The purpose of this guide

There is one main reason I have written this guide:

Understanding the difficulty of website development

Given the ubiquitous presence of website builders, content management systems and other ready-built software, it can seem like building a sustainable art or social media website is difficult, but doable. In reality, it is astronomically more difficult than you might expect, especially if making an art or social site that depends primarily on user subscriptions or similar income. 

Part of this guide is aimed at demonstrating the sheer complexity of not only building and running a website of this nature, but making it sustainable. The vast majority of social media sites are not sustainable, even huge ones. Art websites are fairly similar in many cases.

If Deserted Chateau doesn't work out, this documentation is here to try and help others who want to attempt similar projects avoid mistakes.