Need some advice?

Sorry, but LOL. This sentence:

But the website i want to make will be a regular website"

VS

Then a members area where they can register/login then they get a profile and they can post like status updates and so on. Last i want to build a forum from scratch i know one of them will be php.

Two different thing if you ask me. First of all, dont think you can do better that the market so quickly. Use a open source forum for example. These are almost all written in PHP. A members area with login/register is buildable, but why should you? Use Wordpress of Joomla or whatever. These CMS'es have everything that you got. With free and premium plugins on Wordpress for example (Wordpress + buddypress) you already almost finshed!

But hey, that is just my opinion. If you want to build on your on. I go for PHP + javascript/JQuery.

I don't want those cmses. i don't like being limited and it won't be doing what i need it to do so i want to do everything from scratch. But thanks.

Sorry but limited? These are opensource CMS'es. So you can do anything with it. No limitations. It will make you're life a lot easier. Trust me. (dont worry about encryption of passwords, security)

But like i said, if you don't want it? PHP and JS/jQuery. Remember though that building a forum from scratch with all the futures you're mentioning... It will be a lot of work for 1 person.

But hey, let';s go for it. Start with HMTL / CSS (you know it right?) then move on to PHP ( you will be building a lot in PHP) and finish off with javascript.

First build the whole site in HTML / CSS. SO also build the forum, the login, member area. Build it all in HTML and css. Untill you think it looks good. Then start replacing the HTML code with PHP to make it interactive. This way you will feel in control and build up you site piece by piece.

Believe me, you are not doing something different. :)

Good luck with your project.

Hi Shane, I agree with Patrick in some ways, but I disagree in others:

It really depends on whether you are using this project for learning purposes or for business purposes.

• Firstly, I think that using CMS's are a great way to quickly achieve this project for business purposes. Using something like Drupal will allow you to quickly and painlessly create your website that is fit for business in a matter of days. Like Patrick say's there are plenty of OpenSource projects for forums, CMS's with modules and plugins for extra functionality.

• Doing it yourself using PHP or Ruby to add dynamic content to the website is a great way of learning. I would recommend breaking this project down into smaller chunks (framework, login/register system) etc. Actually creating something from scratch is slow and painful, but it gives you an unparalleled understanding of the languages that using a CMS does not. Many businesses use CMS's, but they are not likely to employ you if you are just good at adding pre-made modules to their website. This method gives makes you flexible, diverse and allows you do understand how to develop your own products and perhaps even commit your own modules to an OpenSource community.

I hope you get the jist of this reply. Basically, you need to decide whether it's for learning or for money that you are doing this project. If it's for learning, don't use a CMS, you will be stuck with using Drupal forever :P

Hope this helps, and good luck whichever route you take!

I can see where you are going there, but the fact is, if you want to be a car-mechanic, the first car. Are you going to buy it? Or build it yourself?

I think you can learn much more from a framework/CMS then by doing it yourself. Because learning a language is not about the specific project or functionality. It is about making hours and using the program language. In wordpress you still need to use PHP a lot and using a foreach loop with 5 layer nest while statements and if/else statements in them are actually the same as doing it elsewhere. If you master the art of PHP (or ruby, C#, .NET, Java, etc) the only limitation is your imagination.