best tool for web design

Wrong group.

But here's a tip. You'll probably find the quickest fastest most reasonable start using PHP or Perl, Apache, and a prewritten forums software. (Google perl forums software)

Most fan sites do this. I don't know what powers RCUniverse, but it looks precanned to me. Here's another example:

It shouldn't take more than a week to install this type of forums software unless you're an absolute beginner at Linux, perl, etc. I'd expect the better packages to have step by step instructions. I'd guess cost runs between $0 and $1000. Even $1000 is a BARGAIN compared to rolling your own software. A competent developer making $60k would take at least a month to write the equivalent = $5000.00 cost to your company to write it from scratch.

Otherwise, if you want GOOGLE GROUPS, expect a near impossible task of creating a group hierarchy and getting it adopted. Microsoft runs it's own NNTP server which was eventually picked up by Google I believe. A few other companies run NNTP but without a feed for Usenet. You need increasingly sophisticated clients to pull this one off.

Since you asked this in a usenet newsgroup and specifically mentioned Google Groups, you may want to consider just setting up an internal news (NNTP) server. Then people can use whatever client they want (Outlook, Pan, Mozilla, slrn, tin, Thunderbird?, whatever). Setting up a stand-alone news server and doing a few "newgroup" commands shouldn't take more than an hour for someobody familiar with Unix system administration.

I don't know how sophisticated the clients have to be. I set up an internal, stand-alone newserver with a few groups. I callend them "forums" and e-mailed the users an nntp:// URL for each of the groups. 99% of the users had never used "news" before (or since) and they didn't have any problems. They clicked on the links inside Outlook and it all "just worked".

The nice thing about an NNTP server is that users can choose the UI they like rather than getting stuck with one of those awful forum web UIs.

Ditto wrong group but... Agree with other poster. Recommend a MYSQL (database), php (code), and Apache (web server) configuration. MySQL is free

PHP is free and I recommend the jedit editor for writing code (The editor is for java but also great for php: and Apache for the web server.

Apache, php, and mysql all need to be enabled on the web server side of the business. You then write php code to generate dynamic pages making queries to a mysql database that you create.

The good news is that there are thousands of free php scripts to do what ever you want to do. To really answer your question well, you need to define your need better (User Requirement Specification). Just ad libbing here:

Use a content management system to develop your web site. MAMBO

Do a google search for "Content Management System"

For a forum for posting Q&A there are bunches out there: phpBBS

vbulletin (COMMERCIAL) many other free ones out there.

There are also FAQ Knowledgebase scripts out there as well. Look around the following sites for ANYTHING you would ever want to do:

ENJOY.

Carl

Look into phpBB. It's free, it's easy, and all you need is a website and ftp upload