Digg clone

PhpDug Social News Software

Update – 7/28/2012: While the main KubeLabs.com url is up, any other link I click on the site appears to lead me to a nonfunctional dead link. I’ll have to revisit someday soon to see if it’s temporary or if they’ve hung it up for good over at KubeLabs.

PhpDug is an open source website script where users can post and share news, images, and videos. This software is another clone of the Digg website similar to Pligg which I’ve discussed briefly before. The only personal difference is I’ve actually installed and somewhat customized a site using Pligg, but not with PhpDug.

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With this kind of website framework, users submit their news which is then rated by others with the highest rated entries being seen first. A very simple concept with an extremely stickiness by giving the community the ability to decide what news is the most important. Running a site like this in a niche market is also a great way to tune in on what your community really finds the most valuable.

As I was clicking around the demo a few moments ago, I was about to say that the PhpDug one was hands down a more attractive default layout when compared to Pligg. However, just as I was traversing the categories, the site changed to a very dull, colorless site with incredible plainness. I still like the PhpDug look better though. It seems cleaner looking and appears it would be easier to customize.

I don’t think it’s worth competing with the big dogs using a clone, but I do believe this kind of site could be really effective if it was launched in the right community. Just think of what you could offer in your niche that people could rate. It doesn’t always have to be news either. It could be any number of things.

I just thought of a new one right now as I’m writing this so it looks like I’ll be installing PhpDug in the next few days. I told myself I’d write about all the great open source software available so I could avoid launching site after site from spur of the moment ideas. Instead, it has made it worse because that’s all I want to do lately.

If there were a hundred hours in the day, I’d still only get four hours sleep.

Pligg Content Management System

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Pligg is a free content management system that is based on the Digg website framework. Users post website links to stories, pictures, or videos and other users rate them up or down. Pretty simple, pretty effective. I don’t think you will replace Digg with a knock off site, but I do believe you can create a successful site if you choose the right niche. Check out this gallery of Pligg sites and see what it possible using this free software. There are some really cool sites using Pligg.

Digg started out with news and stories about technology and computers and it thrived into this all encompassing mega site that now includes news and information about any topic imaginable. If they can succeed as a niche and grow, I don’t see why any popular topic couldn’t be used to build a successful Pligg site. As a matter of fact, the site I had was working fairly well because I was getting visitors and users posting here and there. I just lost interest (par) and ended up scrapping it to install a new kind of open source software. Ooo, look, a butterfly. *chasing it*

The demo I’m looking at actually looks a bit dull, yet it still appears a little cleaner and nicer compared to the earlier version I installed awhile back. I might just have to install it again to have another look. I remember I was able to find the areas to change the colors and add some advertisements pretty easily. Those are the two things I always try and change right off the bat. The first makes sense, but the ads part is very backwards of me. What do I need to get ads on there for when nobody even knows it exists yet. I guess it is good to know right off the bat if the software is flexible and easy to customize, because if your site does one day become extremely popular, you will need to know how to insert ads to pull in some revenue.

Isn’t that the dream?