blogs, guestbooks, message boards, etc.

[incarnadine]

What knowledge and skills and resources do I need to, say, create and maintain a blog or guestbook or message board from scratch? ("From scratch" meaning I don't want to sign up for a freebie, ad-packed blog or guestbook or message board, or pay someone to make an adless one for me.)

Any replies, thanks.

[nickc]

Either PHP/MySQL or ASP whatever your ISP supports.

Nick

[Raem87]

phpBB2 should fullfil all of your message board needs. It's open source, free, and adfree.

You can find it here >>> http://phpbb.com

[cyanide]

As nickc said, you'll need to learn AND be well-versed in a programming language, if you want to build one from scratch.

... not to mention, many, many man hours and patience.

[incarnadine]

As nickc said, you'll need to learn AND be well-versed in a programming language, if you want to build one from scratch.

Hi, cyanide - do you also recommend PHP/MySQL and ASP? Or do you recommend others?

... not to mention, many, many man hours and patience.

Isn't it customary for Web developers to code and maintain their own blogs, message boards, etc. themselves? Or is it the opposite - that they generally go for the pre-made stuff? Somehow I have the former impression.

I just want to know what basic skills are required of someone in order to merit being called a Web developer. I'm guessing it's good for one to have at least a cursory knowledge of the workings behind such common website components as blogs, etc.

There's an overwhelming amount of newfangled technology out there - I'm trying to figure out what to focus on learning.

[cyanide]

Hi, cyanide - do you also recommend PHP/MySQL and ASP? Or do you recommend others?

Well, I recommend PHP/MySQL , and not ASP

Isn't it customary for Web developers to code and maintain their own blogs, message boards, etc. themselves? Or is it the opposite - that they generally go for the pre-made stuff? Somehow I have the former impression.

Well, yes and no. Some do and some don't.
Many web developers are not well-versed in scripting languages and therefore will use free-ware / open-source scripts.
Others, with scripting experience will use these pre-made scripts not so much that they can't write them themselves, but it would be much more expensive for the client, who may not have the funds.

[matauri]

Ditto to what Cyanide said.

Also, by using these open source scripts it will aid you in the coding process. You can change & modify them to suit your means as you get more experienced. This is how I have been learning php myself.... trial and error with premade scripts. Later on as you feel more adventurous you might want to look at programming your own. I've seen some good php scripts & adaptations to scripts. Keep an eye out for a member called Ranjan, he often has developed some cool php coding.

[matthewdean]

I'm very keen to learn what's involved in blogs. I've been looking into this for a few days only, initially getting info from a relation then searching online for freeware. The information about what's actually physically involved is, as usual, pretty patchy. There's no clear, well-written guide to getting started with a blog so, because they're proliferating so fast, I thought it must be a relatively easy thing to do. The network people in my organization assure me it's not so simple. They won't allow me to test the system on the production server, so I'm trying to start up a test Linux box. I now understand there are many issues to tackle before going ahead, and I appreciate your help and any other tips you can give me.

I'm just wondering -- if the web page for the blog interface is actually physically located on a separate server from the rest of the web site, then the navigation links (tabs, breadcrumbs and globals) will need to be set up accordingly.

I'm also wondering how the archiving is achieved -- whether it needs to be done manually or if the blog software accomplishes that too. Then there's the issue of enabling search engines to search the blog lists, which I guess would be parcelled up in monthly batches.

So much to think about...