CMS Choices

[RHunt]

I have been asked to help launch a new community website. I have the time to launch, but not maintain. The operators of this site are nearly computer illiterate, but must be able to do their own updates. I feel that maybe a CMS may be the answer,but I have never worked with one. I know this is like asking "What kind of car should I buy?" How many responses are there? Is CMS where we're headed here? And moreover, what CMS system, once set up would be the easiest (I can't stress that word too much) for them to deal with?

I always appreciate your advice.

[petergar]

Rhunt,

If by "community site" you mean forums, picture gallery, etc. then there a number of great turn-key solutions.

I suggest vBulletin® - Instant Community - forum software, in combination with vBadvanced - a CMS system specifically designed to work with vBulletin® - Instant Community.

Once it's setup then all the work is done from a dashboard that the average joe can figure out.

Depending on his other "community" needs there are dozens of plug-ins for vbulletin that extend its features.

Hope that helps.

Peter

[petergar]

NOTE: Webproworld.com used vBulletin® - Instant Community.

[incrediblehelp]

This has been discussed in length already on WPW:

site:webproworld.com content management systems - Google Search

site:webproworld.com cms - Google Search

[tcustomgolf]

Try these links...gives you good info on lots of CMS's....demo's, reviews, costs, etc...many are free...hope it helps

The CMS Matrix - cmsmatrix.org - The Content Management Comparison Tool
Home - OpenSourceCMS

[John Redfield]

Just asking a similar question myself.... Im making a webiste for a local school "gratis"... looking for something easy that doesnt require html and css and teachers and kids can use with some level of ease and granularity.

Found this article just before this WPN popped in: Drupal and Joomla comparison | CMS Report

Happy hunting

John

[Webconomist]

I've worked with a number of clients on this issue. We're unbiased on CMS platforms since we consult on best practices and strategy, so don't promote any particular one. We don't do design or implementations...that being said.

We've recommended Drupal a lot. There's also a great comparison site; CMS Watch: Content Management, Enterprise Search, and Portal Reports with available reports and comparisons.

The first thing we do is to determine and understand the needs and wants compared to budget, such as;

- What do you want members to be able to do?
- Who is going to moderate any forums (if that is to be a feature)
- Who will act as Publisher, Editor, Writer and what will be the approval processes
- What kind of digital media will you want to allow (text, images, video, audio)
- How important is SEO?
- What are the business objectives?
- Is there a business model element (i.e. are you looking to generate revenues?)
- Who will maintain any technical issues when something breaks? Something always does.
- Is bandwidth and hosting an option?
- Do you want to use an Open Source or Closed Source solution? Budget related.
- How important is design and the UI?
- How much training is required? Ability to train and ongoing training for lost people?

Those are the essential questions we look at to help define the right solution. We have recommended Wordpress a number of times adding vBulletin as the forum sections. You can take a "Blog & Comment" approach or a more in-depth approach like this wonderful WebPro approach.

Just some thoughts.

[bj]

The one that is easiest for luddites to learn to use AND has user roles and permission levels is Wordpress.

I love Drupal, but it's confusing for most people, and the frustration level can be high for beginners. Ditto for Joomla.

[Argey]

I've been playing around with a very easy, small-scale CMS for the last couple of weeks. It's called SEO CMS and is at the snappily-named free SEO website builder optimized web design CMS software (I'm not an affiliate or re-seller for this.)

I rebuilt a one-page site for one of my products into a more complete site using this software. You can see the result at The information organizer that works in 3D

It doesn't need any technical knowledge, and provides many styles and before committing yourself to appearance, you can click to see the result of each style when applied to your own material. It has a free version that links to the publisher on every page, but the version for a single website and no strings attached, which you probably want, is $60.

I was attracted to this by the easy set up and use. I know basic HTML but not much more, and I didn't have to use that knowledge at all, so it should be good for your users.

Argey

[jawn_tech]

If you use WordPress, you can make it appear however you want, even if it isn't a blog. You'd have to show them the difference between writing a page vs. writing a post, and disable comments. Just a few minor edits to theme files to make it look and display however you wish.

And be sure to set their user level to "author" and not "administrator" so that they can't mess anything up that would crash the site or freak out the theme. Then they'll just be able to add and edit content without calling you at 3 AM.

[RHunt]

Thanks for all the advice. It's provided some great tips and things to look at. I really appreciate it when those from the web community take the time to help out.