[DanMartin]

Hello

I've been trying to find a suitable forum to put this question forward, and one that is reasonably active.... so I've come here to see if you guys can help me/give some advice.

I'm wanting to create a website, but not just a standard, traditional "I make the content, people read it" sort of website; but a community run database project website similar to Discogs or IMDb.

I'm trying to work out the best way to go about 'designing' such a website. I understand for this to work best I'll need to use a database as well.

Here's the basic steps of how i would like it to work;
- User creates an account/logs into their account
- User navigates to a contribution/add item form
- User fills out fields, selects options, and presses submit/save
- Page is created with the input information - instantly (like Discogs).
- Page can then be revised and edited at a later date by other users

I understand this is a rather complex website to want to develop... and may take years of refining to get it to work smoothly.

I know enough HTML and Javascript to design traditional websites; and have looked into (begun learning) PHP, SQL and MySQL - as I can only guess this is how you would make such a website work.

I've looked into Wiki's - which are usually great for community projects; but the ones I've tried (Wikia, Wikidot, Wikispaces) haven't been suitable - and I'm worried these could be too 'confusing' for users to contribute to.

My questions are,
Have I overlooked an alternate way of achieving the above which could be alot easier?
Have I chosen the right languages to use (PHP, SQL and MySQL)?
Should I just make a traditional website first and then move onto implementing 'user added content' later? And if so, how difficult can this be to implement?

Hope I've made everything clear

Dan

[smax013]

I would think that what ever your general topic of the website would greatly influence which path you want to go down.

If you are doing something more like IMDb or discogs...i.e. has a specific topic/item that you want to "catalog", then going the database route is more appropriate. This would be for sites where you basically know the fields that you will want filled out for each entry. Take IMDb, since it is all about TV shows and movies, you have preset "fields" like title, actors, plot summary, director, etc.

If it is going to be more general in nature, then a Wiki is likely better as Wikis tend to less "restrictive" in terms of the "fields" that you will be dealing with.