my partner and i are launching a social learning platform - the requirements have been mapped out and are quite basic/intuitive.

we are familiar with html/css, and have some very basic understanding of php, but we would love some feedback on whether we should tackle this ourselves or not. we've built websites, but in the past relied mostly on pre-fab code, i.e. wordpress, ning, etc.

we've been looking specifically at ruby for developing the network, but i haven't delved into it fully yet.

we're looking for some guidance and feedback - e.g. thoughts on ruby on rails? what's the learning curve? are we getting in over our heads?

thanks in advance!