the UI of elgg doesn't get updated much. the idea has been to pass this on to theme designers. i am finding that i need to use a variety of open source javascript projects to make my site optimal and comparable to mainstream social networks.

Comparison? You can't compare an open source framework to sites that invest millions in research and development.

You can always compare even if you cannot make. FB started as a very small project compared to Elgg, Wordpress was even smaller. How they made "innovations" is UI/UX and tweaked features that were already there for mass-addiction and later developed "commerce" wings!!

The main problem is I think elsewhere. Whereas Dries of Drupal or Matt of Wordpress started to think of Drupal and Wordpress as fun,useful, new projects without monetary consideration, Youths of today no longer think in that line, so we do not have enough young Devs - they are either engrossed and enslavened by FB OR situations demand that they have to run after money and job.

The most obvious thing that I miss on comparison is the *modern* status box, not only present in rich FB but also opensource projects like Joomla (EasySocial Extension)
Hypewall was a great start, but probably lacking "millions in research" it is sort of dated and link-posting (with previews) is slow. In sort, it has issues and the "feel" is not as nice as http://demo.stackideas.com/easysocial

The other obvious thing missing is Friend finding (plugin is there but crude, not viral) Games and Apps, and mobile App that I can brand with my site.

On the "pros" the Elgg Profile, Elgg Blog etc are something that FB cannot even dream of.

Showstopper for me : a modern status box that lets you easily post photos, location, events etc. With "photos" not baked in core, the dilemma is always there what to include in status box: Tidypics or Hypegallery.

Etc etc. This is just a feedback and some discussion - no rant. Regards

The beauty of Elgg is that it keeps its impositions to a minimum, and does not hinder developers from doing things the way that works for them (unlike WordPress, which I find to be way too opinionated). 

One thing I hate about Elgg the most is the "The Wire" - an innovation that makes no sense to me. I much rather have Elgg stick to being a framework.

  Ismayil Kharedinov is right, Elgg is the best tool to use if you want to run any social network like Facebook. However, one has to spend some money or time on some features in order to make a specific theme for Elgg. For example, i was working on a theme for  Elgg 2x  http://twigalite.com/elgg200/mod/gutwatimeline/@tomato and I know that for future elgg users, Elgg has a lot in store for new developers who are willing to build plugins based on Elgg.

@ kanha, Even though Facebook had started small, there are a number of companies that chipped in to help Facebook be where it is today. Facebook used a number of existing companies to build their applications. For example Facebook had to use a number of open source applications in order to achieve their goal. Elgg is just one of many open source engines you will need in your arsenal in order to start your journey of serving millions with your service. If you want to run video on your Elgg site, you might need an open source called Kassandra integrated with your Elgg and If you want to serve your ads on Elgg like Facebook, you might need to integrate Revive ads Server with your Elgg site and so on and so on ....  for more information how Facebook managed to be a live, read this pdf document here http://scontent-mia1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t39.2365-6/12057133_958179554220316_1236052925_n.pdf

How Facebook saves money and stores users data http://venturebeat.com/2011/08/25/facebook-open-source-hardware/

[I moved my comment to a new thread].

Thanks to all for all your feedback. However, it was just meant to be a search for an article or write-up or something similar that just does a comparison, irrespective of how big FB is or how "small" Elgg is, irrespective of what money each has in its pocket. just something tabular or chart, for example

Photo album - FB yes Elgg yes
Photo Tagging - FB yes Elgg yes
Status box like Joomla Easysocial - FB yes Elgg No
Individual blogs - FB No Elgg Yes

You get the point. Thanks. If not, I am sorry. Still thanks.
 

Elgg sites are powered by plugins. So the question you should be asking is: "Is there a plugin that does X"? Additionally we live in the world of Web 2.0, where conventional names of features bred and born in Web 1.0 no longer apply. There are 25 names to mean the same thing. Twitter turned SMS into a tweet, and then Elgg copied the idea and called it the Wire. What Elgg calls blogs, Facebook calls notes. When you share a video on Facebook, they call it a post, Tumblr on the other hand calls any content a blog. I have written a wall plugin that implements the "status box" to make "posts", and I have a pretty strong opinion about what a "post" is, I intentionally didn't add "blogs", "events" and other stuff in there, because in my opinion that defeats the purpose of having a wall - you do not post an event on the wall, instead you create an event and then share it on the wall. There is too much subjectivity in social networking, and if there were a way to please everyone, someone would have done it already. For that very reason we see so many different social networks that do same things in different ways, and then herds of followers obsess about a tiny UI/UX improvement of one site over the other. For instance, I refuse to read abbreviated nonsense on Twitter, I would much rather spend my time reading 5000 word article that actually has substance.