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[–] arrggg 0 points 8 points (+8|-0) ago 

Start writing up a business plan, development schedule, hiring plan, non-disclosure agreement, estimated hosting requirements, server management estimates, project scalability plan, and then determine a rough cost estimate...

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[–] tehpatriarchy 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Agree. Ideas are a dime a dozen.

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[–] whisky_cat 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

And a UX plan that doesn't suck

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[–] Techttz 3 points 5 points (+8|-3) ago 

Don't.

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[–] elcob32 0 points 7 points (+7|-0) ago 

I'm sorry to say it but I agree. Even Google failed at social networking, and they have nearly unlimited resources. The problem lies in the fact that nearly everyone already uses Facebook and no one wants to move to a network where none of their friends are. In other words Facebook has a nearly unbreakable monopoly simply because they already have the user base. Any successful model would have to target specific markets, and slowly expand from there, Facebook did this same thing when they took the market from Myspace. Remember when it was just a few colleges, then all colleges (.edu email address), then finally they expanded to allow all users.

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[–] MarianOnEarth ago 

I have to agree with this thread... Unless you're doing it as a practice project to expand your skill. If you are doing this as a practice project the first thing you need to do is scale down. You should have a very very very small list of core features that you want to get up and running. After you've finished, had a beer, saw the latest super hero movie, written an angry review, let some time pass, and decided that it was actually a good movie; then you can start integrating new features. Here's a RoR mini-tutorial of how to make a FB clone I hope you have FUN making this, and learn something along the way.

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[–] 2376482? ago 

I'm sure he will be thrilled with your thoughtful advice.

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[–] ReverendJ1 1 point 3 points (+4|-1) ago 

Stop. Facebook isn't popular because it's good. It actually sucks a lot and everyone hates it. It's popular because it's popular. There are already dozens of "better Facebooks" out there. No one uses them though, because no one uses them.

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[–] drivels 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Google had a good idea for a "better facebook", you can see how popular it became. You should be pretty sure of just how revolutionary your idea is, not just something like "facebook + youtube combined". You will need to do what /u/arrggg says and come up with a business plan and determine how much money you will need to create your start up.

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[–] 2376461? 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

I suggest reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. Focus on your niche. Make sure the functionality is delivering on underserved needs. UX is the last step. Test your product early at its minimum viable point.

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[–] DatRoyce 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Sounds like potential :)

I would be willing to help in any way that i could for free! I am looking for a project to be part of..

(html, css, php, python(flask))

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[–] andythompsonts ago 

we can help your Facebook socially attractive and active.

Facebookpagemanagement #troopsocial www.troopsocial.com/

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[–] itsmemom97 ago  (edited ago)

I'm going to offer another opinion than "don't" and "let others do it".

Go and install a Content Management System (a CMS).That will allow you to create a more than basic website without any programming.

Yes, I know there will be many people who will advocate that you need to program to make a CMS do what you want, but that is not true. All CMS's have the possibility to install extra modules to extend functionality.

No, I'm not saying that your finished product will be completely made of standard components. But your prototype will be.

Because you have some experience with html, css and jquery, I would advise you to go with one of these well-known CMS's, in order of complexity

These are all open-source, free (as in free speech AND free beer) solutions, with a huge backing community and a professional development team behind it.

Wordpress is the least complex of those four. Easy to set up, easy to administer, easy to expand. But a bit limited in layout options and customizability. I use Wordpress to really quickly put up a site - but I feel the CMS can't shake it's roots of being a bloggin system.

Joomla is somewhat more complex, but has a lot of well-written modules to expand functionality, and has a nice templating system with regions to create custom layouts.

Drupal is a complex CMS where everything that is content is abstracted to something called a 'node'. Which is really powerful if you know how to use it, but overwhelming if you're just starting out. My go-to CMS nowadays is Drupal, but it took me a while to understand the concepts.

Typo3 is, in my opinion, too technical to apply to the general audience, and more of an Enterprise CMS. But if you're into programming and PHP, it can do things no other CMS can.

If you want to go this route, how do you set up your site? You've got a couple of options. In no order whatsoever:

  • use a commercial provider of ready-to-go CMS solutions. Pay and start building. I have no experience with those, so can't recommend any.

  • download a virtual machine (webserver) with the cms ready & configured (like Turnkey Linux machines for Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal). Run them in Oracle VirtualBox or VMWare Workstation Player (both proprietary but free as in free beer, for personal use anyway)

  • Setup a development environment on your own machine, based on a LAMPP (Linux), XAMPP (Linux) or WAMPP (Windows) stack (the basis infrastructure for the CMS, consisting of an Apache webserver, a MySQL database, PHP and Perl). Just download and install this basis, then get the installation package for Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal or Typo3.

Then the fun can begin. Build a prototype that works as well as you can. Then, when you know what the possibilities are, you can write a business plan. Now, and only now you have something to show to investment bankers, dragons and your wife or your mum.

GLHF! (good luck, have fun!) - if you want to do this as a co-op, shoot me a pm.

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