Elgg as it is vs OSSN

I first used Elgg back in 2012 or so when it was still being readily developed for, and recently (this week) have come around to it again for a project I am working on.

I am happy to see it has a somewhat recent version, and some recently updated (within the last year) plugins - but I am concerned it is being outpaced by OSSN...

I want to create a fully fledged social network site, with most of the same bells and whistles of a certain popular place (duh) but I am concerned Elgg is not up to the task...

OSSN offers the same features as Elgg, with a few more (smother notifications, better timeline and profiles etc) but Elgg just seems to have more potential, albeit less activity (from my visits to the plugins section - last time I was looking at it the ol Facebook theme 1.4 did not have a warning on it about it being abandoned)

Is there enough updated plugins to create a viable site with facebookesque features? I have always liked Elgg and dont want to have to go to another platform if I can keep from it.

  • OSSN is a complete copy of Elgg. 
    It's not a fork, not even a clone. 
    The dude just took Elgg and changed everything in the code from 'elgg' to 'ossn'.
    I noticied the developers about this 5 years ago.
    Therefore, it's not correct to compare them together.
    Just you know about it.

    Elgg is a framework not CMS. 
    Take Elgg as it is and do whatever you want.

    For our SaaS, we've created several distributions that make it easier to launch your own app. 
    Of course, it's not free.
    But you can see that with Elgg everything is possible!

  • Thanks for the reply - I checked out your link to where you pointed out the copied code, and they seemed to say otherwise, but since I am not even close to being a coder I will just leave that as it is.

    I have seen a lot is possible with Elgg, but without the coding ability of long moved on devs (plugins and etc that are 7+ years abandoned) I just have no idea what to do to bring about what I am trying to build. I know Elgg is not a CMS, that would be something like WP, Joomla and etc. Elgg is a great framework, but the most recent plugins with any updates are by one or two devs - the rest range from 3-7 years since anyone even touched them.

  • I don't know how active the development of OSSN is.

    True, there are not so many plugin developers active anymore for Elgg. But is it different at OSSN? OSSN started by cloning the code of Elgg. As already mentioned it did that without making this clear! I think it was Elgg 1.8 that the first OSSN version was based on. The addition of the copyright hints was rather half-hearted if you ask me (and only done after complaining). This action alone shouid be some basis for decision making when deciding between OSSN and Elgg if you ask me...

    What about the developement of OSSN and its plugin? Is there any progress - and is there any progress in free plugins? Elgg is still developed (Elgg 4 will be out later this year). I expect Coldtrick will update their plugins for Elgg 4. And I hope I'll find some more time again soon to get my plugins updated for Elgg 3 (where still missing) and Elgg 4, too.

    The question is: what do you need for your site? Are the existing plugins enough? What with the equivalent plugins / functionality on OSSN side? Are they available? Are they available for free? If you would have to pay a developer to get it working for OSSN you could equally pay a developer to get it done for Elgg. It all depends what works best for you.

  • Hello Guys this is my first reply since many years.
     
    @rivervanrain, Dude Well I been to Elgg in early Elgg v1.6 version or 1.5 I don't remember exactly.   Just to make clear for you its not a fork nor a copy better ask Elgg developers to check the code and the way it is working it is completely working differently.  I took some naming and some functionality similar.  If you noticed me on https://github.com/opensource-socialnetwork/opensource-socialnetwork/issues/1041 then you should have noticed what has been taken :)  Every functionality that has been adopted have a license reference on top of the function comments. 
     
    We have around 1000+ files  http://mrclay.org/ossn-violations/code-comparison.html  how many files listed here?  
     
    @iionly Elgg is released under MIT license so I don't think there is problem if you take some idea from it.  I made functions similar naming because I spent alot of time in Elgg so it was easier for me to build the code.  The initial version of OSSN made taking some libraries from https://github.com/buddyexpress/BuddyexpressDesk and some naming and functionality from Elgg.    OSSN is more similar to Wordpress,  Joomla.  
     
    @Those Who Just Talks
     
    You guys just blames and talks :) Sorry to say that,  stop blaming and start contributing I missed the people who are gone from Elgg specially Brett, Evan,  Steve, Cash Costello, ihayredinov, Mark Harding (who invented Minds.com)  they all are gone.
     
    I left Elgg because many of you here just to do sarcasm.
     
    When I joined Elgg it looked like this and have saved all the memories from Elgg and Specially the threads who blamed. 
     
     
    I request you guys to stop doing sarcasm (to all who do) and help people working for Open Source instead of blaming them and discouraging them.