Website building software...

[SnakeCharmer]

Any powerful website software 'in a box' available?  If so, recommendations?

Keep in mind this is for the average Joe.  So, 'photoshop' ain't an option.

[RhyssaFireheart]

What kind of website are you trying to build and what experience do you have?

If you're looking for something that will let you just blog mainly, then get WP and search through the themes until you find one you like.  Otherwise, you'll need some kind of graphics program or access to someone who can make graphics if you want to complete customize the look.

If you want to play around with code and learning how to do that for HTML, then dreamweaver is a good handholder.  I use HTMLBeauty 2004 when I'm checking and writing code, which works well for me.

[SnakeCharmer]

Zero experience.

Wanted to try and build a little guild website for me and about 15 friends.  Mostly it's something to do to pass the time and to learn something new.

[sigil]

Zero experience.

Wanted to try and build a little guild website for me and about 15 friends.  Mostly it's something to do to pass the time and to learn something new.

well keep in mind it's just for you, as everyone else will go to the forums if they go at all :)  you looking at learning more about working  with the  nuts and bolts  and  underlying code?

Personally, I'd just slap phpbb or SMF or whatever else canned installation you can get from a hosting provider.

[SnakeCharmer]

Not looking to do forums.  Well, might have one board, but that's it.  Not really wanting to learn the code and such.  Ideally, it would be something like:  Click and drag for zone sections, type your stuff here in one of a billion colors and fonts, then do the next page, etc.  I think it's called WYSIWYG?

Mostly, I'd like to host screenshots, put up a schedule, have an updated game and/or guild news thing.  Some other stuff, but that's about it.  No animation or anything.  Maybe some fancy fading screenshots or whatever. 

[Ookii]

Wordpress is your answer.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Yep, Wordpress.  And if you don't have a host already, then a free site from WP might work just fine for you.  It would be yoursitename.wordpress.com address.

[sigil]

I'll third the Wordpress suggestion. I use a five buck a month godaddy domain to satisfy my itch for domain management and to possibly set the foundation for a decent soccer blog. you can  be functional off the bat but still have the opportunity to really learn the underlying pieces if you chose to, which you'll want to do to really make your site stand out in a good way.

[Tarami]

Yeah, WordPress, or if you want to manage raids and shit you might want to take a look at EQDKP. Don't know much about it, but a friend's LotRO kinship uses it. Possibly a bit oversized for this project though.

[Numtini]

Just sign up for guildportal or guildlaunch. Other than running an automated installer, it's about the same experience you'd get creating pages in a CMS you set up yourself, you just don't have to install it and the pages are already set up for guild type stuff.

[taolurker]

http://www.gamerdna.com/
http://www.gamerdna.com/groups/hosting

Free guild pages, which include everything you want, including a homepage, and forums.

[IainC]

I use Joomla for my site. I don't use a fraction of the features of Joomla but it's configurable and easy to use even for CSS illiterates like me.

[RhyssaFireheart]

GameDNA might work as well if you just want to have an instant ready site with some forum capabilities, but the one time I used it (when playing Atlantica) I didn't care for the functionality of the sites as a user.  Not sure what it would be like as an admin there, could just have been that the guild I was in for that game sucked at setting things up.

I used to use Joomla before switching to WP because I really didn't need that much CMS for what I was doing.  That was pre-1.5 version though.  Your site is showing up oddly in FF for me though, Iain.  The right side div elements are overlapping the middle content.  It's fine if I have the browser maxxed but I don't do that normally.  Just FYI.

(Low quality pic because it's not that big a deal)

[NiX]

Whatcha got blurred there?

[schild]

I'm going to assume Star Trek Online.

Edit: Of course, it doesn't forgive the standard start bar at the bottom. The garish colors nearly made me vomit on my keyboard.

[HaemishM]

Wordpress is your answer.

Wordpress or Blogspot. Anything else is going to require you to actually learn some code. If you want to do anything involving any sort of look changes, you'll need to learn that code anyway.

EDIT: Also, I wouldn't touch Joomla if you don't want to learn any code or you don't have someone else to set it up for you. Holy shit, that thing can be a bear to set up.

[Numtini]

I like Joomla, but it can be irritating at times. Something's wrong with that Joomla template, I'll bet it is derived from beez, which is one of their bundled templates and is complete and utter crap. I committed to it at work expecting that an included template would be relatively stable and conforming in design. Unfortunately, that's not the case at all. One of the really odd quirks is that formatting in the stories can actually offset the page positioning in the front page center.

[IainC]

The template I'm using is JA_Purity which is the default one. I don't know enoughanything about CSS to fix that overlap issue, I just formatted the stuff in the central pane so it wouldn't be a problem unless you were browsing it in a really small window (my first layout looked great at 1900x1200, not so much at 4:3).

[taolurker]

GameDNA might work as well if you just want to have an instant ready site with some forum capabilities, but the one time I used it (when playing Atlantica) I didn't care for the functionality of the sites as a user.  Not sure what it would be like as an admin there, could just have been that the guild I was in for that game sucked at setting things up.

I used GamerDNA for the attempt at running the guild in PotBS (with a few f13 peeps), and the admin functionality was just basics, but it did allow for pictures, News, and a free forum for users. It was really easy to make changes, accept members and also to create the page itself. A couple of clicks and some basic template choosing and everything was created for me. You also get a url that's guildname.gamerdna.com, which is pretty easy compared to hosting or getting your own url.

The hardest part using that site is getting the members to create logins for DNA, but it does work well for a free guild webpage and would suit Snakecharmer's stated needs.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Whatcha got blurred there?

None o'ya beeswax!   But I'm liking whatever it is!!!

I'm going to assume Star Trek Online.

Edit: Of course, it doesn't forgive the standard start bar at the bottom. The garish colors nearly made me vomit on my keyboard.

Ew.  I enjoyed the TV series but a game based on ST doesn't interest me at all. (Yes, I'm sure that was a joke)

And what's wrong with my start bar?  Sure it's the basic but I don't really care enough to dick around with themes and such.  It works for what I want.  Give me some credit for having a decent wallpaper (I think I snagged it last time you linked all yours online).

Besides, I'm holding out for when I get a job again and the husband makes good on his promise that I can upgrade the almost 7 year old computer finally.