Some help from you ner...techies.

[RentCavalier]

I have had a vision of the future.

I want to start my own website. It'd be a website akin to most other blog websites--a lot of columns, random commentaries, etc etc. I'd want to be able to film video segments too and have them streaming for people to view, as well as a forum for discussion and plenty of space to archive a lot of writing clips.

As a journalism major, I'm going to have to be competative, which is difficult with my competition around here. Simply put, I can't pull out 4.0 GPA's and Straight A's right now.

Instead, I want to have a site where me and a bunch of like-minded fellows of mine would be able to write columns, reviews, news stories on local shit, etc etc, as well as the ability to have our own videos every once and awhile to spice things up.

Thing is, I know shit about web design.

Since you guys, obviously, do--and do for a living--I was wondering if you could give me some advice/links/free, unpaid labor. Anything, really, that could help.

[Lox]

There are tons of free blog sites out there (like Blogger, etc) that let you build your own style sheets and add your own HTML. I'd probably go with one of them and customize it to your liking. Of course, you'd need help doing that, but that's where I'd start.

I would also start checking out other blog sites and making note of what you do and do not like in terms of layout, style, etc.

[RentCavalier]

I had sort of wanted to make it fairly unique...are these blogger sites really customizable? I am willing to pay for server stuff in order to get a real site.

[Tessian]

I had sort of wanted to make it fairly unique...are these blogger sites really customizable? I am willing to pay for server stuff in order to get a real site.

Your alternative is building the site from scratch yourself or paying someone to do it for you... I'd look at what it can do first before trying to re-invent the wheel.

[Imakeholesinu]

I had sort of wanted to make it fairly unique...are these blogger sites really customizable? I am willing to pay for server stuff in order to get a real site.

Your alternative is building the site from scratch yourself or paying someone to do it for you... I'd look at what it can do first before trying to re-invent the wheel.

Just stay away from Frontpage and frontpage extensions if you plan on using a windows server and IIS 6.0 to host. This will make you prime time target for Chinese hackers EVERYWHERE!!!!

Cheap things to help you out. MS Windows 2003 Web Edition and SQL Server 2005 Express. If you are still looking at something similar to frontpage for building check out NVU.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

I had sort of wanted to make it fairly unique...are these blogger sites really customizable?

Until you know shit about web design, you're not going to be able to effectively make a unique site.

I'd recommend shelling out for a cheap host (I pay some ridiculous amount like $30 a year and get decent personal hosting for that with <a href="http://jumba.com.au/">Jumba</a>). Make sure they have blogging software preinstalled, or provide something like cPanel, which lets you install a bunch of standard stuff (Wordpress, phpBB, etc.) easily.

Once you've got that set up, produce content, and do it forever. That's the hard part.

[Tessian]

Just stay away from Frontpage and frontpage extensions if you plan on using a windows server and IIS 6.0 to host. This will make you prime time target for Chinese hackers EVERYWHERE!!!!

I thought Microsoft discontinued Frontpage anyway??

[Julius Seeker]

I have had a vision of the future.

I want to start my own website. It'd be a website akin to most other blog websites--a lot of columns, random commentaries, etc etc. I'd want to be able to film video segments too and have them streaming for people to view, as well as a forum for discussion and plenty of space to archive a lot of writing clips.

As a journalism major, I'm going to have to be competative, which is difficult with my competition around here. Simply put, I can't pull out 4.0 GPA's and Straight A's right now.

Instead, I want to have a site where me and a bunch of like-minded fellows of mine would be able to write columns, reviews, news stories on local shit, etc etc, as well as the ability to have our own videos every once and awhile to spice things up.

Thing is, I know shit about web design.

Since you guys, obviously, do--and do for a living--I was wondering if you could give me some advice/links/free, unpaid labor. Anything, really, that could help.

Well, first of all you should really get to know in detail: PHP and SQL (preferably MySQL) which are essentials (server side), Javascript can be helpful but try to avoid it when you can; it's easier than PHP/SQL solutions but often a lot slower. Of course, you can't always avoid javascript. HTML is child's play, you can probably master it in about 2-3 days if you know nothing about it now; if you have previous knowledge (like from from junior high and high school) then it should only take a few hours.

So essentially, for starters: HTML, javascript, PHP, and MySQL.

Are you using Windows or Unix?

[Shellie]

Just get you a host that can one-click install apps like Wordpress or some kind of blogging stuff. You can download different themes or be adventurous and try to customize it yourself.

Dreamhost has one click install options for a lot of apps.

[RentCavalier]

I have had a vision of the future.

I want to start my own website. It'd be a website akin to most other blog websites--a lot of columns, random commentaries, etc etc. I'd want to be able to film video segments too and have them streaming for people to view, as well as a forum for discussion and plenty of space to archive a lot of writing clips.

As a journalism major, I'm going to have to be competative, which is difficult with my competition around here. Simply put, I can't pull out 4.0 GPA's and Straight A's right now.

Instead, I want to have a site where me and a bunch of like-minded fellows of mine would be able to write columns, reviews, news stories on local shit, etc etc, as well as the ability to have our own videos every once and awhile to spice things up.

Thing is, I know shit about web design.

Since you guys, obviously, do--and do for a living--I was wondering if you could give me some advice/links/free, unpaid labor. Anything, really, that could help.

Well, first of all you should really get to know in detail: PHP and SQL (preferably MySQL) which are essentials (server side), Javascript can be helpful but try to avoid it when you can; it's easier than PHP/SQL solutions but often a lot slower. Of course, you can't always avoid javascript. HTML is child's play, you can probably master it in about 2-3 days if you know nothing about it now; if you have previous knowledge (like from from junior high and high school) then it should only take a few hours.

So essentially, for starters: HTML, javascript, PHP, and MySQL.

Are you using Windows or Unix?

I'm using Windows Vista.

[Julius Seeker]

Ah, I don't know a lot about Vista, but I have a vista machine at home.

Does anyone know how to open a command line using Vista?

[Shellie]

Are you wanting him to run the server or the site from his machine? Most ISP's do not allow that, as it's where most of the worm activity on their networks comes from.

if he doesnt know anything about web design, etc, I doubt he will know anything about running his own server.

[Julius Seeker]

Are you wanting him to run the server or the site from his machine? Most ISP's do not allow that, as it's where most of the worm activity on their networks comes from.

if he doesnt know anything about web design, etc, I doubt he will know anything about running his own server.

Really? That I didn't know. Yeah, I was going to walk him through setting up his own server.

[Shellie]

Also, he's talking about having video/audio files. ISP's don't like people who are massive uploaders, which is what would happen if he started serving files from his connection.

His best bet is what Andrew and I said...get a host who has a decent control panel that has easy to install apps. Its the best way to go for someone just learning how to do this stuff.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

Yeah, for God's sake don't listen to a word Seeker is saying. You don't want to host your own server, you don't want to learn PHP, SQL, or JavaScript, and at this stage you don't want to learn HTML either. When Seek says "You can master it in 2-3 days", he means that you can master making words bold and italic. Thankfully that's about as much as you need to know to start with.

Like Seraphina says, just get a host that allows one-click install of the apps you're likely to use. That'll give you rope, but not enough to hang yourself with.

[Kupek]

Yeah, for God's sake don't listen to a word Seeker is saying.

[Zeus]

Yeah, for God's sake don't listen to a word Seeker is saying.

Isn't that a standard rule for everyone here?

[RentCavalier]

Yeah, for God's sake don't listen to a word Seeker is saying. You don't want to host your own server, you don't want to learn PHP, SQL, or JavaScript, and at this stage you don't want to learn HTML either. When Seek says "You can master it in 2-3 days", he means that you can master making words bold and italic. Thankfully that's about as much as you need to know to start with.

Like Seraphina says, just get a host that allows one-click install of the apps you're likely to use. That'll give you rope, but not enough to hang yourself with.

So, a blog site thing? Like Blogger? I mean, if I can get something up and running for free, just to get my feet wet, then I'll be more than happy to upgrade to something I pay for later down the road.

But what are some good choices?

[Lox]

I've only ever used blogger, but I'm sure some of the others can give you some other (maybe even better) options.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

But what are some good choices?

If you just want to try running a blog for a while, these sites are good:

http://blogger.com/
http://wordpress.com/
http://vox.com/
http://tumblr.com/

[SineSwiper]

Yeah, for God's sake don't listen to a word Seeker is saying.

[Julius Seeker]

When Seek says "You can master it in 2-3 days", he means that you can master making words bold and italic.

No, I mean HTML is fairly simplistic and incredibly easy to learn. You're the one who is suggesting that it takes 2-3 days to master making words bold and italic. It took you 2-3 days to learn how to make words bold and italic? =P

[RentCavalier]

Alright, I'm experimenting right now. I created a Blogger thingy--you can see it here:

http://free-arizona.blogspot.com/

EDIT: That link doesn't work anymore. Did some tinkering. Here's the new link, and a column I wrote about Jesse Ventura:

http://personasdelsol.blogspot.com/