User Friendly?

[michaelhar]

Hello,
I intend to establish a forum/interactive site, focusing on life-skills and personal growth. I’ll write an introduction to a topic or issue and will invite the readers to share their relevant life experiences, interpretations and insights, thus creating a thread for a specifiec topic. The vast majority of the potential readers/writers in my future site are novice in computers. MY QUESTION TO YOU IS: Do you think a site, like this site (sitepoint.com) or such, is an overkill and may discourage potential writers? Or this kind of a site is a clear advantage, regarding usability and flexibility, will benefit my site and will attract more readers/writers. .
Thanks for your help, michael

[Turtleman49]

Keep it OVERSIMPLE, many developers have some neet code, and it makes sites really interesting.. But!, the fact is most end users dont know how to use many sites.. remember many people are still on dialups and they only know one thing, How to turn on their PC and get to a site theyve seen before..

Keep it Very Easy to use
Use images that people will enjoy seeing (its a visual thing)
Make it as clear as you can so the User understands what they have to do

Back in the MSN days I use to have to write tutorial with allot of images for members on how to delete a thing called a cookie!

something to keep in mind

In compairing to this site.. I think theyd be lost,, they wouldnt get past the ads on here.. but we cant compair your site (personal relationships) to a site thats based for "Techie" people

[skyraider]

Keep it OVERSIMPLE, many developers have some neet code, and it makes sites really interesting.. But!, the fact is most end users dont know how to use many sites.. remember many people are still on dialups and they only know one thing, How to turn on their PC and get to a site theyve seen before..

Keep it Very Easy to use
Use images that people will enjoy seeing (its a visual thing)
Make it as clear as you can so the User understands what they have to do

Back in the MSN days I use to have to write tutorial with allot of images for members on how to delete a thing called a cookie!

something to keep in mind

In compairing to this site.. I think theyd be lost,, they wouldnt get past the ads on here.. but we cant compair your site (personal relationships) to a site thats based for "Techie" people

Yep. You also may want to try a very simple Mambo theme if you're going for a CMS - there are some nice and clean ones out there with a simple, "relaxing" feel. You could then link to your forum.

[michaelhar]

Turtleman49 and Skyraider, Thanks for making a clear point.
michael har