Thread

I have a question regarding the license restrictions as stated below.

I am interested in setting up a network of social networking sites with photos, videos, deals, forums, Live Video Steams, Chat Rooms, Instant Messaging, VOIP and a business directory. I do not intend to provide hosting nor is this some kind of blogging site but a real social network with a VOIP, IM, PM built in so that social network members call and message each other between networks. The sites (we will always buy and own the domains) that are 100% owned by us and administrated by people in each area of expertise for each network that we launch. It will be made clear in our administration agreement that we and not the customer will own the domain and the content and the site. The administratos interest in this is that any sites that he admins can be used to promote the services or business of the of the administrator in his area and for this we will charge a monthly fee.

Is this allowed?

BELOW IS COPIED FROM YOUR WEBSITE

Restrictions
Unless you have been granted prior, written consent from EllisLab, Inc., you may not:
• Use the Software as the basis of a hosted blogging service, or to provide hosting services to others.
• Reproduce, distribute, or transfer the Software, or portions thereof, to any third party.
• Sell, rent, lease, assign, or sublet the Software or portions thereof.
• Grant rights to any other person.
• Use the Software in violation of any U.S. or international law or regulation.

Thanks,
Carlos

Hello, Carlos!

This is a pretty grey area in our license, admittedly.  What it comes down to, though, is this.

ExpressionEngine is not technically created to manage a site like what you propose.  An administrator has to manually create member accounts, groups, templates, channels, custom fields, categories, statuses, forums, galleries, etc. to do this.  There is no way to automatically given an individual their own secure space.

Because of that, ExpressionEngine is not a great tool for your particular need.  I would recommend looking at something more purpose built for that type of social site, or building one that suits your own needs specifically.

So ultimately, the license agreement you quote is informed by what ExpressionEngine was built for; and in this case, I don’t think your project is a good fit.

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we are strong proponents of using the right tool for the job - so there you are.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hi Lisa,

Thank you for your response. When I say administrators I realy mean content administrators, I do not want someone to be able to do much more than delete amembers posts or photos if they are not approproate. I do not need them to be able to do any of the following like manually create member accounts, groups, templates, channels, custom fields, categories, statuses, forums, galleries. I cannot think of any situation of where I would want them to be able to access that level of control.

I have already looked at all of the functionality of EE and it will already do what I want so the question is about the license.

Thanks,
Carlos

Hi, Carlos,

I am reading this:

network of social networking sites with photos, videos, deals, forums, Live Video Steams, Chat Rooms, Instant Messaging, VOIP and a business directory.

as needing to have many Sites that each have those resources segregated with separate permissions, etc.  Am I misunderstanding that?  It is a key point that we need to figure out to see if EE is a good fit.

Thank you!

Lisa,

The only separate permissions that I will need will be for each moderator to be able delete content and or pics. I am already sure that I can get EE to do what I want from that prospective. I used the term Admins because that is want we will call them but I guess I really mean moderators as I just want to make sure that what I want to do is OK from a licensing standpoint using a single multi site expressionengine Commercial license because others will be able to delete content and photos on a per site basis. I would imagine that I would need to buy a separate expressionengine Commercial license for each and everyone that might want to be able to create member accounts, groups, templates, channels, custom fields, categories, statuses, forums and galleries for thier own site or if someone one wanted to actually own the domain that they moderated.

Thanks,
Carlos

Carlos - will each site (or individual, or business) need its own set of member accounts, channels, templates, etc.?  Or will there be only one set fo the whole site, with everyone contributing to shared resources?

Thank you!

Lisa,

Thanks for the fast reply.

Here are the answers to your questions, and would be as follows. No on the separate channels, no on the separate membership accounts, yes on the separate templates but visually 90% or more of them will have the exact same visual layout. All of the channels and membership accounts will be the same for all of the sites and we only want to use one set with everyone contributing to shared resources.

The idea is to create networks of sites with the same related main subjects (main domains) and sub-subjects (lots of other domains) but all tied together to look like a single network. Without exception,100% of all the sites and will have the same visual control bar at the top linking all of the sites together so that users can navigate from one subject (or domain in this case) to the other. This single control bar that will be at the top of 100% of all the sites using EE and will have the EXACT same visual look and feel. This same look and feel is really the most importation part of the whole project and it is how we intend to make it one big unified network with lots of domains based on common subjects and sub-subjects. Except for the single banner at the top of each page indicating the subject, most users will most likely not even realize that they are moving across domains each time they change the subject from the common drop or drill down menu that will be at the top of all the pages on 100% of all of our sites using EE. At least 90% or more of the domains will use the exact same visual template so that the sites have a common look, feel and navigation. That way users will see the same look and experience on one network when they navigate any other subjects (or site domains) without problems once they have navigated one site.

I hope this more detailed explanation helps.

Thanks,
Carlos

Carlos -

That was extremely helpful; it sounds like the licensing here will work.  Just bear in mind that we don’t recommend going above 60-75 Sites per MSM installation, as well as that members are registered to an installation and are not separate per site.  The other caveats are that you can not split a Site out of the MSM - so do be careful and make sure that those caveats are not deal-breakers.

Does that help?

Lisa,

Thank you for making things clear.
I have no more questions, please mark this question as resolved

Thanks,
Carlos

Thank you Carlos.  Let us know if anything else comes up. Thanks!