I want to design a website. I've never done this before, have no programming skills, and don't plan on learning any. I'm considering using a platform like wordpress. The site will consist of a forum, a blog and a chat room. I'm a little paranoid about hacking. I don't mind paying a little more for better security, flexibility, etc. Some questions: 1) What platform(s) do you recommend? 2) I have been considering starting with a forum platform (is that the right term?) like phpBB, using their built in blog and adding a chat room. Is that logical? What about other combinations? 3) Is it true that it's best to keep the host and domain separate? Can you recommend, or link me to a site that rates hosts and domains? 4) Is there a better place to be asking newbie questions like this? Hopefully my lack of knowledge doesn't offend anybody. 5) I'm pretty sure I'm going to do this myself, but if I want to hire someone, can you link me to some advice on getting bids?
Hi Wulfgar, most of the times starters have such kind of questions so it is perfectly alright to ask what you are in need of. Let me answer your questions one by one as you have asked them. 1) What platform(s) do you recommend? Ans. If you are not tight on budget I would recommend you use vBulletin for forum and blog purpose as you can see this very dp forum uses vBulletin, so if that fulfils your requirements that is really wonderful. Few other options are phpBB, Joomla. I don't recommend using wordpress as you have to deal with loads of spam and to be honest even paid plugins don't work that good but yes if you disable comments and some other features the it can work. 2) I have been considering starting with a forum platform (is that the right term?) like phpBB, using their built in blog and adding a chat room. Is that logical? What about other combinations? Ans. If this is meeting all of your requirements then it is logical. As far as I can see that you want to run a community in which you want chatroom, a forum and a blog for posts so yes it's logical. 3) Is it true that it's best to keep the host and domain separate? Can you recommend, or link me to a site that rates hosts and domains? Ans. To me it is just a personal preference. Many people buy hosting and domains at the same place and most of the people have different hosting accounts with hostgator, ipage etc. and they buy domains from GoDaddy. The best hosts are hostagtor, bluehost, tmdhosting. Just consider this that you buy from a host that offers cPanel hosting. 4) Is there a better place to be asking newbie questions like this? Hopefully my lack of knowledge doesn't offend anybody. Ans. I hope DP Forum is if not the best then one of the best place to answer newbie questions, I found this community really helpful at times when I needed help. So you are in the right place. 5) I'm pretty sure I'm going to do this myself, but if I want to hire someone, can you link me to some advice on getting bids? Ans. Well you can find many people here in Buy, Sell or Trade section of this forum and also there are freelance networks like oDesk, Elance etc. but if you need any help and you feel comfortable you are always welcome to contact me and we will figure things out. If you feel I left any of the questions you want to ask feel free to reply to this thread and I will be there to answer your questions again Wish you Good Luck... Regards Hassan