Please I would like our great Webmasters here to help me with ideas on creating a Social Networking Website. What to do and how to do. And most important, what kind of hosting should be bought and what space is okay for lets say 1000 members.

please I would be hoping to hear from the Guru's we have here on Niaraland.

It depends on what you want to run. What you will need will depend on what kind of files you will be hosting and what script you will be using. There are lots of social networking scripts out there, but you will need to hire someone to customize it for you. I need to know what you have in mind first. There are many types of social networking sites you could create. Have you seen one in particular that you would like your site to look like?

I hope to design something like facebook. It will be a social networking site that you can upload pictures, send private messages, see who's online and other stuffs. ***Instant Messaging is not Important though***.

At first I would like to begin with a total of 500 members for the now. i would like to know what to do concerning that using php and mySQl knowing that the same kind of website could be done using other scripts but I would like you to advise me based on php and mysql.

Morover: if there are any templates you can help me with that I can edit and use as a reference, it will be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

well it is based on your vision and finance for the website,I will advice you to use VPN or dedicated server if you have mush cash for the subscription I advise you register with bluehost.com if you don't have mush cash for now-they have the reputation for being the best share hosting for 2 years now,

As of the script you will you,you have to get facebook clone, contact me if you don't have 1,i have stumbled across it once.

@ poster. I am currently working at developing a social media network too.can we converge ideas to break new frontiers.looking forward to hear from you
best regards
Jibola
jibolaoseni@gmail.com 08029428510

Hey i like it when people try to brainstorm on ideas and not when they tell you that you are trying to achieve something that has already been done by someone.
When it comes to building a social networking site you have to do a whole lot of planning.It is not like the normal sites you just sit down and build without some planning for optimization, framework etc. I know a lot about building social sites because i have done a couple research on it and i have figured that it is not something that can be done with real planning.
For instance what kind of database column type would you us to store the id of users? what type of application architecture do you intend to us? would you like to build your own architecture or borrow from the works of great guys out there?
These are just a few things you have to consider when building a social networking site and of course you will have to do a lot of integration with existing social networking site this will require you to build solid API that would integrate with theirs.
Oh before i forget , when creating a user table you will need to use BIGINT for the user ID column, facebook did not realize this until the had over a million users with their system. So i encourage you to go on with the project i will support you in my own little way;

Thank you all for our comments and I am really grateful.
Presently I am planning to use an already-made template (phpizabi). please you guys should advise me more on this.
Please I would like to hear more of your comments and suggestions.

Thanks once again

welli wont advice you use a template.You have to build it from ground up tohave a better understanding of you application because you will be doing a lot of
custom design/implementation task in almost every free space on a page.By the time you would have over customized the template,
you'll wish you designed yours.

If you do not know php/Asp,html,css,javascript/ajax.I can say will would not complete that project due to frustration.My advice

-Understand Html and Cross browser Css well enough

-Make sure you understand one Server side language (php,asp.net) because you'll be doing lots of scripting

-Understand Javascript,know how to make Ajax calls.If you are planning to build one social network to match Facebook,
  you'll have to beat them on their application of Ajax

-Do your research on top Social Networks,see their designs,note common features they have jot it.

-Begin to design from your index page(simple and clean),finish that and move on

Am currently designing one,started months ago so i know what am saying.if you need more help an information,hit me on

kennedyidialu@gmail.com


@Everyone

I think,we should stop the altitude of discouraging people from doing stuffs like this with the phrase "do not re-invent the wheels".True talk but
can't someone reinvent it in a more suffisticated way? an i don't think that kind of phrase should be directed to Nigerians because we really have not done
anything close to a real social network application except for those google adsense overloaded sites.

There is nothing wrong in using a pre developed networking script for your project. Infact there are many successful site online today which were never developed from scratch.

@ tkovie2002:
I think you can go ahead with the script you already have. If you can't set it up, ask for help or request for intallation from the developers (often attract a little fee).

All the best.