Making a User Generated Content website

[larrythebird]

Hi everybody, I hope you can give your advice on something.

I've got an idea for a User Generated Content website. I've made regular html websites before, but I don't think I really trust myself with something like this.

I want it to be top notch stuff. What shall I do? Can I go to web development companies and tell them what I want, and they will build it for me? I've never done anything like this before so I really don't know what the done thing is.

[shalom_m]

Before answering a question like that, i would need much more information about the proposed site.

[pixelbliss]

You could, but there are existing solutions depending on what precisely you are looking for. For example, there's Wordpress, Joomla, even phpNuke; all sites you can easily install and allow users write articles on. That is just the tip of the iceberg. What kind of content are you hoping users will post, and for what purpose? With this information we can more easily point you to existing software if that fits your needs, and at least if you know what is currently available it can help you determine if and how you want something made just for you.

[larrythebird]

Hello, thanks for the replies!!!!!

Well the basic premise of the site I hope to make is that there will be a whole list of subjects and the user will pick a subject and post an article that they have written, on that particular subject.

That’s it, in a nutshell. Obviously i’d like the people posting the articles to have their own accounts and stuff. You know, profile page, avatars...etc..

I know a fair bit about wordpress, I guess I could use that to start off with, but the functions might be a bit limited.

These are sites I know of that do this kind of user content thing:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/
http://www.suite101.com/

Those are really really professional. I guess for something like that, I need mega bucks.

[pixelbliss]

True, Wordpress doesn't have quite as many features for that such as avatars and the like. PHPNuke is more along those lines - http://phpnuke.org/ - although it looks like there's a USD $12 fee for it now, which isn't bad at all given the functionality. It's "content management" and "portal" software, You can find more information about other options at ContentManager.net - http://www.contentmanager.net/itguide/productfinder.html