Regarding the server-side scripting, you have to consider what language(s) your hosting provider (assuming you're not hosting your own sites) supports. Ruby on Rails, for example, isn't as widely available, especially at the budget end of the market.

Most likely you'll find support for PHP (for *nix servers) or, if you're on Windows, ASP/NET.

Thank you everyone,

I went on Amazon and ordered a few books B-) covering: HTML & CSS, PHP & MySQL, and javascript. That ought to keep me busy 8|

It looks like I'll be working on a membership site. The idea is in the early stages now, but will move quickly. The site needs to have all the desirable membership features: forums, member blogs, messaging, profiles/member pages. (Am I missing something?) And of course it'll have an assortment of content around the site's theme, and offered according to membership level/options.

I have no interest in reinventing the wheel, though I'm not against making alterations. I'm interested in: fast/easy, stable, and flexible. Part of that is having control over how it looks, and not just color, layout & functionality too. Any pointers on where to look, or something to shy away from. A quick search turned up: Joomla!, Post-Nuke, Drupal, and vTribes.com (a pay system :X ).

Has anyone integrated beehive with another system? I don't like typical forms, they're @#$% annoying to use.

Ken
P.S. I've seen sites where I did not like frames because they hampered printing.

C# is my favourite server side language by far. I work with both PHP and C#.

C# ftw!

Oh and by the way - to get started programming C#, just install "Microsoft Web Developer Express" (not Microsoft C# Express) and you can start straight away. No messing around trying to get a development server set up or anything like that.