General Discussions

**BigJohnny** · 08-30-2008, 05:03 PM

I want to start up a site that's basically for downloads and stuff, all legal, but I'm not sure where to start, or what I would need.

what I have in mind is something where I would have my main page possibly with some news items, and different categories that would basically open up and look the same as the rest of the site, same menus etc.

I would also like users to have the ability to comment on the downloads, and ultimatly i would like to have subscription services which would allocate a user more bandwidth or faster speeds.

i would want it to be somewhat dynamic so i wouldnt have to edit a million pages to change something.

would I use something like blog software for this sort of thing? or a CMS?

im not sure how to begin this undertaking and whats available to make it all easier.

Would appreciate any input.

**aaronaskew** · 08-31-2008, 04:44 PM

if you make a change on your CSS style sheet, the command is set for the entire website, so you don't have to edit and embed in every page. So I'd learn CSS, it saves time and bandwith.

**BigJohnny** · 08-31-2008, 11:57 PM

ok, but what would be the best option for presenting the content IE downloads with comments, and subscription service?

possibly even a forum software?

**Sneakyheathen** · 09-01-2008, 01:43 AM

I'm going to suggest something like E107. It works pretty well in terms of what I think you're trying to do. Theming it is really, really irritating though.

**BigJohnny** · 09-01-2008, 10:03 AM

i think what I would like to do is have just a normal website, with downloads, but have the downloads handled by something that will allow users to post comments per download(if they choose) and then ahve something else to handle a subscription service to the site.

I'm basically just trying to avoid having like 500 html pages that would all need to be edited to change something, like adding a new category, or download or info to many pages at once.

There isnt going to be individual download pages, meaning that each download isn't going to have its own page.... but each category will. What I would like is to basically have "Category.html" that will dynamically fill in the information depending on which category the user clicked...... like if they click "Category 1" then the Category.html page would show all of the downloads available in the Category 1 category.

Then maybe a small backend to which i could add downloads and assign categories.

I would obviously need users to login, So someone would have to register for the site before they could access the downloads, but only because I want the downloads to be free, but a paid subscription would grant the user better speeds, or other such perks.

**Learning Newbie** · 09-01-2008, 04:44 PM

Sounds like you need a programmer. When you describe a basic system and then add "then maybe a small backend," it means you need a programmer.

If there's something that will take care of 100 % of your needs, off the shelf, we won't know it. People who write code don't survey the market place, we know that we can reinvent the wheel faster and with less learning curve, than we can get to the same end point by evaluating all software, finding the nearest to our needs, and, finally, tweaking it (if that's possible for that software).

**thehuskybear** · 09-01-2008, 05:14 PM

I would look around on hotscripts.com and do a little googling, there are tons of download management scripts that would be fairly easy to modify to fit your needs.

You are going to need to learn a little about server side languages and databases ( Id suggest php/mysql). Do a search on the forums for php.. there are tons of posts and resources( I can give you some quidence on this if you need it). Its not too hard to learn the basics... which should be enough to make minor tweaks to existing scripts. When you get stuck, just make a thread about your problem and you should have an answer pretty quick.

If by chance you have a budget for a programmer, let me know, I can help you out.

If you want some php resources or have any questions, drop me a PM

Sam

**BigJohnny** · 09-01-2008, 10:01 PM

tweaks to existing scripts i can do, Ive been looking around alot on hotscripts and have found nothing that will do what I want.

I could go with a blog or CMS, but im not sure which software would be the closest to what i want and i also want to avoid the whole blog/cms look as im really not that fond of those type of sites.

Ive actually put a bid request on rentacoder, so I will see where that goes.