Building a Social Network using WordPress: How can I do?

I’ve recently created my personal account on WordPress, and my 1st website will be an experimental Social Network.

But when I started searching the material that I need…I encountered difficulties!

On www.remarpro.com I found an article that suggested different Plugins that would allow me to build the Social Network: BuddyPress, WP Symposium and WP Mingle.

I read the comments and all of them were contrasting. And this confused me more than before.

Is there any Yahoo user (that is also a WordPress user and that made a Social Network with it) that could help me choosing the best plugin for my project?

Should I use BuddyPress, WP Symposium, WP Mingle or something else?

Thanks in advance for your help!