open ended Q for a large personal webpage

[8fingers]

I'll just start it off with an email I got from my friend a few days ago:

Hey J***,

It seems as if our little chatroom is going to be hijacked by little girls. Any suggestions. Not to be mean, but it takes away the freedom to talk about what's going on in our lives b/c everything is going to be reported back to mommy dearest. No one got on last night. Hmmm...I'm brainstorming this big website called: www.....com. I've been looking into some options for free website building and I think I could put one together with the following:

chatrooms/message boards
-one for everyone (no password)
-one for current members only (give em a password to make them feel special)
-one for alumni (password protected...)
Photo albums/personal pages
-allow everyone to upload a couple of pictures
-allow everyone to have their own personal page if they want
History page
-post pictures from the past and present with stories from trips & stuff

I dunno...it wouldn't be too expensive...maybe $5 a month and we could take a collection for that. There are so many free tools & stuff...it would just take a little time.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I just want to stay connected with everyone for life...maybe its just a pipedream. Maybe I'm just homesick...I dunno.

J*******


So, there it is. It's really open-ended at this point. He is fairly computer etc. literate, and I am slightly more so, but I don't think either of us are capable of actually programming anything... but I suppose I could learn given some time.

What does the [H] have to say?

 

[Steve_Oaks]

What exactly is the question? Everything on that list is completely possible and with a decent amount of work could be done with free software/scripts. Only thing that would really need paying for is hosting or better software.

 

[8fingers]

Where should we go? What should we look at? You mentioned lots of free software/scripts. Can people name/recommend some?

 

[pircio]

i'm not going to say that any one webhoster is best, but if you're looking for something with a lot of integrated scripts and whatnot, your best bet is to get a package that has Cpanel or Plesk. Just hunt around online for a host and you'll find one that fits you AND your budget.