About Greg's Project

Hello, my name is (you guessed it) Greg, and I'm a self-taught web programmer. Always having been fascinated with dynamic websites, I bought my first PHP book about two years ago and have been hooked ever since. Although I don't consider myself to be an advanced programmer, I do feel like I have a solid handle on the PHP language. Up until this point, however, I've really only used it to help streamline the amount of work that goes into building basic websites. What I have yet to do is build a large-scale dynamic website from scratch. That's the main goal of this project.

With Web 2.0 being the buzzword these days, I have decided to create a social networking website geared towards caricature artists. I chose this as my focus because I myself am a caricaturist and have been drawing professionally since 1999. I registered the domain name CaricatureSpace.com which, if everything goes as planned*, will become the primary domain for this site. For now, just visit GregsProject.com to view the progress. I am allowing public access to the source code at dev.GregsProject.com and will try to update this blog whenever I get a chance.

To programmers, whether you are self-taught or professionally trained, a newbie or seasoned vet, I would love to get your feedback regarding the structure and functionality of the application. Being self-taught, I know a little about advanced programming concepts (MVC design, Zend, Smarty, etc.), but much of this is still over my head, so any input would be greatly appreciated. I also apologize ahead of time for any improper use of programming terminology/lingo!

To caricaturists, I would also like your input regarding the development of the application. A few features which I hope to implement are allowing users to upload caricatures, create "favorite artists" and "favorite caricatures" lists and earn points by competing in contests/tournaments. At some point I want to create a features list page with a suggestion box as well.

That's all for now. Thanks for taking the time to read this post!

* Although my goal is to develop this application to the point where it's fully functional, this is still just a personal project and I may have to take a break from time to time. As an artist/designer I tend to have long stretches with a lot of free time before suddenly getting hit with freelance work which puts all the "fun stuff" on hold. If nothing else, I'm hoping that this website can act as a resource for other programmers.