Question

Topic: E-Marketing

The Great Content Management System Debate

Posted by ewais on 11/9/2011 at 3:33 PM ET 25 Points
We're researching the various pros and cons of popular content management systems. While it seems like there is a hodgepodge of information out there about them, I'm curious as to what the current thinking is on this topic, from the people who use them. There's no right or wrong answer here, I'm simply looking to facilitate some knowledge sharing about the relative merits of the various open source content management systems (think DotNetNuke, WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, SharePoint, others?) Worked with one? Share your experience here, and be specific! Key criteria might be size, cost, availability of support, plugins, adaptability/customization, eCommerce, learning curve, overall "ease of use," good resources, etc. (Alternatively, if you know of a good resource that provides a valid comparison of them, please share!) Thanks for your help!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by modza on 11/9/2011 at 5:10 PM Accepted
    Kathy's response covers most of what I was going to say!

    I'd add that Wordpress, already popular as a blog platform, is still growing as it adds plugins that make it very functional for what I would dare say is now a majority of diverse, full-fledged websites -- plus it is easy for the lay customer to use.

    The key issues include:
    1. Who should be able to add content, and what kinds (text, heavily formatted text, photos, video, Flash (hope not!), reader comments (screened first or not), pdfs, presentations, slideshows, animation -- as well as new pages and page types.

    It's generally better to have the business end-users be able to do uploads through forms that check file type, etc. than to slow the system down by requiring programmers. They're better at and better employed creating new functions than at data entry!

    2. Is your content delivery one-way, from you to many? In this day and age, it should not be! But some CMS's are inherently conversational or multi-party in structure, and others have hastily bolted on some form of comment system after the fact.

    3. How many people do you hope to accommodate? Some systems are readier than others to grow rapidly.

    4. How important is SEO and graphic layout to you? Some CMS now incorporate search engine-friendly features (like URLs in plain English). And some insist on one of a limited number of design templates (2-column, 3-column) while others permit blocks of content to be shuffled around the page.

    5. What programmers are available to you? PHP/MySQL is still the most popular combo, so it's often easier to find new programmers comfortable with those than some of the trendier (and sometimes actually better in certain ways) languages. I had a great programmer who loved Python, but when he left my small city, I could not find a single programmer in town (yes, I did go online and found someone remote, but that's not the same, at least not for me, in that particular company.)
  • Posted by ewais on 11/9/2011 at 5:33 PM Author
    Thanks for the great responses so far! I hope we can get some more and continue this discussion. Both commenters so far brought up great points. Other good considerations mentioned are SEO and permissions...I'm curious what others think are the relative merits of the different CMSs as far as these issues are concerned.
  • Posted by chiron34 on 11/10/2011 at 10:41 AM Member
    ewais,

    You have two excellent responses to your question, yet you have said 'I hope we can get some more and continue this discussion.'

    Don't be offended but you have only offered 25 points for responses to your question. If three or four more contribute, they will all get only three or four points each.

    For busy, knowledgeable people, that is not much of an incentive to drop what they're doing to respond to you.

    chiron34
  • Posted by ewais on 11/10/2011 at 2:39 PM Author
    Chiron34,

    I appreciate your candor but please understand that my purpose in posting this question was to facilitate some discussion among knowledgeable professionals about a relevant and timely topic that I think holds a lot of interest for those of us in the marketing industry. I wasn't looking for a definitive answer but rather to facilitate a discussion - which I hope I made clear in my original question. While the point system is fun and certainly beneficial, forums are generally meant to provide a platform for knowledge sharing - which is what I was trying to do by posting this question. If members are only interested in racking up points, that seems to 'miss the mark' with regard to the true purpose of a forum. And, members can choose to post or not post at their discretion. In summary, my intent was not to abuse the system but rather facilitate a discussion about a topic I'm sure many are interested in.
  • Posted by chiron34 on 11/10/2011 at 10:46 PM Member
    ewais,

    Further to the comments from KSA could I conclude this exchange by suggesting that the number of points offered reflects the importance of the subject matter to the poster. This is the perspective from which I look at whether I should respond.

    25 points doesn't rank the topic very high as an important or priority issue, Ergo, many responders like me will come to a conclusion that if the poster doesn't seem that interested, then why should we waste our time.

    The point here is that we are not chasing points, but we use the points offered as indicative of importance or priority.

    ciron34
  • Posted on 11/11/2011 at 6:56 PM Member
    Thanks to those who contributed.
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