My Immense Information

I run into this issue with a lot of things, and many people find it to be a nuisance.
I simply type a lot of information when I could arguably use much less. (An example being a question I just posted on the Drupal forms, which I will copy and paste at the end of this thread.)

Do you guys feel that it's really that bad, and for general comments and questions, should I lighten it up a lot?
The way I look at it, I'm simply covering all there is to cover.
The way others look at it, I'm covering all there is to cover, and then some, and then some, and then some.

And if anyone is bored and actually willing to take a read through of my Drupal post, what do you think I should cut? (I realize all of the personal information is probably just taking up space, but some of it (like where I talk about my brother's friend), is so I can elaborate that I have gone through all of my options. (Or to elaborate another point, depending on where it was used.)
Oh, and feel free to answer either of the questions if you just so happen to be familiar with Drupal ;p Haha.

I know there have been a multitude of instances where I ask a question somewhere and it never gets answered, 'cause no one could be bothered to read the whole thing. However, when I include less, I feel like I'm not including enough, and it feels like there's always one more thing that I should cover.

Thanks guys

The Drupal Question:
P.S. Drupal uses HTML, not BBCODE. Throughout the question I italicized words to provide emphasis, and the only way to re-provide it is to re-read and re-emphasize. For that reason it's all left out; I only went through and did the titles and a few key points. (It's not a big deal anyway. I just love my <i> )
Introduction:
I would like to start out first and foremost by apologizing if this is in the wrong section; it's quite hard to find one that fits. I've spent a lot of time asking people I know with more tech experience than myself, though they've not used Drupal themselves. I also spent much time on Google and reading other users threads, but to no avail.

Also, do not let the bulk of this thread scare you. There's a lot that may be skipped, and I point out where.
There's a lot here because I wanted to cover everything. I realized it's going to be a barricade of a sort as it will scare away many people, but I would really,really, really appreciate it if you read it.
These two issues have been driving me absolutely insane, and nothing would make me happier then getting these resolved.

About the server/site:
My website is "dcoverdrive.com" and it's hosted at bluehost.com, which is one of the recommended Drupal hosts. I purchased a dedicated IP, and I'm running Drupal 7.14.

I purchased a SSL from Godaddy and have it all set up on the website. (You may visit "https://www.dcoverdrive.com" to see.)

Background info:
I realized there's a lot here, so you may skip this section. It has nothing to do with the website issues. However, before you pass any judgement/tell me to simply read through all of the documentation, I would really appreciate it if you read this.

I've started writing websites for people, but my knowledge only spans to HTML, CSS, and rudimentary JS and PHP.
I'm amazing at writing static pages for people, and I've been trying to make some money doing it. (Nothing's better than making money doing what you love, no matter how small of a paycheck it may be! -- I'd already be spending my spare time doing this stuff, so why not get paid doing it, right?)

My best friend's girlfriend's father is looking for an online shop with which he can manage the items himself. I feel as if I know enough where I could write this by hand, but I know it isn't a good idea. I would prefer not to do such a big product for someone other than myself (until I master it), as I don't know that it would work as intended. (And I don't want to send him a website that only 1/2 works.) I also didn't want to take on such a big project for only $300. (The economy is tough and he's by no means a rich man -- this website is just an entrepreneurial idea.)
My brother watched his friend create a similar e-commerce website in Durpal and said it went smoothly, looked great, and worked amazingly. Plus this friend made $1,000 doing minimal work over a weekend; how awesome is that!? (Though he already makes 6 digits as a high school graduate D He suggested I check it out, and that's why I'm here. (The down side is he doesn't remember how he did anything, so he's not of much/any help, and do to a highly controversial argument between their wives, they are no longer in touch.)
P.S. I realize I give what may be called an excessive amount of unneeded personal information, but so be it. It's not hurting anything, it's nothing I consider too personal to share, and it only provides more information.

I've read through much of the documentation and the "book" that was on the website, and I've really tried to familiarize myself with Drupal. I, however, am not a pro by any means, and most definitely am not going to claim to be.
I'm certain there's still a lot more learning to be done, but I've not had much time. (Wake up, take a shower, go to work, come home, eat a small meal, catch my breath, do my insanity workout (about 1 hr), drink my protein shake, catch my breath, take a shower, eat a giant meal, then do whatever I can with the leftover time.)
On top of not having much time, I don't truly feel it's 100% worth spending hours upon hours learning all there is about Drupal, as I don't intend to use it after this website. I would like to dedicate more time to harden my HTML5, JavaScript, PHP, Java, and Python skills, and eventually be able to do all of this myself. (Not taking on any more websites for a while. The only reason I did this is because I wanted to help the guy out, and short of this he was going to use a site like webs.com. I would like to move away from sites and work more on programming at any rate, but I would love to know all this for when I personally need it. (Or need a quick buck.))

*You should read this if you skipped the above part*:
With that said, it would be appreciated if I didn't get forwarded to documents where it's suggested that I simply read and figure stuff out from the ground up.
I personally hate it when people expect to be spoon-fed through stuff, but as hypocritical as it sounds, I would really appreciate it at this point. (Plus my issues are two fairly specific ones, so spoon-feeding will likely fit best for this scenario.)

Issue 1:
When I go to register a new account on the website (which you may try for yourself -- dcoverdrive.com), it gives me an error message "Error: Unable to send e-mail. Contact the site administrator if the problem persists."
I really thought I had everything set up correctly, and I've done my best to go back through and check it all. I have it set so no email verification is set up, as having a valid email isn't really that important to me or the client. (I wouldn't mind making them have a valid email, but I disabled it in the hopes that this message would disappear. On top of that, it's merely a small shop, so it's more of a nuisance for customers than anything to require verification.)

So what should I do to resolve this? Even if it's only getting the error message to hide itself, that's perfectly okay with me.

The closest thing to an answer I've been able to find online is this, but I don't even know if that will help or not. (Plus it's for Ubercart, which I'm not running, so the only way this would help is if something similar could be implemented elsewhere.)

Final Note: I don't know if this issue is going to come up elsewhere in the site, as I haven't tested it that thoroughly yet. Does anyone know if Lite Commerce attempts to send emails when users shop, and if so, will the fix also resolve this? (Though I would assume it would, unless all we do is hide the above message.)

Issue 2 (SSL):
The client has purchased a dedicated IP address at bluehost, and I've got the SSL from GoDaddy installed on the website. (If you visit https://dcoverdrive.com you will notice that it works.)

Once the website is being viewed securely (by manually going to https), all pages seem to stay HTTPS, and that's what I want. HOWEVER, the site defaults as http://, and I know 99.9999999999999999% of users are going to see it that way.

So, is there an easy way to automatically redirect all http traffic to https?

I thought of moving Drupal to another folder on the server such as "site", and placing a plane HTML file that redirects the user to https://dcoverdrive.com/site, but that's not really what I want.
1) I would much preffer the site to simply be dcoverdrive.com, and not have the files located in a sub-directory.
2) All the user/"hacker" has to do is get rid of the s, and they will have unsecured access.

I've read through this, but all it did was tell me what I already know; it didn't tell me how to do what I needed.

Is there a setting so registration, logging in, and shopping is done securely that I just didn't notice? If there is I would be willing to settle for that. I'm not in favor of it since it leaves the possibility of man-in-the-middle attacks open, but seeing as how I doubt that would happen for such a small site, I'm okay with setting it up that way.

My true goal still remains to simply catch all http traffic and automatically redirect it to https.

Last words:
I would preffer a simple, straight-forward answer, but I realize it's definitely not always that easy.
If it comes to the point where it may be necessary, I would be open to providing a trusted Drupal user remote access to my computer, which is logged into the websites admin account. (I realize it involves sacrificing your time, so I realize that me asking this may seem assenine. I would greatly appreciate it though, and once I get paid for the website, I would happily provide you with a donation through PayPal if you so wish. (I would even do it now, but I'm absolutely broke. (I.E. borrowing money for gas until I get my next check! D)

Thank you so much for anyone and everyone who took the time to read this and help me out. You have no idea how much I truly appreciate it!

-Dave

 

An important skill to develop for the professional world is being able to provide enough information, but make sure that at the same time you are being concise as to not drone on and on and bore people.

How can you do this? It is fairly easy. Go back through what you wrote and take out anything that is redundant information, anything that doesn't pertain to the question or answer, anything that is what I will call 'filler' such as anecdotes or unessential examples. Anything where you say 'This can be skipped' means it shouldn't be in there. If you are asking a question about coding something, they don't need to know why you are coding it - that is useless information.

 

Edit: Will a moderator please close this? There really isn't anything left to be said. Thanks

Thanks Nero. I feel as if this is definitely one of those situations where I knew the answer, I just felt there there was some magical solution I didn't know about. (Which is never the case.)

Some days, like today, I'm definitely worse on providing too much stuff.
A lot of it stems from being told multiple times that I didn't provide enough information, and people always seem to have random questions I thought useless. A lot of it's just me being talkative.

 

Closed