hey all im trying to create a web site and i would like to implent a bulitin board area and a chat room. what i was woundering is that if any one here that has created soemthing like that point to where they learned how to create it. ive already got space so i dont want to be told of a service that will do that for me. I actually want to do it my self and learn at the same time.

So, then what's your question? Just if someone has done it before? Obviously some have or there wouldn't be ones availalbe. If you want to do it yourself, get a book, read online tutorials and do it. However, I can't think of anyone who would want to do that from scratch when they could use that time to create something that doesn't already exist. Besides, just because you implement a ready made bulletin board system doesn't mean you won't learn anything. IT's a great learning experience as you can go through the code to see how it works and learn how it was put together. You can also implement your own features as you see fit and/or rewite entire sections if you want. Trying to create a bb is a big project. It seems simple at first though, but there are many, many variables Michael J

yeah the question is what book have people read that helped them amd what online tutorials are good for beginers.

Well, that's more specific. What technology would you be using? That will determine what books or tutorials you should read. The O'Reily books are always beneficial for just about any language/technology. Michael J

well ive decided upon PhpBB(and ordered a book for this) but im not sure about a chat room. the idea that i would like to do is be able for users to use there account on the bulitin board and use it to access the chat room as well. but i dont know where to start. any Ideas

Did you order a book specific for PHPbb? I'd suggest a general book covering PHP and MySQL. If your webserver suppors PHP and has a MySQL database, go ahead and set up the BB now. You can then start browsing through the code to get an idea of what is involved. I'd then suggest looking at small ways that you want to change certain pages. Using your book and online tutorials as references make small changes to the BB until you get some experience. Once you are comfortable with it you can move on to creating a chat feature. The best PHP reference IMHO is php.net Michael J