MikeH

If you've developed something yourself using PHP, you will need to convert it to a WHMCS module or have your script use the WHMCS API to create the customer's order (not sure how viable this is as their API isn't very good). Quickest way to integrate with WHMCS IMO would be a simple order form with relevant configuration options/questions for your design work.

You could do this in WHMCS using the generic product and configurable options. Also take a look at Blesta. It's less developed than WHMCS but more modern and quickly catching up.

Rather than any kind of website builder it sounds like you're after forum software with a couple of modifications/plugins. All popular forum software will cover: - Forums (of course!) - Membership system - Private messaging - Standard profile fields such as location and gender - Custom profile fields such as "interests" To search for people within a particular radius you may need to develop a bespoke plugin or use an existing plugin out there. Here are some potentials to check out: https://invisionpower.com - paid https://www.vbulletin.com - paid https://xenforo.com - paid https://www.phpbb.com - free https://www.mybb.com - free If you're new to this stuff and planning on creating the website yourself, there will be a learning curve but the results are likely well worth it!

No doubt your skills will forever need improving, that's the nature of the beast. New languages, frameworks and devices constantly come and go, there will always be something new around the corner. Keeping up with these changes is part of your job as a developer really. Ideally you need to be passionate enough to be putting in the extra work outside of your day job if you want to stay current and on top of your game. Don't put yourself down too much though, there's a very common problem with developers referred to as "imposter syndrome" (if you haven't heard of it, Google it). I can only speak for the route I've gone but once you've learned the basics, the best way to improve your knowledge IMO is through experience. Build new things constantly. Try new things. Look at popular open source projects. Get involved with the communities surrounding these open source projects.

I can't help with your question but by linking to your potential employer here you may have just made them aware of your tactics! How did the interview go in the end?

I'm pretty sure the name of the PayPal account will be shared with your donators, however you can confirm this by going through the donation processed as mentioned above. Taking out a second personal account is not technically allowed and probably won't help you anyway. For example you'll still have to use your full name and link this to a bank account which isn't already linked to your existing PayPal account. Is it possible you can have someone else (such as a partner) open the account? Even in that case, the name of the person who opens the account will be revealed to your donators. If you're running a business, the appropriate option is to open a dedicated business account which will use your business name for the account rather than your personal name. If you're really concerned about anonymity then perhaps Bitcoin is your best bet? Alternatively you could look at taking donations through an intermediary service (the exact service will depend on what it is you're doing).

If it's going to be a large project there's a good chance you'll benefit from using a framework such as Laravel. This will reduce the amount of boilerplate you have to write and help you to learn more advanced patterns (which translate into other languages). It will also help if you introduce other developers in future as you'll be able to follow the best practises and coding style of the framework so you're all familiar with how things work. I would also recommend reading all of this: http://www.phptherightway.com All the best with your new project!

If I had to guess, I'd say these issues stem from fast growth in recent years and the acquisition by HEG late last year. In general, TSO/Vida are well recommended but I have seen more complaints than usual in recent months. I know their website migration team was always based in Bulgaria but perhaps they've decided to move support roles out there too. They do have UK support staff too.

Take a look at the Page Visibility API - this exposes itself as a property (document.hidden) and an event (visibilitychange). You could use this to differentiate between the user actually resizing the window and switching tabs or minimising. I don't know how you would differentiate between tab switches and minimising though.

It depends. Some of the very simple things people do with JavaScript can often be done without JavaScript these days. For example, very basic client side validation can be done in HTML5 (e.g. <input type="email"> will ensure the input (if given) appears to be an email address, <input type="number" min="5" max="15" required> will ensure an input is given and it's a number between 5 and 15). But for the most part, the kind of stuff you're talking about (e.g. modal windows to enlarge image thumbnails) has to be done with JavaScript. Do you have to learn JavaScript to be a good web designer? I'd say certainly not. I do think learning HTML/CSS (and knowing what JavaScript is) can be a good idea for designers because this gives a greater understanding of how the web works, which can only help with web design. This is especially true in recent years where new trends such as responsive design have taken over.

I'm not sure to be honest, its been some years since I last played with MyBB and I don't see it being used very often. Just thought I'd add it to the list for evaluation.

It's certainly possible, just don't underestimate the amount of traffic you need to make decent money from ads alone. Also take into account there's an increasing amount of people blocking ads plus there are even efforts from ISPs (which I completely disagree with but that's another topic). I would begin by concentrating on building your traffic, you can slap AdSense on there to get a feel for the value of your traffic and experiment with spaces, sizes, etc. There's no point building your own system out until you have something to sell (no traffic = no ads to sell). As for how to incorporate a hybrid system, it's pretty simple. Sell your ad spots at a fixed price per period, or on a CPC/CPM basis (potentially with a bidding system in place). Then continue to use AdSense (or another network) to fill in for any unsold inventory. You can use your AdSense earnings as a base point or minimum cost when selling directly. Additionally I would consider other ways to make sales apart from banner/text advertisements.

To add to previous suggestions, there's also MyBB. However as you're looking for something lighter, Vanilla may be the right fit for you.

Have you considered OS X? This way you get the familiar *nix environment but a lovely GUI which is comparable to the quality of Windows. Loads of developers use OS X - this shouldn't influence your own choice alone but it does mean lots of tutorials are for OS X and there's plenty of cool OS X only software such as CodeKit (probably a bad example with people choosing to use JS task runners these days but great if you prefer a GUI). In terms of the software, have you looked at Dreamweaver? I've not used it since around 2004-05 (I don't think Adobe even owned it at that point) but it could do many of the things you mentioned back then. I used the split source/design view to learn how WYSIWYG changes effected the source code and ultimately learn the basics of HTML/CSS. It's not free but is available on both OS X and Windows, not Linux unfortunately. I do think you should consider moving away from WYSIWYG editors, your web design/development work will excel once you begin writing HTML/CSS/JS yourself - you'll have a lot more flexibility and this will lead you onto new things such as server side scripting.

You could try searching the Wayback Machine. Does it really matter if the date on past articles is 100% accurate? I would consider getting the time of year roughly right, the order right and then making up a specific date/time for past posts.