I am simply curious and still totally undecided on which way to go, when one wants to build a website to get out of Facebook out of total frustration with their rules and disgusting censorship, why should one choose a Wordpress Buddy Press community theme and not pure PHP scripts, such as Social Engine or Sngine, etc.?
Without getting technical as these two things are not the same - check this link from @WPExplorer (a super highly regarded WP expert) which discusses this exact topic and explains it well https://www.wpexplorer.com/buddypress-quick-guide/
Obviously though you can’t compare a free or stock plugin or script to a multi billion $ business.
Also worth remembering the numerous other considerations to do this if you are managing people’s data eg proper (not budget shared) hosting, security, management etc.
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thank you, but there seems to be absolutely nothing in that article that explains why one should choose wordpress over pure php, and instead it simply details the advantages of Buddy Press, but what I am after is why I should choose a wordpress theme with Buddy Press over a PHP script, such as WoWonder, or Sngine, or PHP Social, etc.
The thing is that it’s really not that simple and will be determined by the actual output you are trying to achieve.
The options listed above range from a free plugin to a one time purchase premium script, to a managed solution
You need to be clear on numerous pros and cons to find which works best such as:
- cost
- hosting
- support
- how technically capable you are (an owned solution is going to require constant updates, plus what would happen if the author stopped supporting or updating the item?)
- required features
And lots more
FYI - the “censorship” or restrictions you don’t like on Facebook could well relate to legal requirements or limitations of the network which may we’ll be the same for another managed solution
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thank you for all the suggestions and the info. But I just went ahead and purchased WoWonder, the best-selling php script for social networking on Theme Forest.
thanks again.
One important factor in choosing WordPress over a PHP script like Sngine is the fact that they themselves wrote to us the following:
The products you mentioned are open-source products however Sngine is closed-source product and there is no community here like in WordPress to do what you wish for like in open-source world.
Additionally they file lots of DMCA complaints, even they themselves did obviously reuse (copy) code fro GNU GPL functions. As you can see on that behavior they are not at all following rules and not at all rules of common sense! With WordPress or any WordPress Plugin - and there are a whole lot here on Envato, you would ever face those problems as all of them have to follow the WordPress licensing, which means all PHP and all HTML code has to be GNU GPL (a MUST have).
Even a library you are using in a software is licensed LGPL you would need to provide concrete instructions on how to replace that library without losing the functionality according to LGPLv.2.1. if you are using it in a commercial closed source product or a product you license with a non GNU License. That is only one of many other criteria you php developers need to follow - and most do actually not! - when they are using a GPL - especially also the LGPL license.
In other words if you are using a standalone php script like Sngine rather than using a WordPress plugin like Buddypress you might face serious legal issues while your community probably already is running. You will never be on safe ground!
For example if you like to extend Sngine you would need to buy for every developer who likes to extend it a license! Otherwise you would risk to get DMCA takedown notices anywhere you share code by them. In other words it is NOT possible to develop own plugins and themes without having probably legal issues - you find complaints about that also here in the Envato forum already! Check it out! Already plugins have not been accepted!
Stay with True Open Source Software licensed under GNU GPL license and you will be on safe ground and don’t have to worry to much. Concerning performance there aren’t anymore bigger issues between the actually pretty small script of WordPress and the meanwhile pretty huge scripts like Sngine.
In WordPress and its plugins you have a huge community testing and using WordPress and its plugins and issues get addressed and made known more or less immediately, while the Sngine developers wrote us the following:
Yes, we are doing this and fix and security bugs also we keep listing to our customers about any bug report whatever it’s a security bug or not. That’s why there are releases and updates.
As you can clearly see on their answer there is no security team, there is not even a community like they stated themselves who would be able to communicate issues as they would immediately send out a DMCA take down native as soon as they would start to discuss their vulnerable code.
All this mal behavior by small or even single php-script developers like Sngine’s Zamblek you will not have when using WordPress. Here you will be able to discuss and even better you would be able to contribute actively to the Developers of plugins like BuddyPress and WordPress itself.
Check out the Envato Social Media WordPress Plugins which are based on BuddyPress. You will be amazed on how great they meanwhile are and how easy it is to use them even with front-page page builders and much more all those php-scripts like Sngine lack completely.
If you are a professional php developer you probably should use scripts like Elgg if you like to build a stand alone social media site like Sngine and again you will have a huge community of contributors and if you have a problem you can simply ask and get answers by the community more or less immediately.
On the other side if you have a good lawyer who would like to work with you you might give Sngine a try and do your security audits yourself and post them to the community which might be followed again by a DMCA by them so you need a lawyer to file the counter complain etc.
By the way when using WoWonder which is also a stand alone php_script here on Envato which is only slightly more expensive you don’t have those legal problems as they are not so on DMCA’s like the Sngine developers. Here on Envato you fortunately have a good variety of code you can use to build your social media Facebook Replacement and we actually strongly recommend to all of our customers to use only a truly Free Open Source Solution like WordPress/Elgg/Mahara etc. instead of a php_script like Sngine where their developers even see their code as “closed source”. Simply avoid problems and stay away from it and “rewrite” features in proper and secure php-code i.e. for an additional Wordpress or Elgg etc. plugin and license it with a GNU GPL license so the whole community will be able to join in and improve your code, security, will give you feedbacks and most of all PROMOTE your plugin by doing that which again will bring you new customers and reputation. Things which will not happen when you would use i.e. Sngine where there developers - like you could read above - already stated that they don’t have - perhaps even don’t allow that to happen! Jm2c
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