Build a Website

Currently I have a fairly large project that requires taking an existing website that was built in Ruby and completely rebuilding that site in PHP. The framework of choice that I want to use for this project is the last version of Kohana (yes, I know the project is being closed down). However, it's a lightweight Framework based on Codeigniter and has proven to be extremely robust in actual practice. That said, the current website is located at: [login to view URL] and should only be considered for reference, but not for the total scope. All in all, the scope is to build a website much like our competitors in this space. We are going up against the following example sites (and you should REVIEW THEM COMPLETELY TO UNDERSTAND THE FEATURE SET I'M AFTER HERE): [login to view URL] [login to view URL] [login to view URL] In Short, the website for for the creation and hosting of Guild / Clan / Team based Templates. Additionally, we will need full commerce capabilities, and I'm open to solutions on this front for the most part. I have extensive experience with Magento and OScommerce and both of these are just too "overkill" for this site. All we are looking for is a strong, yet simple commerce system that will allow users to setup Recurring Subscriptions and purchase additional Digital Addons. That's it. Perhaps, Opencart -- I'm very open to discussion with the selected vendor on this one. Secondly, there's API Integration. We currently maintain domains using the OpenSRS API. You will need to integrate fully with this in order to allow our customers to setup and add their own custom domains (otherwise, they will have the choice of creating their website through a url schema such as: [login to view URL] or [login to view URL]). Free signups will have advertising and therefore we need an opensource ad management system that integrates with our templates. This will need to be done through integration with one of the major banner ad services, and again we are open on this front -- But this is an important part of the revenue goals and cannot be overlooked. Lastly, we need you to help with the migration strategy and tools; as there are several existing clients on our old platform and we want to move them over to the new system. You'll note that we need USER FORUMS for each guild site, I'm leaning to Vanilla Forums On our side, I will setup a development server for you with complete access for you to connect, test, and configure the system. We will be using a vanilla configuration of: Apache, MySQL, PHP and if any Web Services are required... These will be handled through Python. The system will likely be an Ubuntu 12.04 LTS config (I don't care for the updates beyond 12.04 presently). Here's the key: 1. You had to ACTUAL read this detailed description and understand it (I can't tell you how much I hate "canned" responses / bids). 2. No bait and switch; bid honestly, and I know it's a big project. Price is important, but your ability to deliver will show. 3. You need to have STRONG experience and help lead the requirements; I'm not always available and need a team that can follow my vision completely 4. You ABSOLUTELY WILL MUST BE FAMILIAR WITH HG (MERCURIAL) - this is not an FTP upload, I expect you and your team to be doing constant commits and pushes to the repo as you are working through the project. If you don't know how a DVCS like GIT or HG works, now is the time to learn, but this is how I will be able to keep track of progress and review the quality of your code. I'm expecting that you will have at least 1 Front-End Developer handling the HTML, CSS (And building a responsive site!!!!) and probably 2-3 people on the PHP side handling tasks to completely build this project from start to finish. Again, this is no small project and definitely not something I want to give to a "first-time" developer.