A new platform to build portals on?

[Greg]

Today I took a much needed, and overdue, hour to work through my LinkedIn profile and return some emails and PM's I had there. One thing that struck my interest was the new project from ex-PartyGaming executive Hemant. Looks like he has started a 'plug and play' social media platform builder called SocialGO

Looks pretty interesting and after talking with their Live Help people it's also Gaming friendly. Part of me likes it for new affiliates who are looking to get something quick, community-focused up. Their Premium package appears to have some cool SEO tools (think VBSEO and WordPress All-in-One SEO pack). I think the free version lends itself too a little abuse - like MFA (made for adsense) blogs that were popular a couple years ago.

Anyhow, didn't know if anyone was building on these or what the feedback was. Just another resource that I am sure someone can use.

[jdwanchalk]

From what I can tell, it seems very similar to this...

Ning | Create and discover Ning Social Networks for your interests and passions.

I think you have an interesting idea, but I guess I don't really see the difference between these and a standard forum.

[jdogg]

These are really great ideas. I think forums can be very successful but i believe a social network done right in more of a recommender community can be more profitable. There are so many different revenue sources you can add to a social network with out the use of selling ad space. Also you can have forums in your social networks. People love to sit and chat and pretty much waste time so why not get them to do it in your own social network where as a forum can be limited. This is just my opinions but i would love to here what others have to say.

Although I don't believe you need to be the biggest community for portals but making portals into community's might help with the conversion rate??

From what I can tell, it seems very similar to this...

Ning | Create and discover Ning Social Networks for your interests and passions.

I think you have an interesting idea, but I guess I don't really see the difference between these and a standard forum.

[kushmoney]

It looks pretty cool. Would love to see one about poker.

[Dlabs]

Ning recently changed their business model, there ditching all their free clients and only supporting paid subscriptions. Tough luck for all those people that created a free community, they either pay up or Ning turns the power off.