Setting up a Penpal php-based site, half done

I've started a new project, based on PHPenpals which is a small application written in PHP that ties into MySQL and performs very very basic handling of a penpals website.

I worked on it all today after finding and uploading the software to my test server last night, late.

My plan is to take this basic software and use it as a base for a very specific "pals" website that is online game-related. Instead of finding "snail mail" penpals or email penpals, the people who will be using this site, in theory, will be using it to look for new friends to play with on their online game of choice.

Today's work got me pretty far ahead and I'm very pleased with myself - after many false starts, I found an HTML template that was basic yet attractive enough for my needs (since I can only write basic HTML and cannot write an entire page, and generated pages from programs are often confusing, and don't even get me started on the confusion that are CSS sites...), and integrated that HTML template into the software's layout pages.

Then, I did some poking around and pondering on things, and came up with the information I'd like to gather from new members. This lead to re-working of the database the application had created in its installation procedures, and the creation of a simple SQL INSERT statement to test the new structure.

From there, I went to the website itself, and started working on pages in the order that people would go through them - first the Index page, then the Join page... the Join page has taken a number of the hours today, re-working the Join Form and adding new variables was half the job - tomorrow I'll tackle updating the SQL INSERT statement and test to make sure they work before moving on to the next page to update.

I'm going to start this project as a piggy back off of an already successful endeavor, and have enlisted the help of another web developer to increase awareness of the site once it launches. I'll write another entry tomorrow after I've done another few hours of work on it.

But, tomorrow I have to spend some time working on a "review" blog that I have, because I've recently received a handful of things of which I'm reviewing and wish to take pictures of and write about. So, I'll have to ration my time to make myself feel like I've accomplished enough in both.