Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Website idea - need help

This is for all the people out there that know how to build web pages.

I have an idea for a website. I can't disclose what it is, but the main idea behind it is that people can visit the site and leave their opinions, rants, etc. on a topic (the theme of the site) to be viewed by other visitors. Sort of like a guestbook, but I want something that's visually appealing. I've seen a few sites in the past that are setup similar to what I have in mind, but can't remember where they are.

Can anyone point me to examples of sites like this? I'm hoping to conserve bandwidth as much as possible, so low overhead on the main page (where the guestbook/journal will be) is prefered. There may be other pages as well, but they'll be more static than the front page.

Help??

Two things to consider.

1) Blog (or weblog). I dont know if users can contribute, but I am sure there are hybrid blogs that allow this.

2) wiki. Not many people know about wikis, but a wiki is a user-editable web page. A very interesting concept, provided you have a responsible audience.

These are just two ideas that are different than your typical guestbook.

Depending on your audience your best bet might be to just have your typical messageboard. I use Ikonboard on Linux and it works great. Low bandwidth (depending on how many people you are expecting), provided they don't post mp3's etc.

Sounds like you want some forums. Check out the forums on my website (www.154express.com). They were free, they look nice and they aren't too difficult to set up. However, if you go with those forums, you will need about 2 or 3 mb of webspace and have ASP capabilities. I'm assuming you won't have a huge number of visitors, so bandwith shouldn't be an issue. If you decide to go with the forum idea, make sure you host your website with Brinkster. (www.brinkster.com) They are free, you get a good ammount of space and they have no ads. I pay for my service with them so I get more bandwith and can host my domain, but I have been very pleased with it.