12 replies to this topic

[mebob]

I'm not completely sure if this is the right place to ask this, but...

I am creating a website. I already have hosting and a domain name (through godaddy). Problem is, I'm lost for ideas on what to put on it. I am 14 and the website is meant to be a place where my friends, and possibly family, can go. Does anyone have any ideas? I think it would be cool to install Elgg, does that sound good? I already have phpBB installed in a separate directory.

PS, I don't want to give the domain name because, not only do I reference myself by my name in the website, but also the domain name is my first and last name and .com LOL. Wasn't very creative, was I?

[An Alien]

Well, you can start by listing some things you like to do or your interests. And then use those to come up with an idea. You could have a blog about random things. You look around for some examples of good personal blogs. There's a lot of good ones you can find.

[mebob]

I don't really want to blog. I wouldn't have anything to blog about. My life just isn't interesting enough LOL.

Another idea is a repository of flash games, since that's what people my age seem to really like. I will probably do that, but I can do other stuff as well. I have 10 GB of hosting space, so I shouldn't have a problem with that.

[An Alien]

Flash games sound fun. Maybe you can create stuff like animations or something else other people might be interested in. Remember that your site should be about your audiences too.

[BlaineSch]

if it's meant to be a private website, you should password protect it. A global user/pass will be fine, but it will stop bots and most random people who found it.

[mebob]

I have a question: Do I really need to worry about my name getting out on the internet? What could go wrong if I posted my name here? It would be useful if I could post the URL of my site.

[sam_coder]

Thats a great question!

I personally, don't even use my real first name here. Although I do have a real online presence.

It really depends, and you really need to be careful. It's not just pedophiles that you need to worry about. Did you know that most future employers will google your name before hiring you? You just never know what it could turn up.

Luckily, the most embarrassing thing my name turns up is a grade 8 school project that I did, that just happened to be in the form of a web page. It resembles nearly every other personal home page in the mid 90's. fun. Especially for a professional developer.. =)

Anyways, at least from a professional, or from a personal (as in future relationships), should definitely be careful about it. You don't want future partners, or employers, or whatever seeing you do things you might regret down the road.

That's my two cents

also, to the original post, having your name as a domain name isn't bad at all. You will at some point want to have a professional online presence, and that makes a fantastic place to park a resume and portfolio.

[Alexander]

In my experience it does not matter, you are using it as a family site or whatever it may be and is of no relevance to any employer, and note the possibility of a background check involving a site lookup (and not social networking) is very unlikely unless it is relevant to your portfolio (say if your resume said you had done many projects released to the public, your site would be a key target to find some of them)

I would say go ahead with it, if anything were to happen you could easily revoke the name, domains are hardly permanent. In fact you can disallow all bots to search your site, disallowing bots = a fairly anonymous site, even if you searched up "yourdomain.com" and a high ranking site linked to it, it still wouldn't show (atleast not well in the results)

[Guest]

Just to add to what Alexander said, I have a really generic kind of name. It's Alexander Stephens. (See, there is already someone else with my first name!) You won't find anything on me by searching my first and last name alone, as the former Vice President of the Confederate States of America has completely overshadowed me. Besides him, there are probably a few hundred others out there with both my first and last name. If you're name isn't unique, then there is another reason to rest easy.

Oh, and since you're under 18, you should have parent/guardian supervision when creating a website. Hopefully you've had them involved already.

[Alexander]

My family name (Elliott) comes up with a super model as the first result :c-cool:

[sam_coder]

LOL, I unfortunately do NOT have a common name. I'm aware of one other person who shares me name.

I see your point. But with sites like facebook (and other social media), I don't think kids are as aware as they should be, the dangers of this type of thing. It's a world where our best security practices cannot protect (and maybe should not protect) our identities, and personal information, because we freely stick it on unprotected locations. And so do their friends, and everyone else.

I don't think it's even a fair statement to say that you can protect the information you share on facebook, because as we know,

• most people have very little understanding of how specific security settings work
  
• the security scheme is very complicated, and what you make available can be impacted by friends' security settings
  
• facebook by policy is constancy changing what and how they share

There's no telling how this information may or may not be used. But with the level of identity theft, and stupid things we do as kids, it seems kind of silly to say, there are so many John Does out there, best not concern yourself with protecting your privacy, or identity. It very well could impact a great job opportunity, or university application, a future partner (you know, if you end up with the type who googles your name and starts asking about all the pictures you have online shoving your toungue down an ex's throat)

I know... I'm kinda conservative when it comes to this type of thing... :c-whistle:

[An Alien]

I try to hide mine. And the employer thing, you're only 14 right now so it really doesn't matter.