To make a long story short, I may inherit (at least in part) a longtime existing volunteer Web site project. It was previously on a free hosting site, but the host has proven quite unreliable – in fact, it deleted the existing site with no advance warning.
The original developer of the site is willing to pass the backup files along to me, and we are currently discussing some means of hosting the project elsewhere, and perhaps changing/expanding the format somewhat. The previous format was a very extensive bibliography, with some links to additional essays and other text files of various sorts, as well as some blurbs on current developments in the field in question.
I believe quite strongly that this site needs to be preserved, and in a publicly accessible form. (Perhaps even more publicly accessible than it was before; I was mulling over the idea of a discussion forum of some sort.) However, I am a liberal arts person, and although I’m pretty familiar with the subject matter of the site, I don’t have a clue about the technical side of creating a website.
So my questions are:
- How difficult is it to create a website? How much will it depend on the functionality we want to incorporate? (I assume a bibliography is one thing, but a discussion forum is quite something else.)
- Any recommendations for hosts, preferably ones that are user-friendly for someone who’s never done this before?
- How can this be set up so that multiple people can edit it? (The original creator lives on another continent, and is much more computer-savvy than I am.)
- What am I in for in terms of upfront and ongoing time commitment? What factors will play into this?
I’m willing to lay out a few bucks upfront for a manual or software or that sort of thing, and my current ISP provides (IIRC) 10 mb of free Web hosting space. Will this be enough? I should probably poke around and see what tools and templates they offer, but it would be better to keep the site in some format which could easily be switched to another spot if I decide to switch ISPs.
What other questions should I be asking? And if you’ve done this kind of thing yourself, please share your experiences.