How do I create a webpage like facebook/ yahoo answers / pretty much all forum sites?

[Duncan]

I am thinking of making a web page that will show different information depending on who the viewer is logged in as. Something that is sort of like yahoo answers but more like facebook/ bebo and pretty much all online chat things. How do I make it so that the web page will show something different to each individual viewer?

Thank you

[Ayla]

use the website http://www.webs.com/

[cpcii]

Learn a programming language (C#, VB, PHP, etc) so you can control the interation, learn some database stuff (MySQL, T-SQL, etc.) Find a host for your website, think up a name for your site. If you can do that, donig the rest is easy.

Once logged in you can have the information you want to present to the end user show up very easily.

[Asmith]

use one of the server side programming language, you could try PHP.

in php, maybe you want to display different content based on username:

<?php
include "userfunctions.php";

if(user_loggedin()) {
//Code to retrieve content
RetriveContent($_SESSION[$userid]); //Get Content only for the user
}else{
RetrieveContent(0); //Get Default Content
}
?>
or you could display contents based on IP

<?php
include "ipfunctions.php";

if(ip_settings_exists(getip()){
RetrieveContent(getip());
}else{
RetrieveContent(0);
}
?>
yea it's a requirement for a language outside of the scope of just plain html. in some cases javascript may work but it wouldn't be as personalized as a server side language which can log in a user and give them they own personal content.

[Ratchetr]

With a database. You SELECT the questions (or whatever) to display based on the rules you define, e.g. the users preferences.

[socratesone]

From your question, I can tell that you're not exactly the technical type. That's OK. You can still have a website.

What you are talking about is usually referred to as a "dynamic" web site, and there are many ways to go about doing it, including learning a server-side programming language, but my guess is that you're not interested in that, so the best thing for you would be to learn a content management system such as Joomla.

Here is a link to a demo of Joomla, which is what you would see if you installed it as your web site.
http://demo.joomla.org/

Register, try it out, and remember to read the documentation found on the main joomla site for help in installing and using it.
http://joomla.org/

[David G]

Start a forum website including different categories/sub-categories like Yahoo! Answers.

As you may know a domain name is just a name, not a real website. If you are going to create your forum website: 1- Buy a domain name. To get a domain name, you have to pay an annual fee to a registrar for the right to use that name. 2- Buy a web hosting service to provide your online space and enable you to get your website online at your purchased domain name.

If you’re going to create a forum site at your own domain without any forced ads, you need a web host providing forum tools (phpbb or vbulletin).

Take a look also at:
http://www.threehosts.com/forum
http://www.threehosts.com/build

And a useful, informative article regarding your question:

http://www.articlesbase.com/web-hosting-...37410.html

Hope this helps.