What should I know in order to build my social dating network site?

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What should I know in order to build my social dating network site?

I have been planning my new social dating network for a year, and I must say that look and preferences will be the bright side of my social network. So, my problem is that I know only HTML and CSS, but that isn't enough to make the site that I always planned. Can you tell me which option would be better:

Pay the programmers to do their job or
Start to learn languages that I will need for making the site?

And, what programming languages would I need to make my site? I have time for learning new languages because I am young.

You'll never finish it if you plan to do it by yourself. If you do finish it, it won't be secure or modifiable. That is, unless you plan on spending the next 3 or 4 years working on it before it launches.

The next question to ask is how much resources (cash) do you have to put into this project?

Joe Philllips 2009-04-20 19:10:53

The initial Facebook was written by one person.

Daniel Lew 2009-04-20 19:13:36

Daniel, and it was insecure.

Joe Philllips 2009-04-20 19:14:55

@Daniel: One person who had development experience

Adam Robinson 2009-04-20 19:15:08

And I'm sure that person already knew a significant portion of the language.

Joe Philllips 2009-04-20 19:15:35

Just to keep this going, PlentyOfFish.com was built by someone trying to learn Asp.Net

Rob Allen 2009-04-20 19:16:50

Creator of PlentoOfFish has a Computer Science degree and has experience in other languages

Joe Philllips 2009-04-20 19:21:31

Okay, so lets assume you can find an example of a large well-written site that was written by one person. For each one of those, it would be easy to find 100 poorly written, non-maintainable sites with similar complexity scope. And for each finished site, 10 more that died during the process. Any anecdotal example will be remarkable principly because it's so damn unusual.

Beska 2009-04-20 19:24:39

(And as other people have mentioned, the successes have significant relevant backgrounds.)

Beska 2009-04-20 19:26:03

For now i have 1000$ to invest in this project,but of course,this is just start.You could tell me how much do i need to invest and then i will start working for that much money.

2009-04-20 19:26:53

Urk. That's not enough. Not even close. However, what you might be able to do is to find and hire programmers who would work for a slice of the eventual pie. That might be your best bet, since it would solve your cash problem, and also insure that you're getting people who have your best interests at heart.

Beska 2009-04-20 19:28:37

$1000? Oh, wow. No wonder you want to do as much of the work yourself as you can.Beska's approach of finding programmers who will work for a piece of the profits is likely your best bet. You'll probably wind up with partners who only work on it in their spare time. Good luck, regardless.

BlairHippo 2009-04-20 19:42:14

Why dont you tell me how much money will i need to invest in programmers?

2009-04-20 19:45:15

@Misa: You need to know the scope of your website first. How its payment system will work, how accounts will work, how everything will work. Once you can define what the site's functionality will be you can start to get an idea of how much work it will be. Then you can figure out how much it will cost. Social networking sites are not simple software (to greatly understate the effort); you're talking about months if not years of effort from several full-time devs to do this kind of work.

Welbog 2009-04-20 19:48:13

@Misa: Much will also depend on how much of this you need to write from the ground-up and how much you can fob-off on existing software whose licensing terms allow you to use it in your own product. But again, you need somebody with experience in the industry AND intimate familiarity with your own project to even be able to tell what's a good fit and what isn't. As for a precise dollar figure, it's very hard to say; this is well outside my expertise.

BlairHippo 2009-04-20 19:57:10

+4 A:

If your purpose for this site is so that you can make money, then you'd probably do better to hire other reputable developers to do it for you if you don't already have the experience yourself.

Adam Robinson 2009-04-20 19:14:44

I would +1, except odds are Misa will head to rentacoder or something and end up with a major WTF codebase. Misa is new and therefore lacks the ability to recognize the difference between a good developer and a bad one.

Welbog 2009-04-20 19:21:26

Do you have an alternative? Perhaps hiring someone to hire your developers? ;)

Adam Robinson 2009-04-20 19:25:54

@Adam Robinson: I see your point, and I have no solution. But then again no one really has a solution to this, which is why companies continue to hire people who can't program. Misa's basically screwed without a background in programming. But the suggestion you give isn't that bad. If Misa runs would-be web devs by a known group of legit programmers (i.e. SO) that would be a lot more likely to succeed than just going it alone.

Welbog 2009-04-20 19:30:20

@Welbog: Dang me. I can almost smell a business opportunity brewing...the SO job board...

Beska 2009-04-20 19:33:23

@Beska: It's either that or get potential hires to write FizzBuzz. Since we know no one will convince HR to do that, we have to look for alternatives. Let's drum up support for the SO hire screening service using fancy-sounding buzzwords like "XML-compliant enterprise-ready potential hire screening to leverage your market-facing synegies!" We'll make billions!

Welbog 2009-04-20 19:36:02

+19 A:

This is akin to asking "I've never written before, but now that I've learned Microsoft Word, how long will it take me to write a bestselling novel?"

If you're serious about making a commercial site soon, pay some professionals. Making a toy site to learn programming is one thing, and may be a worthwhile learning exercise; but if you're looking for something professional-grade, you very much need some folks with experience.

BlairHippo 2009-04-20 19:16:01

This may sound a bit snide because it seems extreme, but in fact it is a remarkably good analogy. If you really want to have a good project, you simply will not have the knowledge/ability to tackle this kind of thing yourself. (Many people on this board with many years of experience would say that this is a potentially daunting project.)

Beska 2009-04-20 19:20:57

You know, I never figured my experience as a semi-pro short fiction writer/editor and aspiring novelist would wind up being relevant to this site. :-)

BlairHippo 2009-04-20 19:25:12

This is called "I am to lazy to answer the question and let me write something unrelated instead".

drozzy 2009-04-20 20:06:29

@drozzy: The question is "should I learn stuff on my own or ask other devs to do it for me?" in the context of a commercial website. BlairHippo answers that question perfectly.

Welbog 2009-04-20 20:32:32

The answer is vague. You can answer Any question in that way. if you want your house to be built pay the construction company. But that doesn't mean that you can't do it yourself.

drozzy 2009-04-21 15:09:51

+2 A:

Trying to solo a commercial site for your first development experience is bad idea. There are lessons which are difficult to internalize just by reading and hacking together your own code which are necessary to prevent a disaster.

While in @BlairHippo's example, the output of your first attempt at a novel would be comically bad, your first web code could potentially be dangerous to your users and folks unlucky enough to share server space with you.

Definitely hire experienced professionals for your first site. While that is going on, feel free to build a development blog, a portfolio site, and maybe even a web presence for your company (you are incorporating yourself for this... right??) and compare notes with any devs you can get your hands on.

Rob Allen 2009-04-20 19:27:07

+1 for the "...dangerous to your users..." comment. Creating an insecure site with paying customers is a good way to economic ruin.

Beska 2009-04-20 19:35:07

+1 A:

If you are really serious about making this, understand that it will be a lot of work. As your first real project, my two pieces of advise would be:

Don't rush it. If you expect that everything will nicely fall together - it won't. Take the time to learn the tools you are using, research the problems you are solving, and don't get aggravated when things don't work right away.
Find a partner. I would suggest against hiring someone, especially if you don't know what to ask for. You'll probably find this a much more rewarding experience if you do it yourself, and it will end up a lot closer to what you envision. But having someone to work with or that can mentor you will be invaluable.

For the choice of language, I would suggest PHP. A lot of people don't like it (for some good reasons) for large sites, but if you organize yourself well I find it simple and straightforward to work in. But mostly, find a language that you feel comfortable with. You'll never find one 'best' language, just a lot options.

Eric Burnett 2009-04-20 19:30:01

Check out this video that was presented in MIX 09. This demonstrates how you can build a social networking website with Silverlight!!

Anindya Sengupta 2009-04-20 19:34:02

There is no funny moderation option.

Mike Miller 2009-04-20 19:40:21

+1 A:

Is this for real?

johnny 2009-04-20 19:39:37

is this just fantasy ?

andyk 2009-06-09 07:52:07

+1 for the lols

quakkels 2010-06-22 14:37:56

ansaurus

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What should I know in order to build my social dating network site?

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