As half of social websites are based on this script it deserves few words.
from my experience it is one of the best engines. Fast and flexible.
But for fast and interactive portal would recommend Boonex Dolphin new version 7. Not bad either.
Social engine is PHP script working on SQL database. It’s comming with installer so you can set it up in 5 minutes. All you need is access to your hosting control panel and FTP. Once you download socialengine, probably zipped. Extract it on local PC or on remote server. up to yourself. Upload files, from upload folder. Open www.yourdomainwhereyouhaveuplodedscript.com or folder/subfolder on that domain with/install on the end and just follow the installation. It is so easy as it sounds:
• How do I install SocialEngine?
To install SocialEngine on your server, download SocialEngine from the client area, unzip the file with WinZip, and follow the installation instructions in install.html. Installation only requires that you upload several files via FTP, create a MySQL database, and run the SocialEngine installation script in your browser.
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If I upgrade to a new version, will I lose my customizations or admin panel settings?
This depends on what type of customizations you’ve made. If you’ve simply created new files and linked to them from SocialEngine, it’s unlikely that you will lose any customizations you’ve made. If you’ve edited the core SocialEngine code and you overwrite it with the new files from the upgrade package, you may lose your customizations. To avoid this, you can refer to our changelog.html (provided in the SocialEngine zip) to see which files we’ve changed in each version. If you want to ensure that you don’t lose any changes you’ve made, you can use a file comparison program to compare your files with the newly updated ones. Regardless of the changes you’ve made to your source code, it’s unlikely that you will lose any of your admin panel settings when you upgrade.
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How do I move my installation to a new server?
First, check to see if your new host provides a migration service. If they do not, you can move the installation yourself by exporting your MySQL database using cPanel or PHPMyAdmin, downloading all your SocialEngine files to your computer desktop, importing your MySQL database on your new server, and uploading your SocialEngine files to the new server. Remember to set the proper permissions on the new server (as described in install.html).
• Can SocialEngine be installed in a subdirectory or subdomain? Absolutely! You can install SocialEngine on any location on your server.
more info:
http://www.socialengine.net/faq.php
demo (thats how it looks like straight after installation):
http://www.socialenginedev.com/home.php
The benefit of SE it’s quite flesibale and quick. Comparing to boonex dolphin. It is like Boonex is Windows (easy to use) and SE is GUI based UNIX system (easy but giving you option to customize a lot).
Plus you can get skins so it can look exactly like facebook or myspace. EXACTLY same look and funtionality. You can build up your own facebook.
Sign up for free hosting with free providers (byethost) where you can host your SE script absolutly free, also pick up free subdomain like facebook.isgreat.org. So It will not cost you a penny. Good luck and enjoy your online community :).
This site rocks!