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Built a Social Network Site From Scratch

ChicoWeb

ChicoWeb

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 16, 2004
1,120
0
California
About 1 year ago, we started creating the logo, moodboards, design, and UI for a social networking site that revolves around car enthusiast. About 1 year and 1000+ hours we built one from scratch. All UI and Development! We had about 35 Interfaces mocked up, I would say 50+ PSD mockups. The last month we worked 12-14 hours a day getting this beast ready to launch by last Friday. I've finally caught up on sleep :) Anyways, I thought I'd share with the community, but if you're ever thinking about building one, either a.) don't b.) make sure you have a lot of money and patience :D

High Level View
  • Rating System
  • Profile System
  • Photo Galleries
  • Video Conversion with FFMPEG
  • Classifieds
  • Content Management
  • Friends
  • Message Center
  • Car Combats - Car Challenges -http://www.roadroyalty.com/search/combat.html?view-all
  • Standings
  • Transactional - Authorize CIM
  • Tokens

http://www.roadroyalty.com/
 
Well it's quite a site. Very polished.

I do have two quibbles...

1. As it stands when looking at a cars photos you have to close the existing window to open up a new one. It would be nice to have either a slideshow feature or at least forward - backward arrows to see the photos without having to close the window.

2. "Post A Comment" should be "Post a Comment" (I prefer a lowercase 'a')


But don't let my quibbles get to you. You put a lot of work into the site and it shows. I like the slow roll-over effect in the purple buttons. It's just too bad I don't like cars. :p


I went back to the site and have one last quibble.

The thinner right-hand column can sometimes run short of content and its bright empty white background is really jarring in the dark design. A gray background would be easier on the eyes... not so contrasty.
 
Awesome work there mate. I honestly hope that all of your hard work pays off, since you clearly did a great deal of work there, and I honestly hope that you gain from it, and well, if nothing else then you can use this just to prove to people that you're able to do it.

I have to admit, it must feel great to know that you've made everything from scratch. If nothing else, I guess you can say that at least you fully understand your own code.

Good luck.
 
Did you write the forum yourself too, i know from experience it can be a bugger to get a write a forum and get all the dots to connect.
 
Cromulent said:
Which language / framework did you use?
Click to expand...
LAMP. The framework we used is one that we've been developing over the years. The ui looks a lot like out CMS software.

Yes, the forum is out of the box software. We decided to no reinvent the wheel there.
 
Cool concept, alot of car friends and I have talked about a Facebook-style site geared specifically toward car enthusiasts. Couple thoughts though:

The name is stupid. Kinda rings of elitism. I can see it turning people away.

I don't see much use for the forums. I can already go to a dozen forums. I'd rather have a Facebook news feed style front page where I can see the status of friends, recieve updates on coming events, etc.


I'll pass the word to some friends, it'd be nice to see it grow.
 
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