> I do have some problems and questions before taking a step like that:
> 1. I am a computer illiterate who doesn't follow directions very well. Can such a person operate a site?

I have no idea, because I maintain all the RinkWorks stuff by hand: I hand-code the HTML, or, alternately, hand-code the programs that generate the HTML. What you would probably want is something like Microsoft FrontPage, or whatever the heck their web page editing software is called, or some other software package that does the same thing. This software would help you lay out web pages as you would in, for example, a word processor.

Then there's the matter of uploading what web pages you create to whatever web server you sign up with, but I think FrontPage handles that, too.

> 2. What is the real difference between a web site and a web page?

A web page is a single page: the page with this message in it is a web page. The set of all web pages at the www.rinkworks.com domain make up a web site. So you'd have a web site with one or more web pages. (Though some people use the term "web page" to mean "web site.")

> 3. What costs are involved?

None to about $9.95 a month. There are free web site providers like geocities.com. The drawback to these free web site providers is often that you have to put up with a little ad frame that pops up every time someone views one of your pages, irritating web surfers everywhere. They also typically give you very little space to work with and aren't necessarily fast servers.

If you wanted to pay a little something per month, you could sign up with something like Dreamhost (dreamhost.com), which is where I host RinkWorks. I'm on a more expensive plan, but you wouldn't need more than their base plan, a $9.95 a month plan that would give you more than enough disk space and server speed for your purposes. You could also optionally register your own domain name (like www.howardmurrill.com or whatever) so that your web site address will be something cleaner and more personalized than "geocities.com/Schmucktown/Plaza/8223846762953" or "dreamhost.com/hmurrill/". Getting your own domain name would cost something like $35 per year, payable not to Dreamhost but to Internic or another company that registers domain names. If you corresponded with the Dreamhost people or a comparable web hosting service, they would give you instructions on what to do and who to contact.
(If you sign up with Dreamhost, by the way, put down "ss1" as who referred you, and that'll knock some money off both our bills.)

Actually before I said all that, I should have first advised you first to make sure that your ISP doesn't already provide you with web space. My old ISP provided a very small web site area for free. (Too small and featureless for RinkWorks' purposes, but more than enough for what you say you want to do.)

> 4. Is "quilts and scooters" such an odd combination that people would be afraid to log on or would it attract too much attention?

They got web pages for *everything*. Don't worry about it.

> 5. How do you get started? I already know how to boot up and get online. Then what?

First find a web page designing package like FrontPage and see if you're comfortable using it to design web pages. I wish I could point you in the direction of a demo product or something you could try out, but I don't know of any; maybe someone else here can help out.

Then, or meanwhile, decide on a company that you're going to use to "host" your web page, whether that's your current ISP (if they do that), a free server like geocities, or a web space provider like Dreamhost. Sign up with that company for web space, and they'll give you instructions on how to get started.

> 6. Other than maintaining the site, what other responsibilities are involved?

Besides the usual about not committing crimes like copyright violation and libel? Not really much.

Let me know if you have any further questions.