Before I post my feedback about my finding regarding the suitability of BuddyPress and Drupal for my Social Network project, it would only make sense that I first post my requirements.

For starters here is my list of essential features that I like to have within that new social network.

User Registration

• Registration using email verification
• New Account Notification
• Retrieve passwords by automated email

Profile

• Customizable profile fields from admin control panel
• Profile categorized in various sections such as general, social, contact, education, work & personal
• Members can update profile at any time
• Brief list of member's recent activities on "My Profile" page
• Search members, view complete profile, send messages, add as friend or block user
• Privacy settings - Profile page and photo can be viewed by all, nobody or only by friends
• Upload icon or photo that will be viewable to others as member's face in profile

Groups & Forum

• Members can create new groups or forums
• Members can join existing group or forums
• Email message is sent to group owner and new member
• Take part in threaded discussions in forum
• Forum can be categorized in groups
• Search groups, messages and forum
• Display list of members in a group
• Group owner can approve/delete group, members and posts
• Invite others to join forum

Search People & Make Friends

• People search, display result and view other people's profile
• Send request message to other member - add as friend
• Members can maintain a list of friends
• Member name/photo is clickable to open their profile

Privacy setting

• Each member has a private/public profile
• Privacy Settings i.e. detailed profile page can be viewed by all or only by friends
• Privacy & Terms of use page

Photos

• Members can upload an unlimited number of photos to their page
• Members can create any number of albums to store their photos

Blogs

• Create/edit/delete unlimited Blogs
• Members can add posts and stories
• Update notification
• Only Members can leave comments on individual Blogs
• Spam protection
• You can enable or disable comment

Messages

• Members can send messages to friends via internal 'Message' system
• View message in "inbox" and reply/compose messages
• New mails notification.

Question & Answer

• Ask questions on any topic, get answers from members
• Post answers

Comments, Rating, Tagging and Sharing

• Members can post comments to blog posts, photos, videos, or other users

Auto Responders

• Based on the interaction with the member several emails are sent automatically from the site
• Examples: When a user registers in site, when a question is added in QnA section, an answer is added in any question in QnA section, a mail will be sent to the member.

Admin

• Admin has full control over global site configurations
• Add, edit or delete any member
• Send an email/newsletter to all members
• Database backup facility
• Search for members
• Limit the amount of space a member may use
• Detailed Statistics

Here is the list of other feature that would be nice to have but are not required:

Groups & Forum

• Post photos in forum
• Add opinion poll

Search People & Make Friends

• View new member - friend request/profile and Accept/Decline as friend
• View people who have recently viewed your profile
• An image indicates whether the member is currently online
• Add comments in other members or own guest book

Privacy setting

• Members can set their guest book, blog posts, photos, videos, and entire site to be viewable only by friends or only to themselves.
• A member can set/change his data display/profile in the website, using privacy settings
• If a member sets his privacy setting to public, then any other member searching his profile will find the member
• If a member sets his privacy setting to private, then any other member searching his profile will not find the member
• Block users

Photos

• Members can post photos in forums
• Viewers can browse/search the photo gallery

Blogs

• Blogs added in categories
• Ability to attach images to the post
• List popular Blogs
• Blogs can be book marked

Videos

• Members can upload an unlimited number of videos to their page from Youtube.com
• Add the URL to share and it will display the video thumbnail like orkut.com
• Viewers can browse/search the video gallery

Messages

• Members can store their messages in a folders – inbox, sent & trash
• Members can "block" other members to stop receiving their messages

Question & Answer

• Members can also tag and rate answers
• Multi-level category system

Comments, Rating, Tagging and Sharing

• Members can also tag and rate content
• Share profile and data with others

Rewards and Point System

• Whenever a member posts in a group, forum, message, poll, photo, video, Blog, Question in Q&A or answers to a question in Q&A, Classified – then they will get points
• These points can be changed by admin and can be different for modules
• Admin can view the points of members and reward active members

Chat

• Member's can chat with any of their friends who are online.

Twitter type activity (Set user status)

• Members can set their current status in profile page.
• For Example (I am busy now). Any other member can view the present status and come to know what you are doing right now.

Events

• Members can add an event.
• Event owner and admin can edit / delete events.
• If a member wants to attend the event he/she can add their name to event list.

Tags: BuddyPress, Drupal, Web Design