Posted by Jim Higson on 03/29/06 11:41

Eric wrote:

> Hey there
>
> I'm a self taught newbie, which I guess goes hand and hand.
>
> I'm building a site about retro and special edition Japanese video game
> consoles (www.japan-games.com). I'll have a page for each of the
> consoles. If you look at "Preview 3" you'll see a sample product page.
>
> There is sometimes debate about the release date, original price, limited
> quantities, etc of the older consoles. I wanted to include a
> Wikipedia-type message area where people can add their own comments if
> they have some bits
> of information to share. That way the page can collect small pieces of
> info and other interesting tidbits about the really rare consoles.
>
> Is a Wikipedia type service overkill for this? I just want to make it
> easy for someone to but able to add a quick comment without having to go
> through
> the email process. I've started to read from the WIkipedia site but
> mostly that's for setting up an entire Wikipedia-type site, not just one
> part of a
> static page. I could do that and then insert the wikipedia page into a
> frame on the static page for that particular console.
>
> Other options:
>
> I'll have a message board, and I was thinking of adding in a frame that
> has the open folder for that console or company on the mesage board.
>
> I was also thinking about just adding an email link and having them send
> comments to me and I can update the site manually.
>
> Or would a simple text box do the trick?
>
> If you guys could give me some tips I'd appreciate it.

Most recent CMS allow user comments, and aren't too difficult to set up.
Personally I use Drupal - it handles all the SQL backend for you so you
don't have to worry about the low level stuff too much.

Take a look at some Drupal sites to see what I mean. There's a quite full
list at http://drupal.org/image/tid/41

Mambo/Joomla is also pretty well regarded, but I've never liked it much.

--
Jim

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