Websites - need help
 

I need some help.

My wife wants us to create a website were we can post stories and photos for our friends and family back home. She wants something simple that anyone can browse with ease and that our kids can upload to with little difficulty.

I don't want to pay a bomb for it. I don't have the HTML skills to do this myself from scratch.

Someone suggested, quotaless.com, and I don't know anything about it. But it looks OK.

I know that amongst the many great minds here on TFP there has to be any number of people that can help me.

Any suggestions?

So many options out there, but I think these are easiest.

Create a blog, myspace or facebook. You can set privacy options so that only specific people can view, download or upload.

Do you have a place you upload your photos? For example, I'm a gmail user and have an associated Picasa Web account (photo storage). I also have a "blogspot" blog where I can associate my Picasa photos with a story and invite others to see.

P.S. No HTML skills needed for any of above, no cash required. :D

I did this with Mac's iLife - I had all the pictures from my iPhoto uploaded directly, and could make pages using loads of design templates and NO html.

The imac service for all the iLife stuff was $100 for a year.

i'd suggest blogger.com the google application as well. picassa is simple and easy. the blogger editor is simple to use, there are many themes. when one wants to "up the ante" by adding columns and sidebar elements, one can just cut and paste items as instructions are given for the little widgets and badges.

it's also FREE and doesn't require someone's membership. i don't facebook or myspace for that very reason.

If you'd like to control it a bit more, you can get webspace from any host and use wordpress. again, it's simple to use. the challenge with wordpress is that you'll be managing it yourself, so you'll have to manage your security patches, etc.

My sister recently started a family blog for the very same reasons. I had asked her to do this when she was pregnant and she thought it was going to be too hard. She started it a couple months ago and realized it was so simple she wishes she had taken the time before since she emailed her things to people.

I dont know how into "privacy" you are, but there is a genealogy site that I use where you upload pics and write out stories etc and its only accessible to people you invite, then it sends them an email everytime you add something to it.

If you wanna see what it looks like and how it works, PM me and I'll invite you to the one I have set up (and its free)

Thanks everyone.

I will have a look at some of these options.

There are fancy ways to do what you want. You could use a bit of javascript and/or php to create a back-end interface accessible to you and yours and create a webpage with whatever layout you want to post all the photos and updates and all the fun stuff. This can be done.

Using any one of the umpteen blog sites out there will accomplish the same thing with far less hassle.

I am looking for the simplest way possible... Can I used iWeb and then just upload it to a web host?

I'd use Blogger, except it doesn't give me the ability to create photo albums.

Facebook is out too as I don't want my parents checking out my Facebook page.

Shani's site is interesting as well... it's one of the better free turnkey sites I've come across so far.

Still researching so if anyone else has any suggestions, please let me know.


Thanks

Yes, but for a reliable web host you may have to fork out. It's not really that difficult and there are free alternatives. You may be able to set up something that works. At the same time, why bother when there's already tools out there to do what you want?

Well, the way I'd tackle it would be to use Blogger (or Livejournal, or whatever blogging site you like best) and then link pictures from a hosting site like photobucket or flickr. Flickr in particular may be a good choice, since it allows you to arrange your photos into galleries pertaining to a specific subject (such as one of your children or a family outing or what have you). The disadvantage is that this requires you to use two seperate websites and interfaces, but it takes pretty much zero effort to set up.

Facebook is not the best tool for this application.

I'm writing from the disadvantaged position of not knowing what site we're talking about, but the only thing I'd watch out for is that sites geared towards a specific interest (genealogy, for example) tend to have tools specifically tailored to that interest. Those tools may be unwieldy or unsuitable for another purpose.

I'll ask some geek friends and relay what they come up with.

Thanks Martian (and everyone).

Why not make a separate Facebook Page separate from your real one?

If I were out to try this, I would look into Picassa. I am always a fan of Google and wait for them to take over the world.

At least we know their dictatorship Won't Be Evil.

Filehippo.com
Flock Homepage

I like the idea of Blogger with Flickr or Picassa... I already have photos in both of these services, I am just looking for a way to capture some writing.

I have a Blog on Blogger that I use for myself, I suppose I could just set one up for the family to use as a whole...

It's more open than something like Faceboook, where people need to sign up to use it.

Some of their first decrees:

• High speed internet will be pushed into all areas of the world
• All government office furniture will be replaced with bean bag furniture
• All college students must be armed with brightly colored Nerf guns
• Pool is the official game of the world

From what I understand, new privacy settings allow you to choose if you want to allow non Facebook users access to your albums. The off site users would not be allowed to post comments to your albums, only.

It's not the privacy issue but that I don't want to inconvenience the various relatives by making them sign up for a service just to see out photos.

They don't have to sign up. People can see my albums just fine.

... Gotta get rid of that little hole.

OK... It doesn't work so well for notes.

Again, I suggest you investigate Flock and see what capabilities and services it effectively ties into.

The big issue I see with Flock from my thirty-second glance at their website is that it requires end users to install and use a new piece of software. While it does have valid uses, it's still not the best solution. Websites are available that require nothing but a browser.

I'm still going with blog+flickr as the best solution.

Other must have Flock installed to view internet services accessible from the web?

I cannot find anything specific that says one way or the other. I could not imagine something like that, considering we are not dealing with an instant messenger service.

No but if I go to another computer and flock isn't installed, then I'm at a loss at to the method of how I shared my information.

Again, I'll stick with the Blogger + Picassa/Flickr/Photobucket solution. A quick aside for Flickr is that it is owned by Yahoo and if the MS purchase is ratified it will become a MS product.

Blogger even allows you to embed your own photos directly into the post, so you don't necessarily need a photo system.

If you want a whole gallery, the free services provide access to doing so.