Ask HN: Ruby, PHP, or Python?

My advice would be that no matter which of these languages you pick, do NOT use a framework (at first). It's important that you learn how the language itself works and puzzle out the common patterns with your own solutions. When you're done learning the basics of web development, then start looking into frameworks.

Learn PHP, but please, please, learn to write clean and manageable code. I highly recommend picking up a framework along with php. Good ones are Symfony and Cakephp. I would have suggested Python but php is much easier to learn and deploy.