Hi everyone.

I've been using DNN for perhaps a year now - I've taken a huge amount of time to create a new site to replace one I had written in 2004 in Dreamweaver. The huge amount of time is due to a hectic job and far too many other pursuits, rather than a reflection of the complexity of DNN.

I am extremely happy with DNN as an engine, I can't believe how expandable, usable and functional it is. And it looks fab too. I keep finding extra things I can use on a daily basis, which all improve user enjoyment and participation.

I am not comfortable with code - having programmed years ago I am way too out of touch and haven't got the time or will to learn enough. I would strongly recommend to anyone like me to hire a DNN technician to help out. I think my site would have taken much less time to create, and wouldn't have cost that much more.

I haven't been able to do everything for free, but then, my attitude is that if something will save me time and hassle I'd rather pay a smallish amount. This means that the relatively low cost of DNN module (e.g. on Snowcovered) is well within reach, and another reason I like DNN. Many of let let you try before you buy and all of them have been brilliant with regards to support. Just about all of them have little teething problems and I end up applying new versions quite frequently, but I feel the benefits so it's no big deal.

I'm also extremely impressed with the support provided by the core team on this forum. The trick seems to be to post your query in a busy area rather than a very specific area, I've found :-)

All in all, thanks everyone for your support and great products. If you're technical enough or have a friendly techie near by, or have time to learn and apply yourself, then this is brilliant. Or if you have a simple site, very little support is needed.

Hi Suzie, I'm also a new DNN user and am curious what other people have done with it. I haven't built a DNN site yet but, like you, I have some old sites that I may convert. One is loaded with JavaScript. I'm not sure how well that's going to move over. Were you able to copy a lot of the HTML and CSS from Dreamweaver and drop it in with the Text/HTML module? Any chance of posting the URL of the site you converted from Dreamweaver? Steve

Steve,

I would say that DNN is completely and utterly different to the likes of Dreamweaver. I started from scratch and ended up having a fabulous looking site in about 2 days. I copied all the content across manually, into ready modules.

The bit that took the time was all the interactivity I wanted to put in for my users, they can upload content and vote in lots of areas. I spent a huge amount of time not realising that suitable pre-made commercial modules were there for me, as there are so many out there it's hard to know what to look for when you're unfamiliar with the terms.

Posting questions here was a real help.

The site is www.bikegirl.co.uk, but we've taken the Dreamweaver one offline now.