Can you recommend tools and/or reference books for someone setting up their first web site?”
As far as free, open source message board systems go, phpBB is the highest recommend that I’ve ever found- and as a three year user with a forum population in the thousands, I feel confident adding my recommendation to the list too. It’s easy to use, with a large support community, and every hack and modification your heart could desire to customize the basic forum for your particular needs. http://www.phpbb.com/ For getting started with your website in general, http://www.htmlgoodies.com/ is a great place to start, and a great place to keep going back to for new ideas when you become more proficient.
