You will need someone who is well versed in Server-side technology, or generically called "Back-end" programming. Basically, when someone goes to your side, the "server" decides what information to display. Sometimes it's a simple webpage (like a 'home' or 'landing' page) - sometimes, it means querying a database, doing computations, then delivering data specific to a user (like a 'profile' or 'email' page). So you need someone who knows what to do with the request from user and can make the server build a web page based upon what the user wanted.

The silliest question is the one not asked. We all knew nothing when we first started.

My opinions:

1. 'Massive' is a subjective term. It would be a big project, but luckily with each piece of the project would be a no-brainer for a seasoned programmer. The key would be getting the parts to talk together and getting that information to the user - at times, that could be the time killer.

2. The amount of time required by the programmers is proportional to the number of users. More users normally means more bug finds and requests, thus more time by the programmers. No web site ever remains the same (well, most don't). So in the beginning part-time work will be the norm, but if you are a success, it could become full-time.

3 & 4. From what I've heard, Twitter has Ruby on Rails on the front end (what the user sees) and C/Scala in the backend (and possibly MySQL for the database). I'm not sure what Gumtree or Craigslist uses, but it really comes down to what technology best fits your needs (especially your experience or what you can afford). For me, that's PHP for both front and back end (I use my own framework and CakePHP), and MySQL as my database.

Feel free to post any questions you have.

--
Mike Smith
Advertising in a sig? Who would have thunk it?

Hi Wasim

Custom-coding such a site could be a fairly major effort, depending upon what features you wanted. I think a better approach would be to make use of a platform like Joomla, Drupal or WordPress and add a component or plugin to do the job.

I built such a system for a fellow Warrior earlier this year, we used Joomla and a component called AdsManager. I customized it to integrate PayPal into the system to allow clients to purchase advertising and pay for it via subscription.

AdsManager: Classified Ads - Joomla! Extensions Directory

There are also a number of classified ad extensions for WordPress, one is WordPress › wp-classified WordPress Plugins . I have no experience with this one, but some people find WordPress much simpler to configure and administrate than Joomla.

There is also the idea of using Wiki software to perform this task - try Wikipedia PHP script development: Features

If none of these is exactly what you are looking for you could always use one of them as the base for your design and have a programmer do the modifications to make it exactly what you wanted.

Please let me know if you need any assistance with this.

Bill

Well there is already scripts that mimic Craigslist. Never used GumTree, but I have a craigslist like script that I used a while back.

Craigslist and GumTree both run perl.
If you want, I can get to cleaning up the code for my craigslist script, and help you with setting it up and debugging.

The Script already has:
User System(login/logout/register)
User can post/delete/edit their posts. There is a contact form on each post, but can easily be fixed to be a paypal/alertpay button.
User Profiles
Sort post's by selling, or buying.
The script also has built in SEO.

If you want to see a demo, just PM me an ill give you a look :]

--m4rx

Thanks for your response guys. It's alot of info to take in but it's a small step in the right direction. Thank you.

"m4rx" I'd love to see a demo, I'll PM you.

Thanks again guys.