is not. Probably I would choose Elgg, but that’s me.
[Reply]
January 6th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
@steve powell
You could try Elgg http://www.elgg.org (it’s free).
[Reply]
February 8th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
ive used dolphin, phpizabi, jomsocial, elgg, people aggregator, social engine… the only one where you dont have to fight your way out of the box is social engine.
dolphin- for dating sites
phpizabi- dont bother
jomsocial- pretend social network
elgg- free good but lacking decent mods too new
social engine- good all rounder and best of the bunch
[Reply]
February 8th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Maybe you can write a review of the social network software you used…
[Reply]
April 9th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
For me I do not really care for any of the social networks you all commented about. I can develop my own social network and not waste any of my money getting there product. I am glad I am a web programmer and designer who can just develop my own.
Sorry for all you newbies hahaha…
[Reply]
Revenger Reply:
March 3rd, 2010 at 12:51 pm
@Jerry,nobody wants your programing service here,so please stfu
[Reply]
April 9th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
I thought about developing my own, but you know, for me, the destination is more important than the journey. (I sure would get a kick out of developing bespoke though).
What I’ve concentrated on in choosing Social Engine is delivering the maximum features and benefits in the shortest period of time. SE has a good community behind it, commitment from the developers and input from a good number of customers to keep it fresh.
Works for us. Would buy it again
[Reply]
April 9th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
@Jerry
You’re right if you are a programmer. But even the programmers have a limited time and developing a social networking software isn’t easy and it’s time consuming (at least, it was for me).
But I would pay $2-$300 for a software which can save me a lot of developing time. I would spend that time customizing it, for example. And marketing. And on the biz side.
The same applies for blogs, CMSs and other type of software…
[Reply]
May 17th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
The script, for the most part is great, but still has several bugs (suc as login issues and sessions) that SE has ignored. In fact, SE’s level of support is absolutely horrible. You’d better be an expert at PHP and smarty, because support tickets, emails and bug reports are completely ignored. This company has the absolute worst customer service — do your homework before buying from Social Engine.
[Reply]
May 18th, 2009 at 11:14 am
That’s not been my experience.
I’ve taken the time to get to know the support staff and have found that they are committed and responsive. One incident required a lot of involvement from them to resolve an issue and they didn’t let go till it was fixed..
I’ve submitted bug reports and they’ve been acknowledged and revisions are or have been worked on. My emails have been replied to. After the nominal 90 days support (with purchase) have elapsed you have the option to purchase further support which I would advise.
I would say that the support could be improved (when can’t it) I’d personally like live-chat, simple question, immediate answer.
I personally hate submitting tickets with anyone.
Do they have the worst customer service? absolutely not. I’ve had far worse service from far larger companies.
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May 18th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Drew, you are very much the exception. Take a look at the independent site socialenginemechanic.com, for SE clients, to get a feel for the high level of dissatisfaction with the SE team.
As for the paid support, the issue is they release updates to their core platforms and plugins several times a year. These “upgrades” tend to be full of bugs and not fully tested, creating new problems with existing installs. SE responds to clients only if they pay for support — clients should not have to pay $200 /year for ongoing support to address new bugs and problems created every time release an “upgrade.”
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May 18th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Darryl
I do visit SEM and others and I have read these comments.
Ok. I’m in no way an SE apologist, if that’s the right word, I have no link with them nor do I owe them anything. I do so love my independence!
What I think we must be mindful of, in trying to be as objective as possible, is that there are so many variables that go to make a user experience and of course many of them are beyond the scope of SE to control.
e.g.
>>The hosting/server configuration. There are many things that can affect the operation of the software.
>>The accuracy with which the install was made by the customer – its not a self-installing program (shame) but a manual one with a a fair set of permissional things that must be attended to.
My experience was that it installed right out of the box so I’m a happy bunny.
Now, where I do agree with you is their upgrade policy. I’m numerous revisions behind and really don’t want to change based on what I read – I could be just paranoid however.
You talk about it not being fully tested. We all know it’s functionally impossible to test software. If it were possible, we wouldn’t be on SP3 for XP what with all Microsoft’s resources!
I agree there should be full revision testing for new upgrades, but then again how can you test on the multiplicity of hosting variations with all the various patches of OS’s, etc.
I’ve read of people using my version/variant that have had all sorts of problems that I’ve never experienced, why would that be?
I don’t specifically have an issue with paying for support. It depends on your perception and context. If you live in the world of the community development of open source s/w then you still have paid for support from developers and professional supporters or you can rely on the community. I do think its stonger to have a central focus for support from the developers.
I do agree with you that multiple upgrades each year is a bit irksome and I’ll bet most people don’t bother with every revision unless it has severe security implications.
Then again Microsoft has an update every month and web hosting control panel manufacturers do likewise.
Is the software tested? I’ll bet it is but is it proven? How can it be. Could it be better tested? Almost certainly.
Bench testing is great but throw users at it, then you’ll rally find out how it works!
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May 19th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Hey Guys,
This is Noam over at SocialEngine. First off, I’d like to thank everyone for the feedback. We are always striving to improve our quality of service and we certainly appreciate customer feedback, both through email and comments left on forums.
In terms of support, I’d like to apologize to those customers that have had a poor experience in the past. We had a sudden growth spike several months ago and there was a slight delay in expanding our support team to meet the new demand. We’ve since hired and trained several new talented support personnel and have received positive feedback regarding the current level of support. While there’s no excuse for slow response times in the past, we hope our current and future clients will give us a chance to show our dedication to customer satisfaction.
I can assure you that we strive to maintain the highest level of service and will continue to improve as SocialEngine develops. We have many new and exciting features in the works and we aim to be the best social network available. If you have any compliments or complaints, please don’t hesitate to contact us using the form on socialengine.net.
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May 20th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
can i ask?
i have install social engine in my website but i can get through..
i have no knowledge about script because this is my first time to have a website..
can you help me to install it?
step by step?
a video if someone have it..
please…
i beg you…
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May 23rd, 2009 at 2:52 am
Is this application based on a well known CMS ?
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October 25th, 2009 at 10:33 am
You cannot compare between the open-source GPL licence (Elgg, PhpIzabi, Dolphin e.t.c) and commercial license (Social Engine, Dzoic Handshakes, SKA Date). They are in a different category. Try to make a research which one is suit to your business. If you develop a social networking site for non-profit purpose (let say for charity and donation) than the OS GPL is your choice, if you want to make a commercial social network why don’t you subscribe for commercial license like SE and Handshakes?
The problem sometimes when I use the OS (GPL) there are many bugs, plus you have to take a risk of no warranty and website crash and it may waste your time to fix it.
As far as what I concern, the SE is good for you to invest if you want to make more money (of course you cannot complaint the higher price because they develop the script and its their right to setup their own price), less bugs and good support. Just invest a few thousands when you can make millions
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December 27th, 2009 at 10:15 am
With all these scripts available, I decided to toss them all onto one site dedicated to social networking software and open them up for user review. If anyone would like to post an objective review on socialengine, please post it onto below site.
http://www.TopCommunitySoftware.com
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