I need your advice before I start.

So far, Gallery seems to be the application that I need, but I want to ask your advice before I dive in.

I have tens of thousands of pictures and videos.

I want a web based site that will allow people to browse in and to help me document the pictures and albums. Who, when, where information.

I want the documentation comments to work LIKE Facebook. People will see previous comments and add their comments.

I want previous commenters to be notified, when new comments are made LIKE Facebook.

I have no interest in integrating with Facebook in any way.

People who browse in will do so by invitation only with a password. Not public.

In looking through this forum, I think I noticed that all photos must reside in a folder called var. My photos exist over a collection of 3TB drives. I don't see how to reconcile this requirement.

My colleague says he saw something in the forums about using Aperture as the data base. I don't know if that means in addition to or replacing SQL.

I am a Macite, so I'd like to run Gallery on my Mac server. I see that the Mac server is a nonstandard Gallery server, but possible.

I saw some forum discussion about putting the pictures on a server separate from the Gallery server with links. If that can be done, then I might put all the pictures on drives and colocate them at my ISP which has enormous bandwidth. Run the Gallery server in my office with modest bandwidth.

I'll repost this to a more appropriate forum if you recommend it.

So, your advice will be appreciated.
Doc