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CMS Needs

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Why is it that nearly every open source CMS thinks they should look and act like a clone of Slashdot? Most sites have needs for content that extends beyond a list of news items with comment, email, and print links.

Most sites in need of content management aren’t blogs or news sites. They are small businesses who want an easy way to update their sites, change their contact information, update services and events, and that sort of thing. News-oriented systems like Drupal or Postnuke aren’t doing a good job of selling themselves to these types of sites.

Where’s the easy-to-use CMS for the average small Web site?

Sachin
December 22, 2005 5:33 AM

Can anyone help comparing CITYDESK with DREAMWEAVER! Actually my seniors want me to use citydesk ...the sites we develop are not BLOGs nor NEWS websites... they do not change very often.... For what type of websites i should use CITYDESK and for what types I SHOULD NOT USE it?

Kate Emmalee
January 12, 2006 3:28 PM

driving For the first time all evening Marty lapsed into silence casinos the way.

mcp
January 19, 2006 8:23 AM

I would recommend Drupal at http://drupal.org

duckedape
March 5, 2006 9:33 AM

There are demos of some at opensourcecms.com; they include a "lite" category. The one that looks most interesting (but I have not tested it yet) is Pivot (from pivotlog.org), flat file, open source, php. Personally, I like what I can do with dokuwiki, a flat file php wiki. Other wikis features (and requirements) can be considered at wikimatrix.org. For largish sites with hierarchical structure, Apache Forrest can be a good solution. It using Cocoon, etc to convert files to xhtml. The drawback is that you have to feed it xml files as input, so that does limit its audience. Hope this helps.

Smilodon
March 25, 2006 3:22 AM

Where’s the easy-to-use CMS for the average small Web site?... Seems you have not looked very hard, open up google, and try again. Iv seen many of them, the one i remember right now is CMSimple. Good luck.

Darren James
March 29, 2006 4:06 PM

Editables.com are offering a total cms solution with one thing in mind, ease of use. Editables.com have created an instant cms system that will let users with little to no knowledge edit their entire site simply and easily. Editables have had alot of "flack and bad comments" from the tech geeks about releasing their new product as the geeks believe that everyone should be a programmer and they don't want the average user being able to edit their website. Editables.com made it on the front page of Digg.com which was generating millions of hits and interest for them and they recieved 561 digs in 3 hours. However the geeks started protesting and saying things like. "who doesnt know how to ftp" "this service is catering for the lower end of the food chain" The geeks also hid all the positive comments and they succeeded in getting it removed off the front page before it got too big. 561 positive comments (diggs) and 61 complaints from geeks and it was removed. The answer to you question is that "the solution is out there, editables.com" However programmers and web designers are usually the people who build CMS's and they dont want those people looked after. As soon as a product comes out that looks after the average person. They protest against it.

Dragos
June 18, 2006 2:08 AM

There are some easy to use cms's out there. Take a look at Oxygen CMS at www.oxygen-cms.com for example. It's intended for entrepreneurs and small business sites, exactly what you were looking for.

NeilA
June 23, 2006 3:34 AM

I am (I think) a typical small business owner looking for ease-of-use website maintenance. I've done the DIY approach, learnt some CSS and used plain vanilla text editors, WYSIWIG editors and 'site managers'. I was looking for some form of website manager and started looking at mini or 'lite' CMSs. I've visited some of the site mentioned here and am flabbergasted at the hype (hyperbole!) pushed out. Just about all the sites aim their jargon at the techs - not the typical business owner looking to create/maintain a site. Get wise you sellers of CMSs! Do some testing with SBOs, clean up your jargon and you might get some sales! Oxygen-cms looked, on the surface, to be something near what I thought I might need. It seemed not too heavily weighted towards blogs, news feeds and user management stuff. I can cope with some mySQL stuff and so gave it a go. Problem #1: There is no installation guide in text/PDF - just a darned video thing. There is no FAQ There is no 'contact us' link The installation video is not explicit enough and when mine came up against an error I was left in the middle of nowhere with an unhelpful error message and no help (see above re contact/FAQ/install guide). I managed to fight my way to a feedback page on their site and left a help request but have had no reply in 5 days. Sorry Oxygen - you flunked! Back to square one for me and my search for a WSMS (web site management system) - I'm giving up on any search using the the letters "CMS"!

Dan
June 26, 2006 1:53 PM

Hi NeilA , Please use the feedback form at www.oxygen-cms.com/Feedback.html in order to send us your problems. We had technical problems with our website but we are willing to help you solve your install error. Please note that Oxygen is in BETA Version so errors like that may occur. I'm sorry to write this post here but NeilA did not leave an e-mail address for contact.

NeilA
July 18, 2006 10:52 PM

Dan, I recall there was an e-mail field to be filled in when I posted the feedback. Having now moved on to and grappled with Mambo I see that such feedback pages don't allow mail to be sent without an reply address. Anyway - I just went to check your website today to confirm same - but it is shut down for a week. For readers interested in 'simple; easy-to-use CMS: Mambo was reasonably easy to set up and get running with all their sample content showing the way it works. Getting to grips with actually operating it involves a steep learning curve and you need to know how to drive with CSS. (You can't have your cake and eat it can you?) It is biased towards intensive use with news, newsflashes, adverts, user control, hits,blogging etc but once you strip out that sort of stuff you can achieve some sort of sensible site which can suit a business looking to maintain a low-key presence on the Net. That said, I am looking to use it for a local 4WD club's site where frequent updating is needed with event calendars, photo galleries and the like.

TYPO3
August 30, 2006 3:03 AM

TYPO3 is the fastest growning CMS at the moment. There are some reasons, why... you should take a look.

Typo3 Agentur
January 23, 2007 6:36 AM

In my opinion Typo3 is the best Web Content Management System. But there are two interesting alternatives CMS:Joomla / Mamboo an Drupal.

Rev Jeff
February 21, 2007 7:32 AM

I have been using many CMSs for a few years. The best one that can work with any html/htm site is lemonCMS. I have quite a few clients that I built sites for who use lemonCMS to edit content and upload pictures. This is awesome because it gives me the freedom to creat a great looking site and they can make simple changes on their own. Most of the sites I design are made with one main page that is php and can not be edited with the CMS so the client can't break it. All other pages load into an iframe. This gives me the most control over the look and feel of the site. Most recently I started embeding the pages using the include tag. I build the page and do all of the menus. The client can then edit any of the pages with ease. lemonCMS I use an older version. The one I downloaded a few months ago was unstable.

Webdesign
April 28, 2007 5:59 AM

Typo3 ist the best, because there are no limits for most of webprojects

TIMBaER
August 16, 2007 8:12 AM

I will use Typo3 in kombination with Yaml CSS. So I can it use very well. Thanks

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