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Any PHPFox users?

by Keith Boisvert
8 replies
Are than any of you using phpfox? If so, could you share your experiences(good/bad/indifferent)?

I am looking to purchase a social newtork software, and from my research it seems as though phpfox is one of the best.

Any experiences would be cool if you can share...

If not then I guess this thread will die a quick death...

keith
#phpfox #users
  • Profile picture of the author Jamie Iaconis
    Hi,

    I like PHPFox and have installed/used it in the past!

    Many features and works very well!

    Jamie
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    • Profile picture of the author CarlosGarcia
      Hey Keith,

      PHPFox is a good application, but they really nail you on removing the copyrights
      from the software, as well as the installation. ( $425 )

      If you want an alternative solution that's less than 1/2 the price, along with an unlimited
      domain license, you may want to look at http://www.SocialSiteGenerator.com, I also
      include a Facebook version, which PHPFox does not.

      Plus, we have a lot of viral tools in place, as well as an internal advertising system, and....
      well there are lot of differences, and this would turn into a long post...

      Our main community software like MySpace is on par, or superior than PHPFox,
      you can see the demo here: http://www.SSGDemo.com right now we have another
      theme in place, instead of the default that comes with the software. You can see
      some training videos here: http://www.ssgdemo.com/training/videos

      Shameless plug I know, but I've had a few users switch over from PHPFox to use
      our software for several reasons, and I'll just leave it at that.

      Carlos Garcia
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      • Profile picture of the author Keith Boisvert
        Originally Posted by CarlosGarcia View Post

        Hey Keith,

        PHPFox is a good application, but they really nail you on removing the copyrights
        from the software, as well as the installation. ( $425 )

        If you want an alternative solution that's less than 1/2 the price, along with an unlimited
        domain license, you may want to look at http://www.SocialSiteGenerator.com, I also
        include a Facebook version, which PHPFox does not.

        Plus, we have a lot of viral tools in place, as well as an internal advertising system, and....
        well there are lot of differences, and this would turn into a long post...

        Our main community software like MySpace is on par, or superior than PHPFox,
        you can see the demo here: http://www.SSGDemo.com right now we have another
        theme in place, instead of the default that comes with the software. You can see
        some training videos here: http://www.ssgdemo.com/training/videos

        Shameless plug I know, but I've had a few users switch over from PHPFox to use
        our software for several reasons, and I'll just leave it at that.

        Carlos Garcia
        Carlos,

        Thanks for the reply. I actually just downloaded your free ebook and will sit down to read it tonight.

        I also took a look at your script, and so far I like what I see, and think the training videos are a nice touch.

        I know you can't, but I would certainly suggest either listing one or two sample urls of people using your script, or maybe generate a sample demo with a different theme? I am (unfortunatly) a visual person, and need to visualize potential looks. Know what I mean? Sounds crazy, but I m no css expert, so its hard for me to visualize the customization options(theme wise).

        Anyway, I will probably be contacting you anyway, as I would rather buy from a Warrior when I can. I have to take a look at my application and ensure that everything I need is available.


        ~keith
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        • Profile picture of the author CarlosGarcia
          Thanks Keith,

          I hope you enjoy the book! I will be making some editions to it, based on some feedback
          I received so far.

          Have a look at the demo site now, this is the Default theme that comes with your network.

          http://www.SSGDemo.com

          We also have an advanced theme editor that works with our original default themes,
          and you can change pretty much everything on your network, without having to dig in
          into the CSS files. ( Font type, font size, color, table backgrounds, etc, etc. )

          I've PM'ed you a link for a network from a client who's allowed me to share their
          link with others. This way you can see yet another look for the networks.

          Let me know if you have any other questions,

          Carlos Garcia
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        • Profile picture of the author Sarah Harvey
          Keith if you are a visual person you are gonna have a hard time with PHPfox. The only PHPfox version I will say with confidence is the best: V1.5

          The later versions are crap.

          Sure research will show you great it is, but they do not tell you that you pay X amount, then 6 months later when they bring the new version out, you have to pay for that upgrade.. and then to add good functionality to your site you need X,Y and Z amount of mods to make it any decent and good enough for your members.

          Then let's not mention the bugs, the problems, and the endless frustration as you struggle to get your site looking trendy and up to date. The flava templates are a nightmare for v1.6 etc. People have soo many problems with it. Perhaps by now they fixed the bugs. For your sake I hope they did.

          I *used* to be a PHPFox user and loved the v1.5, but the other versions that were released was a nightmare. Had to buy tons of add-ons and mods to make it decent which you purchase through Third-party sites and they are not exactly cheap.

          phpfoxmods.net
          easymods.co.uk: New phpFox mods (one of the most sought sites for phpfox users because of the add-ons and mods.)
          Premium PhpFoX Modifications - Konsort.org

          Then we couple all this with bland templates that look like hundreds of other sites. So if you want to change it to something better...better learn CSS styles. I had to

          Then to help you further...see how many people are asking for help and advice in the forum. It isn't as easy as they make it out to be:

          phpFoX User-User Support Forum - Powered by vBulletin

          Do your research properly. If you find tons of people complaining about the littlest bits of a script that is when you steer well clear of it.

          In my opinion PHPFox is only good if you buy the older version, get a normal template and not add ANYTHING to it. The minute you start working on it, is when it goes all wrong. I am pretty proficient in web design and have built my own php browser-based game before... but with phpfox it took myself and my husband several months to get it anywhere near what we wanted. After that I gave up and moved to social engine.

          I did see a thread the other day about socialsite generator and liked the clean layout of it, but the only thing lacking was design and I would advise any person to ask them if it is possible to easily edit the design and layout of the site. If a person can, then it's worth it for the price that is being asked.

          I spent over $400 on phpfox and in my opinion it was not worth it. I worked with several other social network scripts and found the following to be a disappointment: Subdreamer, Joomla, MySpace Gold, Vivvo, Dolphin, Datalife Engine, and there were one or two more I can not remember offhand now.

          So essentially what you need is a site that is easy to install, easy to edit in terms of design and does not cost you a fortune in updates/add-ons/or mods. It needs a clean interface as well. I came across a script once that had all the features a person needs, yet whoever designed it was damn stupid... it was so technically designed in a bad way- it was a major disappointment.

          Good luck
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          "Find the problem and provide the solution."
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          • Profile picture of the author CarlosGarcia
            Hi Sarah,

            You brought up some excellent points, and for those reasons I've had a few members
            switch over to our solution.

            1. We do not charge you for upgrades or bug fixes. Plus, when upgrades are
            implemented, they are always backwards compatible, and you don't have to purchase
            any modules in order to get them to work.

            2. If you host your network with us, upgrades are directly installed onto your network,
            if you don't host with us, we can provide you the downloadable upgrades, or latest version
            of our software at any time.

            3. The design is easy to customize, you don't even have to learn CSS to do so.

            For a long time, this was one of our weaknesses, and a lot my members really wanted
            to be able to customize their design fully, so we built a Theme Manager, that was really
            easy to use. It's not available on the Demo site, since some people really messed up
            our themes, and we had to disable it.

            Check out this 1 minute video that shows you how to use our Theme Manager:
            http://www.SSGDemo.com/videos/theme-manager/

            You'll notice there are 40 customizable options, from Font Types, to Font Sizes,
            to Table Backgrounds,             and much more.

            We have 2 sets of designs on our networks, 1 which is fully customizable via our
            Theme Manager above.

            The other design is a more advanced design which are created by Ryan from
            DesignGuruRyan.com, and my programmers convert each one individually to have
            its own custom CSS, because of the nature of these advanced designs, they are not
            compatible with our Theme Editor.

            They use a lot of images, and rounded corners, custom backgrounds, etc, so it was
            hard to make them work in our main theme editor, which is why you have both options.

            The design you see here now:
            http://www.ssgdemo.com

            This is the Advanced default design that comes with your network

            Ryan is working in creating a lot of designs right now that will be available.             Pretty soon we'll
            be offering a 3 column layout for your networks as well.

            To learn how to easily switch the designs on your network watch this video:
            http://www.ssgdemo.com/videos/Customization/

            Plus, you can have your own custom theme created by Ryan, or since you're a Web Designer,
            you could dig in to the CSS files of the advanced theme and customize it to suit your needs.

            If there are any questions, or suggestions that my members have, I do my best to
            improve and implement their suggestions. This is primarily the reason why our software
            has evolved and improved so much, because we're constantly receiving feedback
            and implementing the features that YOU WANT.

            That's it for me, for now....

            Carlos Garcia
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            • Profile picture of the author fm1234
              I've built several sites on PHPfox and have to second Sarah's comments above on the post-1.5 version... it just isn't like it used to be. I am baffled at how many people have problems with PHPfox on the forum, but I am and employ good programmers so maybe it was just never an issue for us to fix and customise.

              I've built so many SNs at this point that I decided to just go ground-up custom from now on for the money sites -- it costs more but you get a lot more out of a client-professional relationship than a customer-seller relationship imo.


              Frank
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