Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Recommend a CMS
- Thread starter iGav
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Textpattern is really awesome. It is hard at first because there is no official documentation, but if you search around the forums for documentation and just ask some questions, everyone is really helpful and things get a lot easier to start up. Once you have the site up, it practically runs itself. I'm in the process of switching my site over from Movable Type, which I was using as a CMS
Drupal has gained a lot of momentum in the open-source community. I used it to build Commontext.org. Kairosnews.org also runs Drupal. However, I wouldn't exactly call it easy. It CAN be easy, once you've set it up, but some of its features are less than intuitive. For an open source project, it does have pretty reasonable documentation
You might also consider visiting opensourceCMS.com, which allows you to test out a variety of CMSes before you install.
You might also consider visiting opensourceCMS.com, which allows you to test out a variety of CMSes before you install.
I really like Coranto. It's very simplistic and primitive-looking, but gets the job done with very little hassle, and very expandable with add-ons.
One downside is that it's based on CGI/Perl, not PHP like the newer CMSes.
One downside is that it's based on CGI/Perl, not PHP like the newer CMSes.
Without knowing your requirements I'd have to recommend Mambo. I did some CMS work about a year ago and compared a whole slew of systems. Mambo impressed me in every aspect. Support and use is excellent, the open source nature is heavily supported by the user community. Incredibly powerful. Documentation is a tad weak but because Mambo is so easy to use that isn't much of a downside.
I liked Typo3's power but was turned off by it's lack of intutive interface and the developer's espousal of religion (he lays it on pretty thick). It was a bear to get online and installed properly.
EZpublish is another one with lots of features and potential but the documentation is just horrible. If you run into a problem you're pretty much left to solving it on your own. The developers are in Finland I believe, and so EZpublish doesn't get a lot of US support (it flies under the radar).
So, back to Mambo.
http://www.mamboserver.com/
I liked Typo3's power but was turned off by it's lack of intutive interface and the developer's espousal of religion (he lays it on pretty thick). It was a bear to get online and installed properly.
EZpublish is another one with lots of features and potential but the documentation is just horrible. If you run into a problem you're pretty much left to solving it on your own. The developers are in Finland I believe, and so EZpublish doesn't get a lot of US support (it flies under the radar).
So, back to Mambo.
http://www.mamboserver.com/
Drupal is pretty good. I've used it before - but like others said, it is not very intuitive. Very nice though, either way.
Another method, which is often overlooked, is implementing forum software. You can use phpBB and a script called Fetch-All and make a really nice site.
Fetch-All can fetch posts in your forums, statistics, threads - anything, and then display it however and wherever you'd like. I used to use this system and its really quite nice. You will have to edit a php file here and there, but only simple stuff.
If you are looking for a forum-based website and you want an active forum, such as here, I would look into phpBB and Fetch-All (both free).
I currently use phpBB2 Plus, which is mostly a portal system to a forum, but it works for the purpose of my site (found in my sig).
If you want to just manage your own content (aka not so much a forum) then I would look into Drupal and some of the others mentioned above, although I have not tried any other but Drupal myself.
Another method, which is often overlooked, is implementing forum software. You can use phpBB and a script called Fetch-All and make a really nice site.
Fetch-All can fetch posts in your forums, statistics, threads - anything, and then display it however and wherever you'd like. I used to use this system and its really quite nice. You will have to edit a php file here and there, but only simple stuff.
If you are looking for a forum-based website and you want an active forum, such as here, I would look into phpBB and Fetch-All (both free).
I currently use phpBB2 Plus, which is mostly a portal system to a forum, but it works for the purpose of my site (found in my sig).
If you want to just manage your own content (aka not so much a forum) then I would look into Drupal and some of the others mentioned above, although I have not tried any other but Drupal myself.
