Art co-op website, I need advice.

[stewymcstewstew]

I'm looking for some good (free) software for mainting many art portfolios. I live in Iowa City, Iowa, a town of many many artists, unfortunately, I don't have the capital to start an art co-op, so I'm trying to do the next best thing, and start one online!

I'm posting this hear because base on any of the threads I've seen on this forum, most are not ignored and get at least one answer, and everyone seems really polite and helpful, so naturally it was where I turned too.

I'm thinking of just defaulting to Media Wiki(what can't it do?), and seeing what I could do with that, but I assumed there has to be someone who has done something like this before.

I'm also planning on using powweb, it's cheap and has pretty good amounts of storage and bandwidth, and I don't plan on charging people for using the site, any other reccomendations would be great. I'm just looking for a way to help out some artists in this town get their name known and sell some art.

Well, thank you in advance!

Stew

[Zelut]

Well I have used Gallery 2.0 (http://gallery.menalto.com/) or Coppermine (http://coppermine-gallery.net/index.php), both php based photo/graphic gallery apps. Check those out for starters..

For hosting, the cheapest I've found is VizaWeb.com (http://vizaweb.com/), including additional support for .php & mySQL. I used PoWWeb in the past & I didn't love 'em.. now I just use an old machine to host on my own (using Breezy, of course, as a server).

[stewymcstewstew]

Thank you, I'll check out gallery, I've used coppermine in the past.

The problem is, that I'm looking for a way to allow the user to manage the content, as well as a little more versatility than a photo album. I would like to be able to have authors putting things up there, or sculpters being able to have descriptions next to every picture. This is kind of why I was thinking media wiki, but it almost seems media wiki could only do this in a pretty round about way. Maybe not, but it also might be pretty complicated to explain to a bunch of art majors. ;)

Any more advice in that direction will be awarded with a ribbon!

[stewymcstewstew]

And thank you especially for the web host reccomendation!

[Zelut]

Well, I believe, you can setup user permissions on different Galleries so that each user can post &/or edit their collection. Getting more in-depth than that I'm not sure what to tell you... Media Wiki may be the choice (I've never used it)

...wonder what is it they use (unless its proprietary) on deviantart.com (http://www.deviantart.com/). That allows user submissions, editing, etc..

[maruchan]

I have been using Powweb for 5 years and have nothing but good things to say about them. This doesn't mean they've been problem-free, but in my experience, people give webhosts (especially cheaper shared hosts) far too much criticism for the tremendous undertakings they represent. All of my concerns and support issues were answered promptly and courteously, and the Powweb forum is a life saver.

With *that* said, there is something you need to know. Powweb's Terms of Service do not allow posting of nudity, or links to sites containing nudity, on member websites. This includes art. I have asked, since I run a forum with art posting sections. The reason for not allowing it is, online pornography is a well-known resource hog, and they didn't want to have to define pornography (talk about a can of worms), so they just said, "no nudity" to make things clear.

So, this isn't prudishness on their part, it's a wise economic decision, but that's the way things are and you should know this before you start an art site that may (or may not, I dunno) include nudes.

Be sure you completely read and understand a host's ToS before you sign up with them. Good luck! :)

[stewymcstewstew]

I've used powweb for about a year now with another website, but it's ran with several others, and the person who holds the acount deals with technical issues. Outside of some downtime, they've been fantastic as far as I can tell.

However, thank you very much for bringing up their no nudity clause, I hadn't even thought of that.

Looking at that album software, it will probably be the best option for managing any photographs, so I guess what's left is the author side of it. What do you think about blog software for that type of thing?

Sorry for so many questions and posts, I'm just thinking out loud.

Thanks again, I'm blown away by the friendliness of these forums!

[maruchan]

I would look into content management system (CMS) installs, if you really want to make the place a complete solution - community, galleries, all the frills, rolled into one. This can save a lot of hassle, providing you find a CMS that fits you well.

Here are some general sites:

http://www.opensourcecms.com/
http://www.cmsmatrix.org

There are a lot of popular CMS's out there. If I were you, I'd build a complete plan (from a user's point of view) of what features you want on this site. Then, ask on a couple of CMS forums, or ask on Powweb's forums which CMS best matches your plan.

Most CMS websites have functional demo installs you can try out (on their website before you install it on your own), and links to other sites that use their CMS and have modified it for their own purposes. Be sure to check these out.