[Atrocities]

The number one question asked is a varation of this question. Its not dumb at all.

When colonizing, you must be sure that your colonizers have population on them. Otherwise they will colonize a planet, and no growth will occur.

You can manually load your colonizers, or use the Colonize button on the upper icon tray.

I use the colonize button my self.

Also, only build and load colonizers from planets that can handle them. IE you don't want to build a colony ship at a newly colonized planet and then tell it to colonize another planet as it will take all of your population say for 1 million and go and colonize that planet.

Right now if you have planets with Zero population, you can colonize them simply by transfering population to them from a cargo ship or another colonizer.

I hope this was a help.