Thread

More brouhaha about MT’s new Actionstream and member features (catching up to EE), alongside Wordpress Buddypress.

Does EE 2.0 need to have these features to keep in the game with these guys?

Read that earlier and am just not sure. I do agree that social integration is probably a new requirement but how to do that is up in the air. And, as RWW notes, it would be another place people would have to enter all their data which really gets tiresome.

Social networking needs to decentralize sooner or later though. If, say, I could integrate activity on my Facebook page to my EE site, that would be some nice synergy. And suppose I could also integrate LinkedIn and so on?

I’d like that.

(Which is the cue for somebody to tell me there’s been a plugin or third-party module for this for the last three years…)

I do think that ways to integrate into other social networking platforms would be better than introducing yet another profile to maintain. Also, the current licensing makes a lot of the properties of a social networking site impossible to implement.

I’m curious, what can those tools you are mentioning do, and if EE is already in the game.
Most of those things seem to be available via a few plugins for EE?

There are a huge amount of things EE could do, but maybe a clear cut path is not documented. Maybe the new version will change some of the documentation woes, but it will take more community contributions to have plenty of tutorials out there, on the wiki etc.
2-cents.

It would be nice tool but it has to be a plugin vs. something built in core.
Social networking is to web content what spam is to my email server.
sn wars 😊

I am not a fan of most social networking solutions. So what?  The answer to question for EE: yes. It’s a business plan no-brainer. The sooner the better, as modules built on 2.0 architecture. If there isn’t something interesting/usable by 1Q 2009, I believe EE will begin to suffer attrition.

It would be nice tool but it has to be a plugin vs. something built in core.
Social networking is to web content what spam is to my email server.
sn wars 😊

Nice link to current for the SN Wars, 5 1/2 minutes I’ll never get back. Thanks friendster.
Social networks are what you make of them for sure.

I’m confused as to what these things are doing that you can’t currently do with EE?  Maybe it’s just because all the features are bundled in?  I say big whoop (although I’m a bit too much of a greybeard to have ever gotten into things like Facebook et al.), but I probably just don’t understand.

I am just teasing, option to have tools would be nice but as long as it is not at the cost of track records of EE. On the other hand, I am sure that it would quite the undertaking and a change in business plan for EllisLab.
Personally, I always preferred that applications do one thing but do it well vs. having many features at ok rating. Time will tell…

That’s what the module and extension developer capabilities are for. Not for EE 2.0 itself. Built the tools so others can build those crazy things that not everyone wants.

There’s no need to add social networking features. The percentage of people who will actually have activity beyond forums/wikis is so small, i’d rather see EllisLabs work on something more important. That being said, some modules to pull data from facebook/twitter etc wouldn’t be unwelcome, but that’s what APIs are for.

There’s no need to add social networking features.

They mention Forums as part of the social thangs - Sounds like they will include it whereas it’s extra with EE.

Sounds more like a marketing ploy to me.  I feel ExpressionEngine is more like a niche CMS for commercial sites employed widely by professional web development shops.  Of the sites I have worked on in the past year and a half, few of them require a forum, let alone any sort of social networking element. 

An ecommerce system on the other hand…  😉

I would have been impressed to see MT create something like a powerful ecommerce system which is feel is a more boring but more powerful developer tool.  If they were to do that, we would likely be having a very different conversation.  Instead, they (MT) are going for hype and buzzwords.

Social networking can be important, but that doesn’t mean that element has to take place on the company website.  Much better I think to take the company presence to where social networking is really alive such as Twitter and Facebook (or wherever the cool kids are hanging out these days.)

If social networking is a central element of your site as it is in Facebook then I doubt you would be looking to MoveableType to serve your needs.  There is no competitive advantage there in terms of features.  But then again, I don’t really have the secret sauce to know what it takes to make a viral social network. 

ExpressionEngine is great not for features but because the core system allows developers to do a lot with little effort.

My 2 cents.

While I agree with most of what you say, there is a growing awareness within companies of all things social. A lot of what they are doing is internal and not public. For instance, BestBuy has a social net for their Blue Shirts to help each other as well as share ideas with headquarters. They are also doing one for interaction between their buyers/merchants and their suppliers/manufacturers.

Currently EE isn’t good for even a simple intranet as the membership module limits to one group (hopefully EE2 will solve that). I’d prefer to use one system for both external and internal sites and those will require more and more features as things catch on.

That said, I find most companies are 7-10 years behind in using the net and incorporating new features/functions to their sites. Just look at how many sites were designed/developed back in the 99-01 timeframe and haven’t changed much (if at all) since.