I'm secretly trying to help my friend who is creating an alternative to ReverbNation/Facebook as a social network/music venue-- doing it the way I think many people here would appreciate.  He's hitting speed bumps because although he has the brains and such he is limited in experience.  His team (of two, basically) bought a 300 buck social networking setup (it's in php/mysql) and the creators are inept at support, perhaps on purpose to get the money they want for extra support/setup.

Before I go on and on-- anyone here good with that--can you help?

He's trying to do something unique in that he cares about the users.  He wanted to set it up from scratch, but knew it would take far too long.  (His degree is a pre-med in microbiology--he just loves computer systems).

Thanks for any help at all. (((((TEH)))))

I wish I could help but I don't know PHP well enough.  But I have a story for you.

In the late 90's I decided to start an online auction site to take over the world and put eBay out of business.  I didn't have great experience with them and thought I could do a much better job.  So I purchased a pre-made site, like your friend did, and proceeded to learn ColdFusion so I could make the site just like I wanted.

Well, long story short... I didn't put eBay out of business.  Not sure if you noticed that or not and I put every extra second I had into the site for over 2 years.  I don't regret doing it though because learning how to code is priceless.  I guess what I'm saying is, unless your friend has a huge budget for advertising it will be very, very hard to compete with a company as large as Facebook.  But if he keeps his goals realistic he could learn some very valuable skills!

> an alternative to ReverbNation/Facebook as a social network/music venue
> ...
> He's trying to do something unique in that he cares about the users.

So possibly like Fandalism?

If it's different enough from that, maybe doing it as an open source project will help attract the right people, and/or doing a Kickstarter to raise funds to hire someone full-time to work on it?

"bought a 300 buck social networking setup"

Facebook probably spends that on code every minute, if not every second. This is not a realistic goal. Your friend needs to think of something no-one else has.

Also, the guy who ended up owning facebook (Mark Zuckerburg) is not necessarily the guy who thought it it up or built it in the first place.

It's an extremely risky business on a good day. Buying lottery tickets is probably safer.

I wish it was as easy as you make it sound.  I've been trying to think of something innovative for about 20 years now.  The closest I came was a computer case/air cleaner.

What are you babbling on about? Isa's friend wants a musician-focused network.

Building something like that is an entirely different prospect to taking on Zuckerberg.

> Also, the guy who ended up owning facebook (Mark Zuckerburg) is not
> necessarily the guy who thought it it up or built it in the first place.

Um... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Facebook#thefacebook.com

Of course, if you do want Facebook to be history, it's not that hard - as I'm sure I've said plenty of times before, just provide me with a couple dozen clones and it'll soon be lying next to Geocities...

That's not really the story they tell in the movie! On the other hand what popular software/service wasn't stolen?

Uh yes, I thought he meant a Facebook competitor that he possibly intended to monetize in some fashion. Still the project sounds dodgy to me. He 'loves computer systems' but doesn't really code? So he bought some off-the-shelf package instead? How could he evaluate it? 'He loves musicians/is one and knows thousands' might be a better starting point. Whatever.

Steve Jobs shoplifted his turtlenecks.