descentchampions.org

I am seeking to do some very low level text-only website development with form submission and database. What is a relatively simple system and language to pick up on? I have a good server (it's the 45.xxx.xx nonsense I always upload my demos to) and am experienced with being a Linux Sysadmin.

Would prefer something that can work with nginx. Any recommendations? The only language that I *know* to be scared of is Haskell.

PHP is probably your best bet. Plus, there's probably many, many, MANY ready-to-deploy systems out there to do what you're looking for.