beginner trying to make user-content site

[jmatthewthompson]

Hi all! I am a beginner in web design with really no knowledge of coding. I stumbled onto the monkey CMS website because I was searching for a number of terms to describe the type of website I want to design. I would like to design a website whereby users create an account and then are allowed access to add content and rate things based on their experiences. So for example, there would be one large directory, containing other smaller directories, which then contain an actual review. Users can then add a new listing, and when they do, they would be shown a screen where they rate their new review topic. This review would then appear on the website, and could be found in multiple directories. So, a user could browse by criteria A, or criteria B, and still find the same review. I would also like to somehow be able to modify the appearance of the site with certain colors, fonts, and images. Am I over my head with this? Do I need to have a pool of knowledge to do this? Can anyone help me? Thanks so much!

[chrisjlocke]

Adding content is do-able. Adding content with tags is do-able. This post can then be filed under a category or categories. Its not beyond the system to allow users to create categories, but you lose a lot of control in that. A user might create a category called 'carrs' instead of 'cars' or even 'car'. Never under-estimate the stupidity of users! ;-) eBay for example have a set list of categories, and if you need a further one, you have to request one.

Tags are the easiest way to search for posts / articles, etc. Again, this is down to the user. If they forget to add the 'hardware' tag, then it can seriously reduce where their post is found. Some would argue thats their fault!

Posts can be a member of one or more categories, so thats an extra way of 'filing' posts.

Most of the above (apart from adding categories) can be done out of the box, so you shouldn't struggle too much.


I'm more than happy to sort out more tutorials and guide you in any direction you need pushing, so if there is anything that doesn't make sense, please let me know.

[jmatthewthompson]

Thanks so much for your reply, Chris. Basically, I need a lot of guidance. I know nothing about coding or making websites, but feel I have a nice idea I'd like to see on a webpage. Fortunately, I feel I can pick things up with proper guidance. My goal is to basically make a fan page. Let me give you an example. This isn't my idea, but is somewhat similar and expresses my goals. Let's say I want to make a movie star fan page. I would have a front page in which users log in or create an account. After that, they could browse actor names by movie, genre of films, gender, or they could just do a complete search of the website. So, the same actor would have a listing in both the movie AND genre page. So the link to the actor shows up in both places, but still points to the same listing. So a user would then find their actor's listing, and could then go there and say "rate this actor". Upon clicking that they would see a form whereby there would be a number of attributes from which to rate the actor. I would like to be able to assign these attributes, and also have special pictures associated with them. When finished, the user would click post, and their sort of review of the actor would appear on the actor's page, along with everyone else's reviews in a list form. Then, that user would have access to his or her listing at anytime to edit or delete it. I'd also like users to be able to add categories though, so let's say, within the larger category "movies", a user could add a movie listing, from which people could add actors. I'd like to be able to determine the visual look of some of the page elements also. Sadly, I don't have any coding experience, and don't have time to learn that sort of craft. Could you help me with this? Is this endeavor possible without knowing coding, PHP, CMS, or any of those other terms? Is there a template out there for something like this or could you describe to me how to do this using Monkey CMS? Thanks so much!

[chrisjlocke]

Generally, yes. The searching side is a doddle, assuming the data was input correctly. I guess you'd have a bunch of films and the actors would be (in CMS speak) 'children' of that film. You'd search films via genre, to find the actor. I don't believe you'd be able to skip a step and search for 'Horror' and get a list of actors. Having said that, the beauty of MonkeyCMS is that its a relational database, so could be done with some fancy coding. Possibly.
The rating side is doable. Again, you'd need some coding to prevent people rating twice, etc.
I'll repeat my previous warning - you'd not want users to add their own movies. So someone adds "Ghostbusters II" and someone else adds "Ghostbusters 2". Someone else could add "Ghostbusters (2)". After a while the system looks messy, and the reputation of your site plummets. Its so easy to get negative press. You could have a 'I want this film added' section so that 'moderators' and such add movies, rather than the great unwashed.

I'll be honest and say while its possible, there would have to be a lot of tweaking and bit of coding to get what you want out of the system. Its do-able, but its not a five minute job. Unfortunately, while I can guide and advise, I can't spend hours and days on just this one project. I can do tutorials that will help others too, or create a plugin that can benefit more than one user, but I don't have the time to go into the detail you require to solve this one project.

[harvey]

Unfortunately I think you really do need to have a basic working knowledge of HTML and CSS before you can even think about jumping in and using any CMS.

A good starting point would be http://www.w3schools.com/

Try working through the tutorials there, if you take to it easily then try installing MonkeyCMS and try out some of the excellent tutorials created by Chris. If you don't grasp the HTML/CSS too easily I'm not sure this is going to be the kind of project you will be able to tackle yourself.

[chrisjlocke]

Originally Posted by harvey

Unfortunately I think you really do need to have a basic working knowledge of HTML and CSS before you can even think about jumping in and using any CMS.

Not really. If they're going to develop a system (like jmatthewthompson) then yes, but if you're just going to use a CMS as an end user (ie, just install a new skin and enter some blog posts / update some content) then you don't need HTML knowledge at all. Helpful, but not a neccesity.

Like you've said though, its a big project to tackle if you have no knowledge of HTML at all.

[harvey]

Originally Posted by chrisjlocke

Not really. If they're going to develop a system (like jmatthewthompson) then yes, but if you're just going to use a CMS as an end user (ie, just install a new skin and enter some blog posts / update some content) then you don't need HTML knowledge at all. Helpful, but not a neccesity.

I was referring to jmatthewthompson and his needs really, but I can see how that might have been misconstrued.

[chrisjlocke]

Aah, gotcha. Agreed.