tlarkin
VIP Member
So, since you are a beginner I think people aren't understanding exactly what you want, and perhaps you aren't wording the questions just right either. Which is common when you are first starting out, so let me maybe just point out a few things and let you decide where to go.
What exactly makes a great website?
1) Back end technology, like databases, web servers, php command line, cron jobs, scripts, and so forth. These things the end user never sees and they are things that put your whole site together.
2) Simple and efficient design. You don't want your users being confused when they come visit your site. You also want it to look nice but simple at the same time.
3) Content - you need content on your site for whatever the site is about. Content is what keeps people coming back.
So, then you might want to ask yourself, how do I accomplish all of this? How do I create and maintain MySQL, or SQL databases for my content, forums and users to make it searchable and what not? How do I ensure my web server is always up to date, and always has the latest security modules installed? How do I easily create, maintain and update content on my site to keep my users coming back for more?
Really, in my opinion, the answer to all of these questions is to use or build a CMS (content management system). Wordpress has been mentioned before but I recommend Drupal over it. For many reasons, but I won't go into all of those right now.
Drupal, is a free open source CMS, that also has a large community behind it. It is basically a very powerful frame work you can install on your web server and it allows you to maintain, design, and upload content in an efficient manner. It also runs crons jobs against itself to check for security updates and what not and it will notify you when those updates are available.
In fact, in a giant win for open source, www.whitehouse.gov just switched over all their content to a Drupal based site. Now, when I say it is a framework, it really is just that. You download it, install it, and can use built in themes or you can completely redesign the whole layout and create your own theme. All the while all the back end stuff is there for you.
www.drupal.org
This is something you will not learn over night either. You will need to take the time to learn basics, and then learn how to transcend the basics into advanced coding and development. So there will be times where you become frustrated and want to quit, and if you stick with it though, you will be able to build just about anything you want with it. Since that is the very nature of what a framework really is.
What exactly makes a great website?
1) Back end technology, like databases, web servers, php command line, cron jobs, scripts, and so forth. These things the end user never sees and they are things that put your whole site together.
2) Simple and efficient design. You don't want your users being confused when they come visit your site. You also want it to look nice but simple at the same time.
3) Content - you need content on your site for whatever the site is about. Content is what keeps people coming back.
So, then you might want to ask yourself, how do I accomplish all of this? How do I create and maintain MySQL, or SQL databases for my content, forums and users to make it searchable and what not? How do I ensure my web server is always up to date, and always has the latest security modules installed? How do I easily create, maintain and update content on my site to keep my users coming back for more?
Really, in my opinion, the answer to all of these questions is to use or build a CMS (content management system). Wordpress has been mentioned before but I recommend Drupal over it. For many reasons, but I won't go into all of those right now.
Drupal, is a free open source CMS, that also has a large community behind it. It is basically a very powerful frame work you can install on your web server and it allows you to maintain, design, and upload content in an efficient manner. It also runs crons jobs against itself to check for security updates and what not and it will notify you when those updates are available.
In fact, in a giant win for open source, www.whitehouse.gov just switched over all their content to a Drupal based site. Now, when I say it is a framework, it really is just that. You download it, install it, and can use built in themes or you can completely redesign the whole layout and create your own theme. All the while all the back end stuff is there for you.
www.drupal.org
This is something you will not learn over night either. You will need to take the time to learn basics, and then learn how to transcend the basics into advanced coding and development. So there will be times where you become frustrated and want to quit, and if you stick with it though, you will be able to build just about anything you want with it. Since that is the very nature of what a framework really is.
