Script Mimic - MySpace Clone, YouTube Clone and More
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Script Mimic
, which just entered a “very wobbly beta”, is a place to find ready-made scripts that replicate the functionality of your favorite sites, particularly social services. If you want to build your own MySpace, YouTube, Imageshack/Photobucket, Wikipedia or Stickam, Script Mimic has lots of scripts listed, with prices ranging from free to thousands of dollars. If you register with Script Mimic, you can also submit a request for a script that hasn’t already been made.
I mention this because I probably get around 3 requests a day from people looking for social networking scripts. I’ve also tested enough sites to get a sense of where scripts are being used. Probably 70% of the social networks submitted to Mashable are based on commercial scripts, and they’re rarely reviewed here unless they’re extremely good - there are just too many of them, and the quality is usually poor. Sometimes that’s because the scripts are poor (many of them are), and sometimes it’s because the people developing these sites come from a non-technical background, and don’t have the skills to develop the service further.
In fact, the question about whether you can build a successful, VC-funded business on a commercial script is a hot topic. I unintentionally ignited an argument in the comments by saying that MeraVideo, the “Indian YouTube“, didn’t deserve $1.5 million in VC funding for simply managing to install the Alstrasoft script on their server. My point is that if they can’t even customize the look of the script, they may lack the skills to develop new features, cope with technical problems and scale the site. But that’s not to say the budget route can’t deliver results: Digg, now one of the most talked-about social sites, was reportedly started when founder Kevin Rose paid $2000 to a freelance coder on Elance. Those freelance sites deliver mixed results (something ODesk is trying to fix), but Digg proves that they can sometimes lead to success. What’s more, some of the most successful sites I know have been cobbled together from off-the-shelf scripts, although investors and potential buyers are sometimes conflicted over this - a site with massive traffic is desirable, but flimsy code from unnamed sources could result in problems later on.
Open source software is also a great starting point - startups like Project Opus are doing amazing things with Drupal, a highly customizable content management system. There are scores of open source CMSs available.
Beyond scripts, other options for building your own social network include Ning, which now lets you build a YouTube clone, a Flickr clone or a MySpace clone (although not as fully featured as MySpace), People Aggregator and GoingOn Networks. Mashable could and should create a section where you can find scripts and open source software to build your own network - but as always, the to-do list is too long. In the meantime, you’re free to advertise your product, script or solution in the comments of this post.
Script Mimic probably shouldn’t be your only port of call when researching social network scripts, and I find the stock photography on the homepage a little too reminiscent of websites circa 1999. But it’s certainly worth a visit if you’re in the market for a social networking script.
