I dont know how i found this site, but i like it already. Great forums....id add all the digg this and feeds....maybe have a friend invite.

We'd love to, but how?

Hey Freddy,

Don't know if your question was rhetorical or not, but you can do things like RSS feeds and Digg postings using a number of different platforms like Joomla, Expression Engine, DotNetNuke, etc. However, all of these would require moving your forums off of Groupee and into the new system, which is no small undertaking. The upside is you could make your website much more compelling, increase the revenue through your online store, etc.

Make it like a blog, you mean? I'm totally not up to speed on all this new stuff. Should I look to contract someone to at least take a look?

You could get the sql data backup from groupee and many other forum programs have converters. I use SMF they can be found at http://www.simplemachines.org . You could integrate your freddyandeddy.com website better because your site would host the forums. If you go to the smf forum website maybe they coule help you get switched over and if you need any help please let me know. My site has the forums setup and the options and configurations are endless.

Joomla is very extensible and it's designed to be whatever you want it to be. It has a robust shopping cart application VirtueMart, and you have a couple of Joomla-native forums, as well as some bridges to SMF and phpbb forums. It's kind of complex to set up, but once it is, you can submit content through the front end pretty easily. Runs on a MySQL database, and requires little or no html knowledge to update or administer. You can change the look and feel through templates. All you have to do is upload the template, install it and set it as default.
Migrating from Groupee is going to be a major pain in the ass, I would expect. I don't know that you'll be able to make a straight forward swap into Joomla, or anything else, for that matter.
Security-wise, I would definitely want a pro setting it up, due to the credit card information and general site security.

Freddy,

Blog is a bit of an oversimplified description of what F&E.com is. I would suggest a more comprehensive Content Management System (CMS) than most blogging software offers.

There are a lot of CMSes that could do what you need, but there are compromises with every platform. Personally, my two favorite are Expression Engine and MODx. Both are very well architected and easy to set up by pros. Expression Engine has an integrated Forum system but somewhat limited ecommerce capabilities at the moment. MODx has integrated ecommerce using FoxyCart but uses an SMF bridge for its forum capabilities. Both platforms have some very good consultants that build sites for them, though Expression Engine has a larger developer base because it's been around longer. MODx is a new kid on the block.

As Vorbis mentioned, Joomla is very popular and can do the things you want (I'd actually suggest Fireboard instead of SMF if you go the Joomla route). However, Joomla is a pain to customize and manage in my opinion. That's just my opinion as someone who has worked with a number of CMSes over the past few years. As long as you have a professional set up the site for you, any of the three will probably work just fine.

If you'd like to discuss further, feel free to send me an email or private message. This isn't a sales pitch, I'm not taking on additional clients right now, but I'd be happy to make some referrals.

just a note.

the chat room is causing firefox to fault out.

thanks!
N.