[Toasty]

I was thinking of makeing my own site, and I just wanted to know exactly what languages you need to know to do so. I already know html, xhtml, and I'm learning css. If anyone knows, please post.

[Lemontime]

It really depends what you want on it.
But still, HTML is all you really need to make a simple one.

[Toasty]

I'm thinking of makeing a fansite with a forum. Most likely for SSBB.

[Lemontime]

God damn you're hyped about that game.
Anyway.
I think forums run on XML or something. Ask Max, He'd know.
And yeah. HTML and maybe some CSS for the website?

[isaac rules]

you could always go on google to find out some code for it, i can only use dreamweaver for making websites, i never tried to learn html, xhtml and all the different languages... but next year im taking a web designing class, so i'll learn eventually

[Mars Djinni]

You have to have money on your hands if you want to make a fansite. Most free hosts won't let you have everything you need. You'll need a good FTP account, PHP and MySQL support, and decent webspace and bandwidth. A domain is also a good thing. I'd say taht'd be at least $20-30 depending on what you choose. I heard theres a good one that gives most of that for just a cent.

[Toasty]

Thanks MD. That's about all I needed to know. Good thing I have a savings account.

[Mars Djinni]

Just be prepared to have a good job to support that. I say get the Wii first, then worry about the website. You need good content to make it a good site. You can't leave the content to others alone, jsut a head's up. As for me, I'd love to help with SSBB 2D custom Sprites. Nothing sparks up a good 3D game site than a good archive of What-Would-They-Look-Like-on-GBA Sprites. ;D

[Toasty]

Thanks MD. I'll keep that in mind. Although I might get free server space from a good in town company. I have connections. But since I don't quite know all the scripting language I need to make a site at this point, I'll just have to put some time aside for content. Mabey I'll do the AW:DS Fansite for the forums.

[Lemontime]

I'm happy to help with pretty much anything you need done.. Just so you know..
Except for coding.. I'm hella terrible at that..

[Max]

For a basic site, you gotta know (X)HTML and CSS. PHP is used to create dynamic sites, and what is used to run forums such as IPB or vBulletin. Like someone said earlier, get yourself a good job, as hosting a website can be expensive. A domain is about $8-10/year, and hosting typically runs from $6-20/month, depending on how much traffic you will be getting.

If you are really serious, I would suggest partnering up with someone who has done websites like that before, or simply become a content writer at an established site about that game. With something as main stream as SSBB, I imagine a high-quality site will pop up, and you can just write content for them.

[Toasty]

Thanks Max, I was hopeing you'd post on this. :rolleyes: If I make a site I will definately have forums. And like I said, I might, if I'm lucky, get free hosting on a very nice server in town. I'm hopeing for that, but even if I don't, I'll still work on learning CSS and PHP. I already know XHTML and HTML, and a bit of java script.

[Kubjelle]

What you need for making a site is (x)html and CSS. And preferably an image-edititing program. You want some graphical components on your site. But it is not necessary, but I really suggest that you have at least a header. ;]

I don't suggest for you to learn PHP or Javascript yet. Wait until you are completly secure on xhtml and CSS. To try to learn to many languages at once can tear down your motivation. And Javascript is really not a good option. Many people has Javascript turned off, and almost everything you can do on Javascript, you can do on CSS. And it will take a great amount of time until you will be able to make something good on PHP. What I suggest is that you use free PHP-scripts. Such as:

http://cutephp.com/ <-- Newsscript
http://www.phpbb.com/ <-- Bulletin Board

And if you want to make a good site, you'll have to buy some space at a webhotel. As free services tends to have low quality and doesn't have a database solution or are not even supporting PHP.

[Nick Presta]

Refraining from using JavaScript because "Many people have JS turned off" is a poor excuse for not using JavaScript. The majority of users have JavaScript turned on and the whole point as using JavaScript properly is that is it supposed to degrade gracefully so your site is still functional and is accessible even without JavaScript.

You should have an excellent understanding of HTML (you're not using XHTML) and CSS. Your site will be driven by these two langauges.
These are good resources for you:

• http://www.wpdfd.com/editorial/basics/
  
• http://htmldog.com/

You should be using semantic coding - it will help the update process in the future and will be less bulky (which means less bandwidth, load time, etc) - and you should be fully utilizing CSS.

If you wish to dabble in PHP, stick to include()'ing headers and footers to begin with.



As for a forum - you can stick to phpBB since it's free but if you start getting tons of members, you will want to switch to better software - I like vBulletin 3.5.x over IPB 2.1.x but they're similar in ways - and start recruiting staff.




If you're going to be doing this all by yourself, you could probably use some sort of plug-and-play news system. I really like Saxon (http://quirm.net).




As for hosting, you should probably stick to a plan that is cheap but gives you the option to expand.
Here is a list of hosts that I feel are a very good deal with good support:
http://nickpresta.at..._web_hosts.html


If you have any questions regarding PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PM me or create a topic here and I will be more than willing to help you.

[Kubjelle]

The main reason to not use Javascript is the fact that many people has Javascript turned off. That is at least, one of the factors of not to use Javascript. I can name other reasons, like it takes usually more bandwidth then a CSS solution. But I see those factors as not as important. You talk about the majority, but a good web-developer makes the webpage as good as it can be for all the users. Not only the majority, and quite few people has Javascript turned off, about 10%. And really, when almost everything you can do with Javascript, is possible with CSS or PHP, then I see no reason to use Javascript. Because you don't want those 10% to get excluded from your site. ;]

I must point out that, that number can be very unaccurate. So don't use me as a source.

[Nick Presta]

If the number was inaccurate, why use it? And I never said that ya poor solution sometimes (like a drop down menu) and Javascript takes up no more bandwidth than CSS since they both get cached.

I'm well aware of the goals of web developers.

[Kubjelle]

I used it because the number is probably around there. It is very hard to know what the exact figures is. As I said, the CSS solutions usually takes less space but I consider it not as important. And the code of a webpage is not what drains the most bandwidth, the code usually takes a few kB so the bytes that you can spare are rather low compared to a header that can easily use 100 kB and even more. So informing people about the right way to compress their images right would contribute more on the "saving bandwidth" part. ;]

Nice to hear that you are well aware of the goals of web developers, then I hope you understand that the reasons for not using Javascript are not poor.