I don't think your site is a failure at all, Ted.

The fact is, people are coming there and checking it out. That's good. Two things come to mind regarding getting new memebers.

First, speaking from personal experience, I'd rather not sign up for memebership unless there is a reason to do so. I know you're not going to spam anyone but others may not know that so they hesitate to sign up. You have to give them a reason to join. Perhaps some interesting dog related downloads - ebooks in the public domain or something you create yourself - that only members have access to would entice people to join.

Second, while we all use google, there are other ways to get your site out there. Find dog related, established communities and check out their link exchange. Offer to post a link to their site and ask that they post your link. Google gets your site out in the general public but putting your link on dog related sites exposes you to those who are already interested in your topic.

HTH!

Thanks!

I already had that installed but didn't realize it did multiple blogs. I just tried it with another username and it worked. :)

I should have asked this a week ago instead of spending all that time searching for something to do what I wanted.

I think I love Xoops!

I think I'm learning this, thanks to all of you.

I've checked over the various modules, including the 5 blogging ones. I can't seem to find what I want, though.

I'd like to have multiple blogs so that registered users can each have their own blog, making entries public or private as they wish. Kind of like a mini Live Journal.

Since none of the XOOPS blog modules do this, I was thinking about setting up sub domains. Would I have to install XOOPS for each subdomain?

Thanks!

I've gone over everything you mentioned but I still can't get it to change. When I look at theme.html in cpanel's file manager, it has my website. When I look at the source code from my browser, it says MyWebAuthor. Isn't that strange?

Maybe I'm not meant to have a tableless design. Maybe the cyberspirits are sending me a message....

Thanks for you help, though. The design is so nice and clean. I'm sure I'm missing something that I ought to see clearly. I think I'm still recovering from this past weekend's floods here. I'll try again in a day or two.

I'm using your 2cnt theme and I'm having a problem. I tried to replace MyWebAuthor with my own site name but it won't show up. What file should I edit? I opened 2cnt.tar in a text editor and changed it there. I'm guessing that there's something else that I have to do. Can you help me?

Thanks from me, too. You saved me a panic moment.

Yes, we should all reflect on this.

I live on street that is named for a young man from here who died in WWII; three other streets are named for the other three teens who died in that war. I'd never thought much about them until my mom pointed out that they grew up during the depression, hungry and wanting, were sent to war right out of high school and never go to realize the abundance that the rest of our country experienced.

My neighbor survived the Bataan Death March. When debate springs up over whether we were right or wrong to have dropped the bomb he becomes passionate. He says those who say we were wrong didn't see what he saw.

My cousin left a leg in Bosnia in 1999. He was there to defeat Milosevic, an evil man by any standards. He's proud of the battles he fought there, even though his injury occured during his "peace-keeping" tour.

My dear friend, Mike, lost his son (who went to school with one of my sons) just a few months ago in an ambush in Iraq. I saw him a few weeks ago and he was obviously sad but talked about how proud he was of his son. He mentioned another friend who recently lost a son to a drug overdose and commented that he's grateful that his own child died honorably. As the mother of a drug addict, I understood that so well.

We used to fight communism at every corner, in every country. We beleived in liberty and the rights of the people. Our soldiers have died fighting for the liberation of many countries. This war in Iraq is not that much different. People are oppressed and we, as the richest, most powerful nation, have an obligation to step in.

I suppose there are those who believe we have done more harm than good, that we're there "for the oil," that we should take care of our own people here at home. I can't speak of the oil, I believe we get most of ours from South America. As for the harm we've done or our own problems, I just know that defeating Hitler had nothing to do with our own economic depression and though lives were lost, we did more good than harm.

I know VietNam is still controversial but Iraq is nothing like that at this point. If you want to compare Viet Nam to something (not that you did), compare it to our War on Drugs. It's a losing battle that's gone on far too long with a death toll that is beyond counting.

Please understand, I have 5 sons so if this war continues, the draft could be reinstated and one of my boys could be called up. It may seem like a long shot but to a mother, it is all too real. I'm not anxious to send any of my kids into battle. However, I know that there are dangers today that didn't exist when I was young. I know that any of my kids could fall victim to these dangers. If I must lose one of my children, I pray that it is in a noble and honorable endeavor such as fighting for the liberty of the opressed. Perhaps my views on the US involvement in Iraq is colored by my need to believe that we are there for good reason, just in case one of my own boys ends up there.

Sorry for the length of this. I just wanted you and others to understand that many of us who support the war have nothing to gain from it financially. We may be naive but some of us still believe in the ideals of our forefathers, that all people are entitled to certain inalienable rights - and that those who have them should help others to achieve them.

Okay, I'll slink away and go learn more about XOOPS now.....

Marisa

Thank you! Those links are just what I was looking for.

As for the News module, I see at your site that you have several "blogs." Will News allow me to give each member their own blog? I want each member to have the option of making their blog, or just some entries, private. Can News accomodate that?

My only experience with a blog is my online journal at livejournal.com. This, too, is new to me.

I've activated the forum that comes with xoops. Now I'm wondering if I should sleep tonight or keep setting this site up.... :)

Marisa

I installed XOOPS to it's own directory as advised.

http://www.dontpickup.com/xoops

Now I have questions:

How do I install a new theme? I'm sure there's a site or page that explains it simply but google gives me soooo many to look through.

How do I add a forum? What forum works best with xoops? I was thinking about phpBB2. If there's a XOOPS forum that's better, how do I install it?

How do I add a blog? I want one that allows multiple blogs. Which one is best and most compatible with xoops? How do I install that?

If add these other features (modules?) will they automatically be added to my menu?

I know I'll have more questions because I just skimmed over all the options, not knowing exactly what to put in. I'm feeling really stupid right now, this is just all so new to me. I'm sure I'll get it eventually....

Thanks!

Marisa

Thank you all so much!

After reading your very welcoming words and enthusiastic responses, I'm convinced that this is the CMS for me! I feel much better now.

BTW, my original site that I linked will stay the same. I've registered a new domain,http://www.dontpickup.com. I'm hosting it at hosting-pp.com. I just have a test page up right now, so I could see when it went live. I'll be checking out the links to themes and layouts so I can find one that suits my son. I'm hoping that he gets very involved in this. (He picked out the domain name.) I've got 6 kids and not one of them does more than look for cars on ebay or play at barbie.com.

I'm very happy to hear that tweaking the themes is so easy. I'm pretty good with CSS so this should be a snap!

Thanks for welcoming me here. Once I get good at this and get my site up and running, I hope to be back to offer help, too.

Marisa