brainwidth

Both of the referenced sites are running on WordPress. Nonetheless, no one here is going to design a site for you for free, especially if you just want a knock-off of somebody else’s design. Remember, this a support forum, not a design one.

However, the WordPress Codex contains a number of resources that will give you a gentle introduction to designing your own theme. In particular, check out the Lessons section, which will give you a good start.

As for the two sites referenced, I can’t say that I would recommend emulating those designs. They’re unreadable and inaccessible, eliminate virtually all WordPress functionality, don’t even validate, and–in my opinion–are ugly.

You don’t need him to send it to you; you can download it here.

I guess not.

Please note that COPPA does not necessarily apply to all sites allowing registration. From the page tmaster linked to above:

If you operate a commercial Web site or an online service directed to children under 13 that collects personal information from children or if you operate a general audience Web site and have actual knowledge that you are collecting personal information from children, you must comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

chilly probably won’t link to his site because he’s a spammer. Here’s one of his blogs, filled with nothing but links to online casinos. On this forum, he asks for advice regarding this site, which purports to be one of those stupid quotation collection pages, but is really a big link farm. He also shows up in the cgi redirect for an online casino ad here.

I don’t mind giving out free technical advice, but I won’t help someone who might be setting up a linkfarm.

Try this.

Actually, I don’t have any complaints at all. I’ve been with Dreamhost for a few months now, and I’ve had no problems. I’m also pleased that you don’t view your clients as “anonymous purchasers of a service commodity,” but don’t let that make you think that clients don’t expect the requisite amount of service.

As a lawyer, I’m a provider of services, too. My clients, many of whom have become friends, and all of whom certainly look at me as an ally when I represent them in litigation, still expect me to provide them with top notch legal services. If I didn’t, they would hire a different lawyer, friendship notwithstanding.

The same is true of hosting providers. I, and many others, are genuinely pleased that Dreamhost supports open source projects (particularly WordPress), and I am genuinely satisfied with your service. But that’s not to say that I wouldn’t change hosts if, for whatever reason, the quality of the service declined significantly.

Thanks for your input, and thanks for your willingness to talk directly with your customers. It’s very refreshing.

Thanks for the additional information, michaelndn. It’s great to know that Dreamhost has made good by offering the credit. However, I do have one small quibble. You wrote that there is “[n]o need to fight with your obvious allies and friends.” Dreamhost is a service provider, not my ally, and not my friend. In turn, I am not an ally or friend of Dreamhost, I am a client. Clients deserve and require a certain level of service, and in exchange, clients pay the provider of that service a fee. I appreciate that Dreamhost supports open source software, but I expect proper service regardless.

That knowledge base article linked earlier also indicates that there should be some reports in /home/user/resources/ that can give you some more information on what scripts are being called. I’m on Dreamhost as well, but I don’t see any such directory in my space. Hmmm.

It’s highly disappointing that dreamhost would simply take your site offline, especially when their knowledge base suggests that they would simply move you to an evaluation server.

Or, what moshu said. ??

It’s an indication that you have a problem connecting to your database. This can be caused by a database outage or misconfiguration. I had this problem for about 10 minutes yesterday when my host had some database issues, but it came back quickly. If your host isn’t having any problems, you need to make sure your database is configured properly. There’s a long thread on this error here.

Nice, I really like, although you have a few validation problems.

Another feature request: add data for each politician on campaign contributions.

Looks great! Linked on metafilter.