Can I copy your site? March 2, 2012 10:46 AM Subscribe
A bit of a lazy question here, but I've gone through quite a bit of the site to find out if it's possible to use the Metafilter source code for an internally branded community site at my company, and search/FAQ's just aren't getting me there. We have an email distro that is essentially MeFi - but the code to this site is so much better than email. Is it possible to use the site back end, and brand it for my company for the purposes of an internal community? Is it open source? I'm not a developer, but I have access to people who could make it happen, I'm just lazy and if we could build our own using the source from here, it would be easier than starting from ground zero.
Nope, it's not really available for use. Not for any OMG CORPORATE SECRETS reasons or anything, it's more that mefi's code is in ColdFusion and is a pretty serious idiosyncratic beast married tightly to the specific scale and functionality of the site as it exists. Porting it to generalized use for other projects would be a seriously logistical pain even in those cases where it might be at all practical as a platform solution.
The good news is that the basic functionality of the site—user accounts, posts with comment threads, etc—is pretty replicable from a number of prefab CMS solutions that are readily (in many cases freely) available. You could tune either a Wordpress install or a phpbb install in the specific style and presentation direction of mefi with some work (look for example at stavrosthewonderchicken's WP work with Gamefilter), but if you don't for some reason need your internal site to really seriously resemble Metafilter the job is even easier.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:54 AM on March 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
The good news is that the basic functionality of the site—user accounts, posts with comment threads, etc—is pretty replicable from a number of prefab CMS solutions that are readily (in many cases freely) available. You could tune either a Wordpress install or a phpbb install in the specific style and presentation direction of mefi with some work (look for example at stavrosthewonderchicken's WP work with Gamefilter), but if you don't for some reason need your internal site to really seriously resemble Metafilter the job is even easier.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:54 AM on March 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
Also consider stack exchange.
posted by jeffamaphone at 12:00 PM on March 2, 2012
posted by jeffamaphone at 12:00 PM on March 2, 2012
There are a bunch of stackexchange clones floating around. I'm not sure if the code for any is opensource though.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 12:03 PM on March 2, 2012
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 12:03 PM on March 2, 2012
There are lots of enterprise community platforms out there as well, if you need sophisticated features. (Jive is just one example.)
posted by misskaz at 12:04 PM on March 2, 2012
posted by misskaz at 12:04 PM on March 2, 2012
Metafilter: A pretty serious idiosyncratic beast married tightly to the specific scale and functionality of the site as it exists.
posted by Kabanos at 12:43 PM on March 2, 2012 [13 favorites]
posted by Kabanos at 12:43 PM on March 2, 2012 [13 favorites]
Wordpress is a notorious vector for hackers, if only because of the large install base.
posted by crunchland at 1:34 PM on March 2, 2012
posted by crunchland at 1:34 PM on March 2, 2012
I always imagine the source code from Metafilter looks like something out of the movie Brazil.
Are there a lot of sites out there, with a base as large as meta's, that use ColdFusion?
posted by cjorgensen at 1:40 PM on March 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
Are there a lot of sites out there, with a base as large as meta's, that use ColdFusion?
posted by cjorgensen at 1:40 PM on March 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
The source code of MetaFilter...
My god, it's full of cats
posted by fuq at 1:46 PM on March 2, 2012 [9 favorites]
My god, it's full of cats
posted by fuq at 1:46 PM on March 2, 2012 [9 favorites]
Are there a lot of sites out there, with a base as large as meta's, that use ColdFusion?
The popular example of a big website built with ColdFusion was always MySpace. (I'm not positive they're sill using CF.) This post lists a few more.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:53 PM on March 2, 2012
The popular example of a big website built with ColdFusion was always MySpace. (I'm not positive they're sill using CF.) This post lists a few more.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:53 PM on March 2, 2012
What about Metaphilter? I thought that was basically an open-source clone of Metafilter, and is what Monkeyfilter is based on.
(It is credited at the bottom of this page.)
posted by jayder at 2:12 PM on March 2, 2012
(It is credited at the bottom of this page.)
posted by jayder at 2:12 PM on March 2, 2012
How about if I ask you how easy it would be to port it to Sharepoint? Just kidding...
posted by Chuffy at 4:27 PM on March 2, 2012
posted by Chuffy at 4:27 PM on March 2, 2012
MetaChat is pretty much a clone of Metafilter, functionally speaking. They use B2evolution as their backend.
posted by killdevil at 4:39 PM on March 2, 2012
posted by killdevil at 4:39 PM on March 2, 2012
Wordpress is a notorious vector for hackers, if only because of the large install base.
The hackbots have been nightmarish lately. I'm still a big WP fan, but these days, unless you know enough to know how to harden a WP install, keep tabs on it, and fix it when it gets hacked, it's hard for me to recommend.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:43 PM on March 2, 2012
The hackbots have been nightmarish lately. I'm still a big WP fan, but these days, unless you know enough to know how to harden a WP install, keep tabs on it, and fix it when it gets hacked, it's hard for me to recommend.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:43 PM on March 2, 2012
Chuffy, I would suggest maybe post an AskMe question along the lines of:
"My company wants to make an internal community site, and we have such and such needs and so and so constraints. What would people recommend?"
In the constraints part, the tech savvy and skillsets of the people who will look after this thing are an important aspect, and maybe so is budget. (e.g. Is it important to be 100% free?)
Apologies if you already asked there, and I missed it
I don't know what a good answer for you would be based on what you've told us here, but the options might include any of the things that come under the heading of Content Management Systems (CMS) forum software, collaboration software , wiki software and maybe others.
Examples of such things include: Wordpress, Django-CMS, vBulletin, Basecamp, Wikidot. There are many others.
posted by philipy at 7:01 AM on March 4, 2012
"My company wants to make an internal community site, and we have such and such needs and so and so constraints. What would people recommend?"
In the constraints part, the tech savvy and skillsets of the people who will look after this thing are an important aspect, and maybe so is budget. (e.g. Is it important to be 100% free?)
Apologies if you already asked there, and I missed it
I don't know what a good answer for you would be based on what you've told us here, but the options might include any of the things that come under the heading of Content Management Systems (CMS) forum software, collaboration software , wiki software and maybe others.
Examples of such things include: Wordpress, Django-CMS, vBulletin, Basecamp, Wikidot. There are many others.
posted by philipy at 7:01 AM on March 4, 2012
Content Management Systems (CMS) forum software
This should read: "Content Management Systems (CMS), forum software, ..."
i.e. They're two different things.
posted by philipy at 7:04 AM on March 4, 2012
This should read: "Content Management Systems (CMS), forum software, ..."
i.e. They're two different things.
posted by philipy at 7:04 AM on March 4, 2012
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by pb (staff) at 10:51 AM on March 2, 2012