Community Builder, JomSocial, & JoomUnity

This post is to start a new thread based from
http://ninjaforge.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=39&func=view&catid=5&id=6920#6920

some great discussion has been taking place and I don't want to get too far off topic about naming the new Ninja Group Jive extension.

Several things were well noted from the thread
1) competition is good for everyone, even programmers
2) CB is not only the only community extension out there any more. There are two great site that are creating Facebook and MySpace like community extensions.

The first one is JoomUnity which can found at www.Joomunity.org, the second site is www.jomsocial.com. There are several pro and con to each. For example, Joomunity allow people to download the extension and test each area out, while JomSocial (okay to make life easier, just like Community Builder --> CB, Joomunity-->JU, and JomSocial-->JS), as I was saying, while JS is still under development and the developers only allow customers at azrul.com to beta test the extension. Also, JU welcomes third party apps. I am still waiting on the reply for third party apps for JS. JS seems to increase such great feature as comments, and blog very well.

So why post anything here at Ninjaforge?
Honestly, this is a great community to discus things like this and also what type of great extensions we can come together and create.

28 Sep 08

Well JS certainly encourages 3rd party developers.

I know because we are going to be doing some of it.

The biggest 2 cons for Jom Social from my stand point are that it's a proprietary extension, so no forking it in the future if Azrul's team goes off track. And the other is that it won't be a free download like CB and Joomunity are.

If it was free, I think JS would be a CB killer. But it isn't so it won't make as much of an impact in the market as it would if it was free.

I still think it will be hot.

We will be supporting it in our themes at Ninja Theme too.

28 Sep 08

Yes, I would agree with you. I often think that JU is Joomla for extensions. It offer programmers the opportunity to dive in and create apps that are missing and are needed. This is the reason why I am leaning toward JU over JS. In addition, looking at both of them they are very similar in terms of look, however, JU needs the community while JS has the azrul staff.

So is NT going to create themes that also supports JU? In addition, is NF is going to create great quality apps that supports JU? I think that both site should.:cheer:

29 Sep 08

We had originally intended to but Liv has stopped answering my emails it seems. (sent about 4 or 5 to him with no reply via different sources and addresses)

That combined with the fact that it is still apparently very beta, means we will hold off for now.

29 Sep 08

Hmmm, I kinda remember Ninja forge was contemplating creating a community extension. Why not take the basis idea of JS and the programming of JU(sharping it up), open to the public and let us create some great apps. Then allow NinJive to be a critical part. People can create public apps, but if they want those ninja apps, then they will have to sign up here. If they want great temlates, then they can go to Ninja Templating and if they want hosting, then they can go to Ninja hosting HQ. This will go a long way in increasing revenue for all Ninja sites. What do you think about that?

01 Oct 08

lol.

i believe many of us forgot to read the terms when azrul invited us for beta testing "do not disclose the project" :P

anyway.its quite disappointing both are for 1.5 and no more alternative for 1.0x anymore. do we?

didn't know abt JU. the site is nt registering at all. look cool tough.

02 Oct 08

Yes I read that, they made sure that I admit to that part, that is the reason why I didn't provide it on this site. I can understand the reason why you would want it for J1.0.x, but has you see J1.5.x is the future and now, there are more and more extensions for J1.5.x. A couple of months ago, this wasn't the case. I was struggling to switch over, but the pain then, would save me later, when I have an entire site and need to switch over to J1.5.x

I thought that it was only me, I tried to login several times and it just wont happening. I am still waiting for NF to weigh in on enhancing JU and JS and running with it.

05 Oct 08

Well we will be focussing on J1.5 from now on.

Developing an extension in 1.5 takes about 1.2 the time or less than 1.0. So it's just not cost effective anymore.

We will probably not go with our own community suite anymore, because every man and his dog has one now, and we don't have the resources to out compete some of them.

Instead we will focus on what we do best. Supporting them ;)

29 Jun 09

I've taken the giant step.. Purchasing a JS license... couple of reason... JU seems to have lost momentuem.. where ont he JS side, it is just picking up. JS also intergrates well with their "My Blogs? product which will allow me to give all my users to facility have their own blog... Now all I need is a blog importer script that can import blogger / wordpress blogs etc in to it :)

I really like that JS also has "Facebook connect" have got this working on my dev site, and it is pretty sweet...