PLUG website (was Re: class this Wed!)

    If PLUG is looking for an out of the box solution, postnuke works. I have
developed qutie a few websites with the features you list and have found
that it's more convenient, more scalable, and more controlled to develop
it yourself. Prime example, would be having forums and postnuke on the
same site. If you wanted them to share the user database and
authentication tables, that would require re-writing one of the other (or
both
if you want a clean database.) I know absolutely jack about PHP (aside
form making it create files ont eh server, list them, delete them, and send
email) so I wouldn't be the person to build such a site. If ASP were an
option, I could have it built in a week. =)

To clarify my reasons for opposing postnuke:
    I have seen waaaaaaay too many sites using it.  Very much a 'canned'
        website, yet still effective in many applications.
    Seems a little bloated in my opinion with a lot of features that nobody
        will ever use, and customizing it seems to be a bit of a hassle
        (yet again, this is probably since i know nothing of PHP coding.)

    Other than that, postnuke would fit the bill, but depending on PLUG's
future,
may not scale well with the needs and desires down the road.

As far as...

<snip>
There has also been some discussion about being able to manage similar sites
for other local user type groups and consolidate or at least integrate them
to avoid information reentry.
</snip>

    I personally can't say if that would be very feasible with postnuke, as
I'm not exactly sure how it handles user demographics and authentication in
it's database tables.  I can say that building a site from scratch would
allow
PLUG to incorporate basically anything they want, without any overhead of
having
extra features that never get used (backend.php, AvantGo, etc.)

    If you can find me the coders, I would be more than happy to head a project
along these lines, as it's very similar to what i'm currently building for
another website.

    Bottom line is getting people away from mundane tasks like updating the
site (also providing visitors with out-of-date info) and getting them back
into production
on other tasks.  Volunteer resources are scarce enough these days, no use in
wasting them.  =)

Adam Rader

-----Original Message-----
From: plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
[mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of David
Uhlman
Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2002 12:00 AM
To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
Subject: PLUG website (was Re: class this Wed!)


Can you elaborate on what you hate about postnuke or perhaps propose an
alternative. It seems that the goal is to reduce maintenance overhead, allow
multiple layers or roles of permissions for different forms on contribution.
Must be free software, php based, work with mysql or flatfile, "news type"
content management and ideally a calendar. Also if it can be attractively
themed that would be nice. Should work with IE and Mozilla and hopefully
Konquerer.

There has also been some discussion about being able to manage similar sites
for other local user type groups and consolidate or at least integrate them
to avoid information reentry. I don't think anyone expects that out of the
box or to happen for quite some time though. Personally I also would like
some type of forums system for certain types of information, especially to
contribute and comment to plug based projects.

I am not looking for a flame war,or an I like this, I like that type
discussion. Nor I am voicing my personal opinions about postnuke. I mention
postnuke because my company recently conducted a very in depth consulting
evaluation on open source cm systems (of which an excerpted report will be
available free soon) and post nuke fills adequately many of the criteria I
listed.Given the criteria above or revise them as you see fit, what would
best benefit the plug site, what do you think is a workable solution?

If you are willing to write it from scratch I sincerely doubt that anyone
would mind but if not I don't think realistically that that could happen, so
some sort of existing project would have to be used. Personally I think the
main reason a cm system would be so beneficial is that a tremendous amount
of the organization that goes on is centralized to a few people and occurs
in person to person, private email, or as a sort of best individual effort,
in addition to the list. By introducing a system to organize the information
and processes going on everyone gets a better chance to contribute and
contributions take less time to work into the process. These people can do
more for the community as a whole if they don't have to do grunt work
updating times on websites and such.

Sincerely,
David Uhlman
CTO 50km Inc.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Thoreau" <ARader@supportbeam.com>
To: <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
Sent: Saturday, August 31, 2002 9:26 PM
Subject: RE: class this Wed!


> As far as the website....
> Hate postnuke (with a passion.) If PLUG wants something similar to
> postnuke, i think the best bet is to write it from scratch. But that's
just
> my opinion. =)
>
> Adam Rader


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