Lost newbie - getting started -edit

[tarnishedangel]

OK... i am willing to take any teasing and taunting that goes along with this post... but please offer help also 

i have absolutely NO idea what i am doing.  there is a small group of us trying to use coppermine on our fan site to organize our screencaps and video clips.  problem is that as the "expert" on most things computer i have NO idea what i am doing.  PHP, SQL... OMG... cna someone spell out for me,  in plain  english please, what i need to do ... your Program offers EXACTLY what i want the opportunity to batch upload, and organize both caps and video clips for our site... ANY help in getting started would be SOOOO appreciated.  I am not even sure what needs to be downloaded, what i run from my computer, what i run from the net, and how (if at all) we can make it so that people on our admin can add things to our gallery but members cannot... i am more than willing to give credit where credit is due and will provide links back if anyone wants them, but someone please tell me where and how to start... i tried reading the tutorials and withough understanding what i am doing, they do me little good... but coppermine has come the most highly recommended of any gallery service there is
thanks so much   


***Edit - i must post a thank you to the user who posted in another thread RTFM (ROFL) having worked in Tech support i know the term well... and clicked the link the information is MUCH easier in the FM than it is in the tut ... so i think i am getting more now what i need to do... still VERY lost... and looking for a starting point... i learn fast usually, so if someone can tell me ( i know that it tells me what i need... but do i download this all to my puter? or do i run these things from the net?) where to start i would SOOOO appreciate that

[Joachim Müller]

1) I suggest that you already have got a webhosting contract, i.e. some webspace that is up and running. Make sure that your webserver has the minimum requirements
2) Download the most recent stable version of coppermine to your pc
3) Unzip the package, preserving the folder structure, to your PC's hard drive
4) Use your FTP app and upload the unzipped package from your PC's hard drive to your server
5) Type the URL of the folder you uploaded coppermine to into your browser's address bar
6) Fill in the mysql data and everything that the installer asks you to fill in (no guessing there, you have to know what you enter). The only thing that you can make up is your coppermine username and password

That's basically it. If this is too much for you and you don't even understand the "Download, unpack, upload" tutorial, then you should review the idea to run a website of your own or hire someone to actually install coppermine for you. The target audience for coppermine are people who know their way around using an FTP-app, uploading files using FTP. It helps if you have some basic html knowledge, especially if you plan to make coppermine match the look of your website.

[tarnishedangel]

thank you so much i really appreciate the help... truth be told i am the computer person of the group, but understand little about web design ... whereas the other co owner understands more about webdesign but could not for the LIFE of her understand how to get coppermine running on the site.  I think between the 2 of us we will have a better idea of what we need to do now, thanks to your help

thanks so much again