What CMS should I use for my site? (site explanation included)

Hello,

I am trying to create a website that will provide technology reviews in a blog-post format. Wordpress may scream out to you, but just wait a little.

I would like 6 categories (gadgets, technology, blog, etc.) for my posts.

I would love it if there was an easy RSS sign-up incorporated, and if I could incorporate a Login in the front-page.

Also, for later, I would like to add a forum. (OPTIONAL, but def. a bonus)

I have been switching back and forth between all possibilities, but need some outside suggestion on which YOU think I should set up with.

((Any chance it's one of the following??)) -> Wordpress (FAVORITE), Wordpress MU, Joomla!, or Drupal.

Side question... Is forum option possible with Wordpress/Wordpress MU ??

Thanks for your time.

 

I use Joomla for 95% of all my clients because it's open source, theres thousands of extensions that would work great for your needs and the support is super. Even though all the support is volunteer, there's so many Joomla users that someone usually has an answer for your question. Just my opinion.

 

I would recommend wordpress, all the above you mention are possible with wordpress including setting up a forum.

 

Try Joomla

Easy to create category
easy RSS
easy to install forum

But it is not a blogpost format.

You can do it also.
just install comments (component) and choose some template that look like blog.

Good luck!

 

Joomla will work just fine, except you'll need a 3rd party plug in for comments, you cannot assign a post to more than one category, and upgrading is not a pleasant task.

I'd use Wordpress. I'd buy or create a template with Drop Down Navigation for your 6 categories.

 

for something like that, I would suggest you check out e107.org

 

Thanks everyone for your advice... It looks like I'm going to go ahead with joomla!
I do have a followup question, however.

Do any of you know of a plug-in that would allow me to have a thumbnail for every post just like www.psdtuts.com does?

 

I haven't tried any other, because joomla owns .
Use a template change it a bit, create new articles and you are done.
Click and install forum, pretty easy everything.

Im thinking about switching to drupal though because i heard it was better designed to create your own extensions for it and i heard it was better optimizied.

 

wordpress is my CMS system of choice, joomla comes with too much functionality which most people do not need, wordpress you add the functionality as you need it.

 

You can do this with Joomla very easily using the read more option.

This is not true for the latest version of Joomla 1.5.x ... Yes Joomla 1.0.x was not good at all compared to Drupal and Drupal was far better then but now Joomla is more better and more organized and more SEO & SEF which is really amazing. Plus there are more support for Joomla more then Drupal and more plug-in ...etc
But I'd advise you with one thing => There are a lot of BLOGs, CMSs out there and every one including myself will tell you what could be better for him or her according to his/her own experience of tastes or preferences ...etc So you have to take your chances and try them on a local host and see what will be the best choice for you as sometimes no one can tell what will be the better choice for you except you
Good luck ... as choosing which tools to be used in a website is not an easy task.

 

My own personal preference is to use Wordpress first, then look to Drupal if Wordpress won't do the things I want.

For a community website, Wordpress won't go as far as Drupal will. But if you aren't trying for a real community website, then Wordpress is definitely the CMS of choice.

I can't address Joomla, as I've never used it. When I was first looking for an additional CMS to use beside Wordpress, I settled on Drupal for a number of reasons.

I'll make the suggestion, and you can take it for what it's worth - that everyone have just two CMS's in their repertoire - Wordpress, and one additional one, whether it be Drupal, Joomla, e107, etc.

Wordpress for the average website, and a more comprehensive CMS for the sites that cannot be done well with Wordpress.

I suspect that with just a little 'give & take', Wordpress can do almost anything you want... you just have to be willing to either hire a coder, or do with just a tad less than you want.

But if you have two CMS's in your toolbox, you can pretty much do anything you want. (Particularly if you can code natively in HTML or PHP)

Just my two cents worth...

 

Thanks for the GREAT feedback guys...

Could you elaborate on just how to do this? I haven't found a place that explained this to me.

 

Use wordpress of course. Its a 30 minute procedure to do what you want. You would be done already

Nigel

 

I have used Joomla, Drupal and wordpress recently for various jobs. I find that Joomla does have many features, in fact too many if your just starting out. Also can be a bit of a pain installing the extenions with various permission issues. Drupal is good but tends to be used for larger websites. Both really good CMS, but this definately sounds like a job for wordpress. If your just starting out it will probably save you 3 weeks working out the other 2!

 

http://docs.joomla.org/Splitting_an_Article_into_an_introduction_with_a_link_to_read_more

http://docs.joomla.org/Administrators

I hope this may help
=> Check your PMs

 

as long as you code in PHP, ANY cms would do the job.

even an ancient PHP-NUKE !


otherwise, stick with WP.

 

I'd say pick one, stick with it, learn it, use it. No matter which CMS you ultimately decide to use there'll be something that you find a little irritating compared to how maybe other CMS's handle the situation.

You can't go wrong with WP or Drupal, my preference is Drupal. I can't comment about Joomla but judging from other posts I'm sure it is adequate.

 

Try them 1st then make your decision.
Try xamp or if it may be difficult for you, you may make a subfolder in your server to test each of them separately.

 

I went to those, but still there is nothing about using an image thumbnail as the read more link, and thats what I need help on.

 

all you need is probably to modify a few lines of php or css.

but, as you probably are not a coder, you'll either pay a coder for
a customized addon or spend month trying any possible cms
to finally discover that still no one has this sort of options.

it's useless to waste time if you can't code PHP or CSS,
forget it, today you need a thumbnail link, tomorrow who knows,
these free CMS are not made for being easily customized, after
all there's a reason if there's a huge market for commercial
templates and custom addons.