i think its wrong to typecast ROR and say its ideally suited for social networking websites; why its been using extensively in Social scene like Twitter is it makes the repetitive task a breeze. Check out the website below for feel of websites done on ROR;
The main advantages of ROR are
1. agility, rapid application development, gets the work done faster
2. Shorter development cycle
3. very seo friendly
4. Reduces dependation on repetition.
But its ultimately for the programmers to join the discussions here and add to the tribal knowledge of the company.
Some really neat websites done with ROR
http://www.costablancapropertyportal.com/http://www.castlepinesvillage.com/press_releaseshttp://www.beautyheaven.com.au/This is one is e-commerce website with a pretty advanced functionality and shopping cart done in half the time it would take to do it in PHP; but
http://www.silkfair.com/A whole bevy of website in ROR
http://www.workingwithrails.com/browse/ ... e-commerceIf php has embraced all these advantages in Cake Php then it should be worth exploring.