Rails Social Networking

rubyonrails-talk
1

Good day to all of you, thanks for keeping this platform evolving and making the great sites we interact with daily on the web.

I have hand written the specs (drawings and all) of a social networking site, and I wanted to ask you folks a few questions that could help me nail down some cost figures and see if Rails is really the platform that I'm going to go with. Eventually I may be turning back to this community to find the efficient developers passionate about their work who can turn these specifications into a working site.

My questions are:

!. Why do you think Rails is the best platform to design a Social Networking site on?

2. If we were to use Zaadz/Gaia (a social networking site that I have been informed was designed on Rails) as a model for the complexity of the site design - what would the optimal number of programmers working on this site be? How long would it take them? (www.zaadz.com) If you have to sign up to view full options, it's pretty similar to Myspace, however it has a points system similar to slashdot.

3. What percent of Zaadz could be made through Open Source options?

4. What would I expect to spend making a similar site if I wanted to go with those individuals who wouldn't have to learn on the job, qualified to create such pages?

I appreciate your assistance, and hope this opportunity piques your curiosity.

2

Yeah, but this one is going to be different from all the other ones! This one is going to be a facebook killer!

3

@ Ryan, Mike -- Why not keep your answers to technical solutions and answers? One of the general benefits of the RoR community has been the widespread help available from experts and insiders. We don't need your editorializing.

1. Why Rails? As I mentioned above, generally I have found the RoR community to be the most open and helpful. If you or your team gets stuck, you'll likely get an answer within a day or two. Along the lines of free answers... the extensive plugin system makes for quick development of even the most complex sites with a tried and tested framework. You get to spend more time on what makes your idea unique and compelling and less time wondering how to get it done.

On the whole, I also find many, many more RoR developers who completely love what they do. They are committed to writing the very best code they can, testing to prove that it works, and so on. In other communities I find a great deal more pragmatism that ends up hurting the projects in the long run.

2. The basic framework for Zaadz/gaia (after a very brief look) does not appear to be that complicated. You might need to spend more time with the design folks than the developers. The design (ui/css/etc) tends to be one of the things that really makes you stand out. As far as how many and how long... that is difficult to answer. It really depends on the level of competence you find in developers.

3. I see nothing there that is unique; it could all be imitated through open source.

4. As with #2 it depends on the competence you find. You might be better off searching for an individual or small group that is looking for a joint venture, with the compensation being their part in ownership of the final product. You're more likely to get someone's complete attention... and not have to pay them!

4

AndyV wrote:

@ Ryan, Mike -- Why not keep your answers to technical solutions and answers? One of the general benefits of the RoR community has been the widespread help available from experts and insiders. We don't need your editorializing.

Thanks Andy for your comment, I appreciate that. That's exactly why I was looking for open source options, so that much of the design could be collected from pre-existing sources, while the programmers are then free to create the several features that create the niche market for the site.

The reason I chose Zaadz as an option was because they seemed to have many of the standard social networking features, plus a few extra- which is exactly what my product will offer. This model then worked because one could figure out the extra time necessary, based upon their site, to create a new site with features above and beyond the normal social networking.

4. As with #2 it depends on the competence you find. You might be better off searching for an individual or small group that is looking for a joint venture, with the compensation being their part in ownership of the final product. You're more likely to get someone's complete attention... and not have to pay them!

Andy, if you could dig a little deeper into that answer I'd appreciate it. I would love to find the highly competent passionate group of individuals to turn this into a reality as quickly as possible. How would you recommend that one goes about finding this most effectively?

The option of offering equity to developers has always been on the table, but a lot of times you find people dedicating more of their time to something they can get fired over, sadly. Someone working in their free time may not be able to dedicate the hours necessary to keep steady on the project.

Do you really find that giving equity betters the chance of getting a committed individual? What are industry standard %s for designing a site on equity alone?

I go back to the 2nd question again, which is important for me to understand - How long would it take to most efficiently create this site, and how many people would it take working full time, if the programmers are competent and motivated (whether it be a company structure that I would hire a pre-existing team or otherwise). And then, leading to the last question, do you have a bal lpark figure of how much I will have to pay these competent individuals or this team, if I were to not offer equity?

Thanks, the helpfulness of this community makes it obvious why Rails is the best choice for designing our product.

5

@Ben -- If you want to find someone who can help you, I'd start with a ruby or rails user group in the area. You probably want them close enough that you can look them in the eye and gauge their interest.

I don't have any clue about industry standard %s for splitting on equity positions. The idea is that you try to find someone who feels as passionately about your venture as you do. If they are that passionate you might find yourself with an equal partner in more ways than one -- they may have ideas you've not considered and may be worth an equal part in the success.

Hiring mercenaries, er, contractors, is not _bad_ it's just expensive. You run the risk of the initial responses being true -- your app fails to beat facebook or myspace or gaia or the many others that are flooding the space. Unfortunately if you're the only one taking the risk you're also the one paying the funeral costs if things don't take off. I know a few who might be willing to give you an estimate.

Just a question: where's the rush? Is this a very time-limited opportunity? If not (except for the hole that passion tends to create when it burns) then maybe the "overtime" developer is the one you want. You let things grow slowly and only put both feet on the floor of your new venture's office when it's big enough to sustain itself. Many shops are starting this way now because the VC money has gone away in the wake of the dot-com busts.

6

Thanks for your warnings.

But, while my passion is strong and I have the opportunity to devote full-time to this venture, it is best that I find someone else (or a team) to do the same. If I am not willing to give this my devoted attention and passion, then it would seem I was counting on failure, and I'm not.

I am in the Maryland area, and am interested in taking estimates.

How does this process usually unfold? Do developers sign NDAs or confidentiality agreements?

Thanks