portals r basically content Managment Systems

portals help u making site. they provide a lot of tools for ur site.

well i've used php and asp both portals. portals are very easy. and if u wanna make a community site, skool site, kolleg site, musik site, etc... u can use a portal..

if u dont wanna make ur own styles etc. use php portals or asp portals.
they provide u all things from user registeration to forums.

i think PHP portals r best. like PHP-NUKE. it provide u every thing. u can use this portal for every site u can imagine. from gaming to some poetry site

ASP portals.. mm i've used. vieboard. visit aspnuke.com . it is also a very good one but not as customizeable as PHP-NUKE

eh....i'm not a big fan of using portals or anything...just a simple notepad and a ftp application is enough for me. As well as emails submitting materials to my site... ^_^

but i know of many people who relies heavily on these things so I'm sure they're thankful lol ^_^

I never have used portals or templates and I don't plan to. They can be quite helpful if either you need a site quickly or you don't really know what you're doing but I hate having the possibility that another site could have the same settings and so almost identical styles. Plus I like knowing that I have created my own unike thing all by myself and I know exactly how every part of it works and why . It also means that if something goes wrong I know how to fix it.