[Lovd by Less] Which is the best Ruby OS Social Platform? Info, questions, comparison including Elgg.

[Malcolm]

Hello,


The quick question(longer question with background below):


Which is the best Ruby Open Source Social Networking
Platform(Community Engine, Lovd by Less, EngineY, Noofero, Inoshi,
Tog)? And why? Are there any Ruby OS Platforms that I missed? What
are the differences in the platforms(please explain in a way a newbie
can understand)? How will these differences affect future development
of any social network I create? How will these differences affect the
future development of the OS Social Network Platform itself? Which
platform will be easier to integrate custom code/modules with? Please
read longer question for comparison to Elgg, questions regarding it
and Ruby Platforms, later migration from Elgg to Ruby.


Inoshi (http://github.com/insoshi/insoshi)seems to be dead in the
water. This is the project that developed from RailsSpace. You go to
their website forum and there are no posts http://dogfood.insoshi.com/forums/1


Engine Y ( http://www.enginey.com/ )has very little activity in their
google group: http://groups.google.com/group/enginey/topics


Community Engine (http://www.communityengine.org/) has the biggest
Google group with 377 members vs 375 for Lovd by Less. This group has
the most activity on it. http://groups.google.com/group/communityengine/topics


Lovd By Less http://lovdbyless.com/ while having about the same number
of members as Community Engine, it's google group has half the number
of messages and recent activity is far less than Community Engine:
http://groups.google.com/group/lovdbyless


Noosfero http://noosfero.org/ Brazilian based yet since I don't read
Portuguese, I can't determine the size/vibrancy of this community
http://softwarelivre.org/noosfero


Tog http://www.toghq.com/ Their google group has 118 yet this group
has been in existence since only Dec 2009 http://groups.google.com/group/tog_users



The longer question with background:


I am currently evaluating Open Source Social Networking Platforms.
After much research, my thinking is that Elgg is currently the best
php or ,for that matter, Open Source Social Networking Platform.
While a Ruby Platform may allow for more rapid development by skilled
and beginning programmers, the reasons to choose Elgg are: A more
vibrant community, continued development, more php programmers exist
who can assist, feature rich. Yet, the limitations are that it is not
as future proof as Ruby and will be much more complicated to
independently develop features/functions and implement design changes
to a site as design/technology changes. This is the case with any PHP
based platform vs Ruby.



Yet, platforms have to elavuated based on a variety of factors. This
will be different for each organization or person.

I want to start a social network based on community activism that has
the potential of the a subsegment of the community build the site. I
want this site to be able to easily morph with functions as technology
changes. If this site does not take off then I want to have developed
a skillset that is the most marketable and will allow for rapid
development of different future sites.


My factors:

1. Will be learning PHP or Ruby from scratch. While I understand
that comparing PHP to Ruby on Rails is not fair from a theoretical
stand point as one should compare it to CakePHP, it is fair from a
practical standpoint as Rails is the defacto standard. From the
research I have done, IMHO, ROR will be easier to learn, allow for
more rapid development of custom plug ins and future proofing the
site, modular design will better allow plug in intergration, learning
RoR will give a better skillset to be employed with.
2. With the above, Elgg provides much more from the get go than any
of the other PHP or Ruby OS Platforms(Community Engine, Lovd by Less,
EngineY, Noofero, Inoshi)? Please correct me if you feel this wrong?
3. If you had to choose a Ruby Platform over Elgg, which would it
be and why?
4. If you choose Elgg over Ruby Platforms, why?
5. Let's say one was to choose Elgg to build a social network. How
difficult would be to migrate this community into one built upon a RoR
Platform?



Thanks in advance for your help,

Malcolm





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