I have no programming experience. I've been writing HTML for the last decade and worked loosely with web related languages like XML, CSS, PHP, and &#106avascript. Note that I cannot write anything in any of these. I've successfully modify existing code only and even then such modifications were generally minor. I want to create a website that will have a member registry that will include names, addresses, personal details, and numerous other fields. Eventually there will be tens of thousands of people within it. I'd like to create a simpler form of MySpace for users to create their own small websites within the community which would include custom backgrounds, wiki's, blogs, and several "user friendly" submission systems for things like news, journal entries, wiki entries, etc... I assume this will require a database and that is something I know nothing about. I've worked with them in the past when I installed and ran phpBB forums but all of the hard work was pretty much taken care of by the installer. Other than this website I do not plan on "programming" anything. If I can avoid learning multiple languages to accomplish this I would like to. This is definitely a situation where I would like to take the path of least resistance. I'm just not sure what that route is. C# and ASP? Java? CSS and XML? I am willing to put in the time but would like to avoid wasting time wherever possible. What would be the best route to go? Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

The problem with social networking software is that it is very much an "all in one" package. I only need a couple of the features of these massive packages and most of those features themselves are too feature rich. I think a custom tailored website would be much more effective for what I will be using it for. If using ASP will I need to learn C# as well? Is ASP the kind of thing I could just pick up without learning a precursor language (like CSS is to HTML)?

Websites where users can create their own content are not entirely trivial. If you don't want to use programming later on, I suggest you pay somebody else to do it, or find an existing system. Learning how to program well enough to create something coherent will be a bigger task than using that knowledge to create the actual website.

Whatever you do, if you make your own system, make sure to ask about how to properly secure all those people's data, or it will be exploited.