Deprecated - Social software and communities

I'm currently working on a social community site and I'm planning on using the organic groups module. However, I'm wondering if it makes sense to have a forum on the site as well.

I want people to be able to have whatever type of discussions they want to have pertaining to the topic. A forum is the ultimate discussion platform, but I want people to be able to form groups based on a subcategory of the main topic of the site and have their own discussions within the group.

Do sites ever have both? If so, can anyone show me any examples of this at play?

This list of 18 Criteria or Features of CMS is prepared by me for a presentation to a Web Design company.

I know that I have to `break their pride' - you know, graphic designers and HTML page designers who charge for 1 static webpage the equivalent of my charge for Drupal installation and setup.

Webdesign company put a very high price tag for their service.

***I have to go - I will edit this soon as possible - and every body will be free to add and give opinions,and use them for your presentation.

I am working on a site similar to popular social networking sites, such as bebo, myspace, facbook, and all that stuff, but geared more towards blogging, So instead of writing a whole system for it I have decided to use Drupal. Now I am asking for feedback: What modules would be good for it. What are some features are people looking for, and any thing else.

Hey there, is there work being done anywhere to connect users from different CMSs?

I wonder if anyone can give me a 101 introduction to the role/relationship of drupal and PeopleAggregator.

Thanks,
Seyong

My understanding is that CivicSpace is a package with Drupal as the core that is tailored for social network. But I am a little confused by the following statement, which seems to claim that PeopleAggregator is another CivicSpace to Drupal, i.e., PeopleAggregator is a package tailored for social network with Drupal as the core.

"Social Networking is clearly a major area within today's Web 2.0 environment. Ourmedia.org and the upcoming PeopleAggregator will expand Drupal's capabilities of handling relationships, groups, 'identity browsing' and bring together a comprehensive suite of modules - for social networking in Drupal. The "Social Networking" session will cover the functionality and usefulness of this code."

I did not see the above relationship on PeopleAggregator's website though. Moreover, PeopleAggregator claims that it can build a social network portal. This seems to be the same thing Drupal is claiming to do. Are they competitors? or if PeopleAggregator is a package tailored for social network with Drupal as the core, they are sharing the same code base?

see the following post,

"User-Centric Identity coming soon to Drupal
Submitted by fen on July 27, 2006 - 2:04am. Drupal | Freedom | Identity | Social Networking |
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Hi.. We'd like to convert our site (anecdotage.com, a huge collection of anecdotes) to drupal (maybe with a Flickr-theme) & incorporate tags, ratings, chat, blogging, & some other drupal modules... We are located in Toronto & have a small (US$3,000) budget. If you can help, please mail me here: jay@anecdotage.com - thanks!