I was/am thinking about establishing a website specifically for college students to assist them with questions on different subjects, homework etc. I'm going to be using Joomla technology because it gives you great control over the forum-part of your website and has many useful extensions. So far I've got a feeling about the following topics: college evaluations [students could post their general impressions about colleges], college courses help [self explanatory], I'm also thinking about high school subjects. If anyone has any other ideas about/for my website, feel free to share them.

Add more fun to it... Photo submition, polls (who's the worst teacher, etc) and other things like that!

Photo submition, polls (who's the worst teacher, etc) and other things like thatYes, yes and yes! Exactly, that's what I'm looking for.

College campuses lists/how clean are they.
Professor ratings, like you've stated.
College book classifieds.
Online schools for working parents.
Working/job opportunities for students while they study.
Voting system for the best college campus/teacher for a course/college tuition.
Tips on credit scores, how to keep them up.
Healthy eating...
What do you think so far?..

Thats all the nice stuff - now best campus for parties, dating, hot chicks, ok food, inernational programs (student exchanges). nightlife. sports facilities, beach scene - ski scene .....

best campus for parties, dating, hot chicks, ok food, inernational programs (student exchanges). nightlife. sports facilities, beach scene - ski sceneGreat, I'll be thinking of implementing these ones too. However, I'd like to make it as formal as possible.

To be frank, if you are going to just run a forum, go with SMF (free) or paid forum script (vbulletin or invision). A dedicated forum script give you more control and easier to maintain. Joomla is more like a CMS where there are multiple built in modules(one of them is forum). So whenever there is bug found for certain modules(web download, calendar etc), you have to update your joomla again although the fix do not concern your forum.

Well, I agree with that. So far, I'm thinking about just running a forum, what do you suggest I should make it? A forum or a portal? Portal would include classifieds, calendar, all this good stuff...

Really depend on what you want to accomplish at the end of the day. Don't be greedy and pack all kind of stuffs and use only certain section in the end.

Don't be greedy and pack all kind of stuffs and use only certain section in the end.I hear ya. Btw, I've installed SMF, I didn't know what that was, is this similar to vBulletin, phpBB?

I hear ya. Btw, I've installed SMF, I didn't know what that was, is this similar to vBulletin, phpBB?

All of them are message board scripts. Just that the coding and style of forum display are different. :cool:

I've tried vBulletin, phpBB and invision in the past and I like SMF more than any of those.

Add more fun to it... Photo submition, polls (who's the worst teacher, etc) and other things like that!

Do not do the worst teacher, it could be considered slander... you can get yourself into some problems there.

Do not do the worst teacher...you can get yourself into some problems thereOk, that's a good point.