Darkun: the add-ons are indeed add-ons, or "accessories" -- most sites don't actually need a blog or a forum, for example. All the same, those are features that are associated with websites these days, and I think many people would expect a webhost to offer them as a part of its basic package of services.
Like how bicycles no longer come with kickstands nowadays -- did you know that? Actually, they haven't for like the past ten or fifteen years. Apparently only kids' bikes and so-called "toy bikes" (brands like Huffy, etc.) still do. Now is a kickstand absolutely essential to the operation of a bicycle? No, certainly not. But I for one certainly expected it along with a bicycle!
Likewise, SBI! and certain features. I mean, it's 2008 and they won't let me upload an .ani or .cur file, and won't tell me why not except to say that they're not that important. Well, sure, and neither are emoticons for e-mail and forum posting (
), but you know, every little bit does count after a while.
Anyway, just to clarify the blog/forum thing: the big -- and problematic, particularly for n00b-types who are the target demographic of SBI! -- issue is that those features require you to host them on *another* webhost, for which you pay *additional* hosting fees...so for instance, you pay $300 for a year of SBI! but another $100 or whatever for hosting a blog or forum on that other webhost!
You sound very much like me -- "playing with computers my whole life but never got into coding or building websites" -- so I'm particularly glad that this thread helps you out some. I had actually done the first website for Hunter College's German Department back in 1997-8, but it was a very simple HTML affair, with a few JS hacks of simple scripts publicly available, about ten webpages total, but that's all I've done since then, so I was looking into SBI! as a sort of "briefing" or "learning experience" to bring me up to date.
And learn I have, though that's because I've persevered through the rather messy "creative disorganization" that constitutes the SBI! "help files." So it's definitely quite possible to learn and grow with them -- only try it out to see if that's a style of learning you can take to (well, of course you *can* -- and I recommend that you do -- but some people don't have time to try to integrate disparate data on their own like that). Remember the traveling Jawa from Star Wars?
It's a bit like that -- kinda wheel-and-deal sort of atmosphere, not an online college course.
You are correct in not putting your faith in any one system -- however, it certainly can work, depending on your goals. So, *exactly*, what do you hope to achieve? I mean, details, baby, details -- for yourself, I mean; make sure you know for yourself what those details are. SBI! can be rather like those famous old Ames Lee "Draw 50 Dogs/Airplanes/Dinosaurs/Famous People" books, each page detailing in like eight steps how to go from basic polygons to a full-fledged portrait, with everything very simple until the last two steps. That is to say, there's a lot that you simply have to learn on your own -- but they are certainly useful, yes (both the books and SBI!).
It's all a matter of how *you* learn and are able to assimilate or, better yet, "grok" the information. But no, they are very far from the Second Coming of Sliced Bread!
