Advice please =)

[Sadieblu]

Hello,

I’m hoping someone will read this post and be able to offer their advice regarding my “project”.

My HomeOwners Association has asked me to put together a website for our community. I’m not a website developer and know very little of how to program a site.

I’ve taught myself how to start a site in Joomla, but I’m not sure it’s going to deliver what we will want in the end. Would a vBulletin site offer me the opportunity to create a website for content and a forum area that we can control by grouping privileges?

If vBulletin is a possible solution, could someone offer a Hosting company that offers an easy to use admin panel for the newbie. =) Something where minimal knowledge will be needed to get up and running would be perfect.

Thank you for your attention to this post and any feedback you may have will be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,
Sadie B.

The site should have the following sections: (I know this looks like a lot, but it’s just the wish list and isn’t the make or break list).

Communications
• News - community, local, national, post community news items or pull in RSS news feeds from other syndicated news sources.
• Newsletters - post for download and/or mass email to members.
• Calendars - post community, activity or club events, capture RSVP information.
• Meet Your Neighbors - featured article for recent new community members.
• Clubs & Organizations - create sections for all Clubs and Organizations, allow moderators to maintain their own content and calendars.
• Weather - embedded local weather reports.
• Community Progress - post photos, home sales reports even construction status
• RSS feed syndication - make any area of the website available for syndication so that members can subscribe via an RSS reader.
• Email - broadcast emails to members (Email Blast or Push Email campaigns).
• Private Messages - send, retrieve & manage messages directly through the website.

User Interactivity
• Community Forum - create online discussions through the use of a convenient, full featured message board
• Bulletin Board - post any type of message or notice for all members to see
• User Feedback
• Polls & Surveys - ask questions to the members and view reports on the results
• Request a Feature - feedback form for new additions to the intranet

Photos
• Photo Albums - display community or event photos

Features
• General Community Information - (and local area info) content management system for posting info about amenities, schools, CERT, Association issues, Developer Contacts, etc?

• Document Library - important community documents available in PDF or other formats
• Community Maps - interactive printable maps*
• Online payments - collect payments online for subscription based services or events.

Administrative Features
• Public & Private sections - allow guests limited access to our content
• Customized approval process - control whether or not to approve new members, limit what members can post with or without administrator or moderator approval
• Reports –user reporting and tracking

Directory
• Email Directory - manage homeowners and user information in a central database

Local Business Involvement
• Homeowner Services - list of local businesses
• Business sponsors - create revenue with banner ads and coupons from local businesses

[SEOvB]

Joomla is a pretty awesome peice of software that can accomplish some of these features, and parts of your task would be better suited for Joomla.

However, vBulletin is a wonderful choice as well, and can handle alot of these features too. And while i'm sure one of these software's could solve all the problems, I'd use a combination of both for a more professional look.



• Meet Your Neighbors - featured article for recent new community members.
• Community Progress - post photos, home sales reports even construction status

Features:
• General Community Information - (and local area info) content management system for posting info about amenities, schools, CERT, Association issues, Developer Contacts, etc…
• Document Library - important community documents available in PDF or other formats
• Community Maps - interactive printable maps*

Administrative Features
• Public & Private sections - allow guests limited access to our content
• Customized approval process - control whether or not to approve new members, limit what members can post with or without administrator or moderator approval
• Reports –user reporting and tracking

Directory
• Email Directory - manage homeowners and user information in a central database

Local Business Involvement
• Homeowner Services - list of local businesses
• Business sponsors - create revenue with banner ads and coupons from local businesses
Reply With Quote




Communications
• News - community, local, national, post community news items or pull in RSS news feeds from other syndicated news sources.
• Newsletters - post for download and/or mass email to members.
• Calendars - post community, activity or club events, capture RSVP information.
• Clubs & Organizations - create sections for all Clubs and Organizations, allow moderators to maintain their own content and calendars.
• Weather - embedded local weather reports.
• Community Progress - post photos, home sales reports even construction status
• RSS feed syndication - make any area of the website available for syndication so that members can subscribe via an RSS reader.
• Email - broadcast emails to members (Email Blast or Push Email campaigns).
• Private Messages - send, retrieve & manage messages directly through the website.

User Interactivity
• Community Forum - create online discussions through the use of a convenient, full featured message board
• Bulletin Board - post any type of message or notice for all members to see
• User Feedback
• Polls & Surveys - ask questions to the members and view reports on the results
• Request a Feature - feedback form for new additions to the intranet

Photos
• Photo Albums - display community or event photos

Features
• General Community Information - (and local area info) content management system for posting info about amenities, schools, CERT, Association issues, Developer Contacts, etc…
• Document Library - important community documents available in PDF or other formats
• Community Maps - interactive printable maps*
• Online payments - collect payments online for subscription based services or events.

Administrative Features
• Public & Private sections - allow guests limited access to our content
• Customized approval process - control whether or not to approve new members, limit what members can post with or without administrator or moderator approval
• Reports –user reporting and tracking

Directory
• Email Directory - manage homeowners and user information in a central database

[Sadieblu]

Thank you FRDS for your kind response.
Do you have a hosting company that offers both in a easy to use format - control panel?
Or do you have a hosting company to recommend for such a project?

Thank you kindly,

Sadie

[Dismounted]

You may receive a better response regarding hosting over at dedicated forums that specialise in that category, such as WebHostingTalk (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/).

[SEOvB]

I personally recommend ASmallOrange to start with shared hosting. After your site grows, i recommend a VPS provider, and either ASmallOrange or PowerVPS are good solutions, and after that you'll need a dedicated provider and SoftLayer is another good provider as well.

Asking at WHT like dismounted said, will yield you some results as well.