SG Mastermind 1: Build from scratch or use existing software?

I say focus on the structure of the "program", then take specific votes on the details. Do you want levels of members to roughly correspond with Y-Combinator's classes/timeline? The statuses could be: Applied (need social validation to get it), Level 1 (approximately 1 month into Y-Com), Level 2 (mo 2), Level 3, Alumni.

I definitely say use off the shelf software wherever possible. I also think there needs to be some kind of "voting off the island" type situation. Maybe of a given group that starts, only x-percentage can finish. Part of Y-combinator's appeal is that it selects positively for good companies. If it is completely open, you will loose some of this.

I agree that you will need some kind of identification walls in order to make people comfortable working within it, and to make it special. My company, signnow, has a product notarynow that I would gladly donate our service to solidly identify people, if you like.

The main reason to purpose build is to have total control and address scaling issues that pop up with many out of the box solutions. But you may not need total control or have issues with scaling if you don't build a strong community.

I agree open source is probably the best solution at this stage.

I don't know of any existing systems that offer everything you're looking for. Maybe we can start with something that meets most needs, and build on it? e.g., start with Reddit's code base.

Building from scratch would be less desirable, and risky -- in terms of potentially killing the project before it even launches -- but it would also get you exactly the package you want.

If anybody managed to build something actually usable on top of the carcass of Wave, I would love them forever. That was easily one of my favourite "great, but not right now" ideas of recent times.

I don't want in here to sound like an echo chamber, but building from scratch is not a good idea when there are so many open-source/free tools available that fill all the current needs. As the community feels itself out the need for specific features will arise and then it's time to look at extending and developing the existing deployment.