In the next few months or so, I'd like to create perhaps one or two niche driven article sites. One of them one most likely be a Photography one, as its one of my favorite hobbies, and I think I could really learn some things as well and the second maybe Paintball or Casino card game related, as I enjoy Poker, Blackjack, Rummy ect. 1) Is it possible to do this with just mostly HTML and CSS? Or am I going to have to learn a lot of PHP and SQL to make it work right? 2) I mean honestly I think begining is half done, I know I'm going to have to take baby steps when starting out and that as I aquire more knowledge I could gradually make the site more user compatible, but is PHP and SQL the ONLY way to do up an article site properly? 3) Lastly, any suggestions for keeping this thing in control, I was thinking about only allowing users to post 5-10 quality articles, but if this thing really takes off after a year I most definately wouldn't want it collapsing just because I couldn't handle all the work...so would an article directory site just be TOO MUCH work or is it feasible for one person to go at? Chad
to your questions: 1) html/css would do the job too for sure, but you would become VERY busy editing all articles and/or other statistics, functions, etc. PHP/SQL would save you LOTS of time... 2 and 3) = associated with question #1 - the website is one thing, the content management system is another... you would be enabled to use MANY great features which only PHP/database offer you. I hope I helped you in your consideration/decisionmaking ;-)
Yes, that did help greatly! I appreciate it! I think it'd be in my best interest then to wait an team up with a couple of my buddies here at home that also enjoy webdesign and see what they think. I've been wanting to learn PHP/mySQL, as well as Ruby/Ruby on Rails and I feel epecially for a site like this as you've already pointed out that its imperative that I do so if want any long term sucess with a site of this nature. Again, thank you for the help! Man, I really wish I would've found out about this site sooner, you guys really know your stuff here. Chad
I have done this before and became overwhelemed after a couple months, switched to wordpress for sites that I write articles regularly. This way I only need a little time every now and then. Something to consider maybe? You can make your own theme and also run a normal page for portal.
No simple html-site for such a project, you will get mad after some time. Also the layout will suffer soon. Give wordpress a try ...