[pmwiki-users] Using PmWiki for a social club with individual profiles

[Tegan Dowling]

On 7/26/07, Philip Seyer <professionalsguild at gmail.com> wrote:
> It will take a while for me to get to my question.  Sorry for that.
>
> I'm exploring the idea of using PMWIKI for a Singles Wik -- where members of
> a singles club can put up a profile of themselves and make contact with
> others who may want to meet them. Members will be able to do other things,
> too, like post social events.
>
> The URL for my wiki (which is still quite crude) is:
>
>    http://www.lovemusiclovedance.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php
>
> The following page will be an overview of various members living in the San
> Francisco Bay Area
>
> http://www.lovemusiclovedance.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=SPRE.BayArea
>
> To see the details about a member, you would click on the member's ID.
> You can send an email to a member whose profile interests you by clicking on
> an external link.
>
> I would like individuals to be able to go in and edit their own page and
> upload a picture or
> put links on their page, etc.
>
> My Questions.
>
> Do you think this is a good use for PMWiki?
> On which page would it be a good idea to put a password or ID requirement?
> Any hints about implementing the password or ID requirement?
> Should an administrator create the individual's page first and then email
> him or her the link to it?
>
> Would it work to just send a Bay Area person to:
>
> http://www.lovemusiclovedance.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=SPRE.BayArea
>
> and ask them to create their own ID and brief description?
>
>  Other ideas? Approaches? Better way for members to contact each other?
> I'm thinking of using a system like that available at
> http://www.memberize.com --
> Memberize is slick, but expensive.
>
> Thanks, guys, for your help,
> Phil Seyer
> http://www.pguild.com
>
>
> P.S. I am thinking of integrating my Wiki with ccube, a new free system that
> enables social networking by phone.  For more info on that, you may want to
> see:  http://www.pguild.com/ccube

Hi, Philip:

Sorry to hear you got no responses to this when you first posted it.
Just so you know, these more philosophical questions often go
unanswered. I never can predict what will do it -- some questions
prompt a veritable flood of give and take; some just lie there,
mellowing in the sun...

I can't speak to any of the technical aspects of your question, but I
do think your project is very interesting.  Hosting it on a wiki is
also very ambitious.  PmWiki sites, especially, don't typically have a
lot of the automagic, user-friendly, ajaxy things that I think most
users of social networking sites are becoming accustomed to. Are these
singles going to be mostly techie types?

A couple of thoughts for you
1) read http://www.wikipatterns.com, which is Atlassian's wiki for
discussing best practices for, and challenges to, adoption of
enterprise wikis.  Lots of it won't apply, but some will.
2) as an alternative OR a complementary component, consider a 'roll
your own' social network platform, like ning.com.

Hope that helps some,

Tegan