Dating Website

I'm conducting some research for developing a website similiar to www.nexopia.com. This is a school project, which i'd like to pursue outside of school, so attempting to find as much information on what I may need to develop a site like this (on a much smaller scale) but with similiar functionality. User profiles in which they can upload pictures, buddy lists, search function. List goes on.

Althought It looks like a daunting task, I have a team of students who'd like to give this a try. I have just a few question's for anyone who is familiar with this sites design.

Would I need to set up my own server for storage of this information? or could I use a third party?


Again, I am not the 'technically' inclined one in the group, so bare with me if I ask any stupid questions.

I actually have alot for questions for anyone who could help.

Thank you.

I'm not familiar with this (beyond just visiting it in order to reply to your post), but I have to say this about dating sites in general ... do we really need another one?

Anyway, I think you should store this information yourself. Depending on how you connect to this other server it will probably slow things down (nexopia is slow).

Additionally, from a business standpoint, I don't think it would be wise either. As a rule of thumb, you should rely on as few people as possible. Let's say things take off and you're doing well. The third party could easily increase rates, giving you the option of paying or undertaking the daunting task of moving the data. But there are too many factors involved to talk indepthly about the business side.

Thanks jharnois. Yes, We'd like to do this dating site to be exclusive for our city. Just to keep it on a small scale. So it would be in my best interests to have my own server? okay. Im going to consult my other team-mates, I post a couple more questions later.

Thanks again.

Hi

I didnt look at the site you mentioned, but I just wanted to say that you could have a dating site up in about an hour. Get hosting with someone like hostrocket or ixwebhosting. Then go get php matchmaker. Then if you dont already have one, get a domain.

hosting: upto 15 / month
domain: about 9 / year
php matchmaker: free for non profit

Then your all set!

Hope it helps Good Luck