I am building a social network for computer enthusiasts; essentially, MySpace for hackers. The goal is to provide the solid base for a community where members can interact with each other, establishing relationships and groups, discussion boards, detailed profiles, and so on. I've named this project Extropic.
After considering the possible routes in building such a community, I've taken a liking to Drupal, particularly since it seems to have such an active and endearing developer community. It's certainly come a long way from what I remember when I tried it out some years back.
After experimenting with Drupal for a short while, it seems to offer much of the functionality I need through either in-built or contributed modules. Of course, it's likely I'll need some custom development done, as well as design. As such, I'd like to hire an experienced Drupal developer, particularly one with experience developing social networking applications.
I've summarized the core functionality I'm looking for below:
Discussion forum
Message boards arranged by subject or parent group will allow members to publicly communicate with one another.
News aggregation
A collection of IT-related news pulled from external sources.
Private messaging system