[LarryA]

Programming is people coding upon the shoulders of others... or once the magician does his trick the trick changes from "impossible" to "there's a way to do it". Also some languages are better suited for some tasks than others.

Sounds like you want a path of least resistance, then look at what similar services are running on top of, if they pull off the features you desire those platforms would be something to take note of.

Next talk to the people who will be doing the work, see what they think, show them examples ("this is the magic I want on my site, can we pull it off with platform X? and can we do better by also implementing feature Y?") They know their tools and see behind the magic, they can tell you how they could pull it off with their tricks (some might even start their gears turning and give suggestions). Those that can see it and build upon it could be what you are looking for. Of course you want a team so get second and third opinions to build a consensus.