I have just come across DNN. I have been researching CMS for a while now and have a specific project that I am looking to implement a CMS. I am coming from an ASP/JavaScript and Access/SQL background. All my sites have been done in Dreamweaver. So I find this all a bit daunting. Anyway here it goes.

The site will be a member based system where users will be able to create their own website (a subsite of the main site). They will only be able to edit there own site. These users will be the general layman so a WYSIWYG editior is essential. The users will be creating community based sites for their local community.
I would ideally like to have the ability to give the users themes or prebuilt sites to choose from. I want to be able to validate the users before they can join and submit the site.
I would want to customise the database and generate reports for myself.

Components that I want on the site are;
Ad based system
Search Engine
Calendar
Blog
Forum

Is DNN 'out-of-the-box' the right solution for the job

I'll add that in my experience "general laymen" won't be able to handle creating and maintaining content in their DNN sites without training. It takes a person who is computer literate and into learning new things and you still have to do some training and handholding. If others have had different experience with "laymen" site owners, I'd certainly like to know about it.

Thanks for the posts. That's exactly what I need. I will be the root administrator and I once I create the portal for the user (portal admin) they will then be able to edit only their site and not create other portals. I would have liked the the workflow control but I could live without it.

Can I predefine themes or skins for each portal that I create? and can the user adjust these later on - not affecting any other portal. Can this be done under a single domain i.e. user.mydomain.com (www.mydomain.com).

Thanks Again.