Hi, At my website I have a list of the best tv shows, and I had a cool idea but I have no idea if it's even possible to make. So I would like your expert opinion on this, please note I have zero programming experience (my website is HTML based). The idea is that users can use a thumbs up/down system to vote shows up. The shows with the most votes will automatically move to the top of the page. Shows which get voted down, move down on the page. So, is this possible? How would it work, etc?
If your shows are in a database all you have to do is add a rating field to the table that stores the shows. If a user votes + then the rating field gets incremented by 1, if the user votes - then the rating field gets decremented by 1. Then when listing your shows you can just sort it by rating in ascending or descending order depending on what type of list you want to output. Of course you'll want to limit 1 vote per IP address or user account because rating spam isn't fun. That will require a bit more work and even a slight change on how it will be setup/implemented, but I'm not going to write it all up here. If your site is really "HTML based" and you're manually doing this in Frontpage or something then you're SOL unless you feel like setting up a form where users can contact you with their vote, and then you can write down the total number of votes a specific show has and then manually change around the order of shows by hand every time you get a new e-mail. I really hope this isn't the case.
Yeah, my site is simply HTML based. I have considerd doing it manually, but it would be too much trouble for the users (and for me as well). How hard is it to setup a database and do all the things you just listed above? Do I need to hire someone (how much would it cost?) or is it easy enough to try and do it myself?
Depends on how you value the site and when it needs to be done. If you don't mind it being a test site and unoptimized, possibly insecure, and sloppy (but possibly functional) then you can try to do it yourself. If you're resourceful with Google you could get it done on your own given enough time. Price will vary a lot. Some people charge $10/hour, others charge $100/hour, and some people will just quote you a price for the end result without an hourly breakdown. There's also a few unknowns given your initial post. How many shows do you have, do you expect the person who's coding it to import all of your shows or will you, do you want a snazzy interface to manage the shows so you can add/manage your own shows in the future with categorizing by genre, perhaps user comments too (which means a user registration system as well). Now a simple thing like a rating system turned into a real project.
Well you make it sound like its not a good idea to do it myself. I figure if I let someone else do it, ill import all the shows myself (saving money). A snazzy interface wouldnt really be necessary I guess.. but user comments would be cool (without registration) but for now I'd like just the voting! Thanks for your help!
Some type of interface would be necessary. You would need a means to add new shows, edit existing shows, and delete shows at a minimum. Categories would be nice, but it's optional.