Making a community site

[Nalif]

I'm looking to create a community site based around graphics. Here are the requirements I'm looking for.

1) a gallery that users can add images to. Must support a ratings/comments system. Users should not be able to add their own catagories, but only upload to pre-approved catagories. Gallery should support some type of screening ( I.E. images that contain violence/nudity should be flagged at time of uploading. Users that do not wish to view either nudity or violence should have the option of specifying so in their user preferences. Images should also be able to be reported to a moderator for abuse.

2) A moderator system that allows banning/unbanning and has a system set up to deal with reported images from the gallery/posts from the forum/private messaging harassment etc.)

3) A person messaging system that works outside of the forum, but in conjuction with the forum. I.E. if a user is sent a PM from the forum, when he logs onto the front site he should see some text in the top left that says "You have 1 message(s)!"

4) A forum

5) Eventually a store

Most of these modules/components exist individually. The problem arises when making them work in conjunction of each other. My question is, what modules and components would be reccomended for a community site such as this?

So far, community builder and the open source PMS seem like givens. As for gallery and forum, though, I'm at a loss. For the store, I belive it should be OsCommerce.

If I'm using CB, and a moderator bans a user, does the user get banned from the modules/components as well?

For an example of the type of site I would like to create, Renderosity appears to be a semi-perfect example. The only thing I don't like about that site is the simplistic forums.

[gaby]

1) There are a number of image galleries for MAmbo .. depends if they have all that you are seeking. Many complain that they don't offer absolutely everything and look just how they like up front .. so I suggest you try and see.

2) Gallery components can be configured (the one I use does anyway) to allow peole to upload images but the admin needs to approve them

3) PM - seems like you've got that sorted

4) Forums - again try them all and see what you recon .. again it's a personal choice.

5) Store .. I'd suggest phpShop which integrates fully into Mambo. I've used both outside and in Mambo and OSC is a real drag to template and customise.

You didn't mention whether you have installed or tested Mambo ?

If you haven't and you are on a Windows machine then check out MSAS here

It installs a web server and Mambo all in one.

Good luck .. it is worth the effort.

[Nalif]

Yes, I've installed Mambo and tried everything out. Until this morning, that's all I had tried. I did a little bit of looking around, and found that a bunch of people said Mambo was lacking for community websites, so I tried out a few of the other "top rated" CMS's and found they were just as lacking - not so much in the community websites area as all the others, though.

It's not so much a "good" forum or a "good" gallery that I'm looking for - I'm mostly looking for integration with one another. If a gallery or forum is missing some features that I want, but it integrates well with the other modules that I need, I'll settle for that. I'm just looking for the easiest solution that offers the most flexibility. I dont' know a lot about coding, so as little hacking required as possible is nice.

[DDRcasey]

Fourm- Simpleboard-its the only one that intergrates well with mambo and can intergrate really well with COmmunity Builder and MyPMSII. The reason it intergrates so well is b/c it is made for Mambo. I truely love it. If you try to intergrate SMF or PHPBB or VBullitin, it becomes a mess and doesnt do what you want it do. ALl they do is intergrate the user system. Simpleboard is made for Mambo so it works great.
Gallery- I like Zoom Gallery, im not sure if it does what you want, their are plenty out their, like Galleria, etc. Check out mamboforge.net and search "Gallery", you should find some good ones with a descriptoion of waht they do.

[gaby]

Two Shoes Forum is also a good fit you could also try LoudMouth which is built by Miro (the copyright owner of Mambo)

I use Pony Gallery on a couple of sites cos it suits the way we work.