Author Topic: Announcing my new website (superboyac). (Read 83,355 times)

superboyac · « **on:** July 16, 2008, 09:03 PM »

http://aram.dcmembers.com/

Hi everyone, I'm trying to manage some personal content in a well-organized website, so feel free to check it out.

I'm using WordPress with the Mimbo theme, which is a magazine style layout. I like that much better because I don't really care for the chronological presentation of blogs. I just want to present content like a newspaper or magazine would, with a better visual flow. Besides, I don't think I'll have enough material to present in a chronological fashion.

Thanks to mouser and special thanks to gothi[c] for the generosity and assistance.

tomos · « **Reply #1 on:** July 16, 2008, 09:09 PM »

gotta say: I like the way you write Superboyac, so I'm looking forward to this

allen · « **Reply #2 on:** July 16, 2008, 09:16 PM »

I quite like the layout.

superboyac · « **Reply #3 on:** July 16, 2008, 09:50 PM »

THanks guys.

All the content on it right now is stuff I had previously written. I want to polish the presentation more as I go along, with pictures and other goodies. I would also organize my thought a little better. Like that Randy Travis thing is just rambling--I wrote it in SQLNotes a while ago when I was testing out the HTML pane.

Anyway, there will be better stuff on it soon, especially the software section.

Yeah, I like the layout. I hope it won't be too hard to learn to customize it. There's also Mimbo Pro, which costs about $90. I'll get it if I find myself using the website a lot (I may run out of content or motivation, or time...hopefully not).

mouser · « **Reply #4 on:** July 16, 2008, 11:35 PM »

might want to put the site in your forum profile and in your signature.

superboyac · « **Reply #5 on:** July 17, 2008, 04:39 AM »

After doing a little reading tonight, and before I get too into it, I think I'm going to change my website from Wordpress to a regular CMS site. I'm leaning towards Drupal. If anyone has comments, I'm all ears.

Some DC members also recommended the same suggestion to me a while back in this thread. However, I didn't really understand what people were talking about. Now I realize that I'm not really interested in a blog, but more of a static, occasionally updated website with some articles and stuff. The chronology of the things I'm going to write has no importance to me, and instead, I'm more interested in being able to organize the content however I like (which is precisely what a CMS is for).

Anyway, I'm going to try out Drupal now.

mouser, I'll add the site in my signature a little later when the site settles into a format. I actually am a little timid about posting a lot of what I'm intending to. It's kind of like exposing yourself to the world. ANyone can learn a lot about a person with what they write, especially with the amount that I write. it's one thing to write about software, it's another to write about everything that I care about. I guess I shouldn't be so self absorbed, but it's something I didn't think of before.

Some people I know have read my software reviews in the past and they look at me, like, "You wrote this?!" (My brother in law). It's a weird feeling!

xbeta · « **Reply #6 on:** July 17, 2008, 05:42 AM »

100% agree with you.
CMS maybe better for some wirters, also include me.
but wordpress are more easy to use, so I keep in wordperss now.

superboyac · « **Reply #7 on:** July 17, 2008, 06:26 AM »

Here's the theme I'm thinking about using:
http://drupal-6x.themebot.org/&theme=ability

It looks clean and professional. I like how the sections are separated by colors; the eye is easily drawn to the different sections.

xbeta, after I was trying to learn the difference between a "post" and a "page" in Wordpress, I decided that I should just go to a normal CMS application. After I learned the difference, I found out that I'm only interested in pages, but Wordpress' strength is posts. So, before I get too deep into it, I might as well just go to CMS from the start.

mouser · « **Reply #8 on:** July 17, 2008, 07:29 AM »

superboyac i'd suggest you spend a little more time investigating the capabilities of wordpress and drupal and try using drupal for a while.

drupal is very powerful, but it is EXTREMELY confusing to use in my opinion. i would not recommend drupal to anyone who didn't seriously have need for a big multi-user cms with clear need for it.

Wordpress is designed to be a blog but has evolved quite a few features for handling static content and organized sections. I'm not sayign you shouldn't consider a CMS, but i am saying you could be making a pretty painful decision you will come to regret, and you should experiment with actually using both tools for a while.

If you do think you might eventually want to move to having multiple users create cms content then it still might be a good idea to go with a cms, be that drupal or something else.

superboyac · « **Reply #9 on:** July 17, 2008, 07:56 AM »

Hmmm...that gives me a lot to think about. Then let me explain everything going through my head right now and you guys can help me make a decision.

--I like Wordpress, but after reading about posts and pages, I started changing my mind. The reason is that I don't want a blog format. I want a nice looking website with 3 or 4 main sections accessible from a homepage. Kind of the donationcoder main site (not the forum).

--I don't care about multiple users and stuff. I suppose it would be nice to have a place for comments, but it's not necessary.

--I guess I don't understand what CMS really means. I didn't realize it had to do with multiple users creating their own content.

--I'd like to be able to control the layout of the site fairly easily. I'd like a main navigation on the top, sidebars for additional content. Most importantly, I'd like the main middle section to be like blocks. Meaning, rectangles that can be sized according to how I feel. These rectangles would be links to specific articles, which would also be accessible through the other navigation tools around the sides and stuff.

--Chronology of articles...not important to me at all.

--Basically, let's say I have 100 articles ready to share. I want to turn these articles into nice "magazine-like" articles, with interesting graphics and nice layouts.

--I'd like to have decent search capabilities, maybe tags and categories like traditional blogs. But I'm not obsessed about it like blogs are.

--If there are nice, professional, clean templates available for whatever platform, that would be nice. If not, hopefully it won't be too hard to make one from scratch.

--As far as the template design, it would be nothing complicated. I'd like it to be clean, and easy to follow with the eyes. I don't like using graphics in the background besides the logo. I'd probably end up using clean, solid colors. Maybe a gradient at the most. No patterns or actual designs. This way, it's clean, easy to maintain for me, and (I'm assuming) easy to change color schemes if I need to. Also, no complicated shapes in the backgrounds. Mostly just rectangles. Perhaps some rounded corners at the most. I know it sounds boring, but I like stuff like that.

Hopefully, this will help you guys give me some suggestions that fit. Thanks!!

justice · « **Reply #10 on:** July 17, 2008, 08:33 AM »

I'd suggest websitebaker for any more simpler content managed website it's very logical and clear and there's plenty ways to add plugins to it. That said i don't have any experience with drupal.

nudone · « **Reply #11 on:** July 17, 2008, 12:14 PM »

maybe one of the 'magazine' style themes for wordpress would be right. this would make it look less like a blog and more like a 'magazine' website.

PPLandry · « **Reply #12 on:** July 17, 2008, 01:25 PM »

It took me about 1 day to get used to the Drupal. It is different than other CMS, but so much more flexible and powerful. The SQLNotes website is being re-designed using Drupal (was DNN).

Superboyac, if you need help with understanding Drupal, I can give out a hand, since I just went through it myself!

superboyac · « **Reply #13 on:** July 17, 2008, 05:38 PM »

Thanks Pierre, I don't know what to do at this point. I know mouser is pretty careful with his warnings, so I have to take that seriously. I don't want to use something complicated if I don't have to. And I don't think I need it to be powerful because I'm not going to be doing anything complicated with it. So, I'll take mouser's advice and avoid Drupal for now.

Now, Wordpress seemed good, especially with the magazine style themes. However, I was looking at their "page" system, and I don't really like. Again, Wordpress is great for "posts" or blog entries, but if I'm going to be just using static pages, maybe there is a better option available.

justice, I'm checking out websitebaker. It looks nice. I'll have to research other options a little more before making a decision.

Please, keep the advice coming, I'm listening!

PPLandry · « **Reply #14 on:** July 17, 2008, 07:47 PM »

Drupal can do static pages too, not just blog and forum posts. Wordpress is also an excellent environment, but I don't have any experience using it and seems more oriented towards blog posting.

BTW, Drupal and SQLNotes have similarities: You create content (nodes in Drupal, items in SQLNotes) and then choose on which page(s) it is shown. Content is disassociated from pages (unlike many other CMS). So since you know SQLNotes, learning Drupal may be easier for you.

superboyac · « **Reply #15 on:** July 17, 2008, 09:14 PM »

Quote from: PPLandry on July 17, 2008, 07:47 PM

Drupal can do static pages too, not just blog and forum posts. Wordpress is also an excellent environment, but I don't have any experience using it and seems more oriented towards blog posting.

BTW, Drupal and SQLNotes have similarities: You create content (nodes in Drupal, items in SQLNotes) and then choose on which page(s) it is shown. Content is disassociated from pages (unlike many other CMS). So since you know SQLNotes, learning Drupal may be easier for you.

Hmm...should I give it a shot? It sounded like mouser was saying to stay away from it if I don't need that kind of power. I don't know.

superboyac · « **Reply #16 on:** July 17, 2008, 09:14 PM »

What do you guys think of Silverstripe? I've heard it's easier to use than Drupal and Joomla, but still flexible and powerful.

How about CMSMadeSimple?

superboyac · « **Reply #17 on:** July 17, 2008, 09:27 PM »

What about this:
http://www.strictlycss.com/articles/article/40/the-only-css-layout-you-need

I like the idea. I admit, it may be a little too simple even for me, but I'm not ruling it out quite yet!

superboyac · « **Reply #18 on:** July 17, 2008, 09:42 PM »

mouser, could you maybe describe in as much detail as you care for, what is the difficult and confusing part of drupal?

superboyac · « **Reply #19 on:** July 17, 2008, 09:55 PM »

OK, here's an interesting one, Snews:
http://snewscms.com/

Looks like a little bit of work to setup, but simple enough to use afterward.

superboyac · « **Reply #20 on:** July 18, 2008, 04:31 AM »

I've been reading A LOT about Wordpress, CMS, Drupal, and other options. It's so confusing, but I think I'm going to be sticking with Wordpress for the time being.

Shades · « **Reply #21 on:** July 18, 2008, 06:07 AM »

Maybe MiniCWB http://www.mini-open-cms.com would be a nice system for you to use. Nice, clean and simple.

superboyac · « **Reply #22 on:** July 18, 2008, 07:04 AM »

Quote from: Shades on July 18, 2008, 06:07 AM

Maybe MiniCWB http://www.mini-open-cms.com would be a nice system for you to use. Nice, clean and simple.

Oh, good one! That one looks pretty cool. I will have to give that a try.

urlwolf · « **Reply #23 on:** July 18, 2008, 09:01 AM »

I think WP is the way to go, too... the magazine templates are really nice.
Have you looked at any? I wish I had bookmarked some I found (and cannot find anymore

)

justice · « **Reply #24 on:** July 18, 2008, 09:40 AM »

If you're in doubt go with the one that's best supported. Which probably is wordpress / drupal. and as you already know wordpress, sticking with it will not be the worst option. As they used to say you can't go wrong with IBM. wordpress is the ibm of personal homepages.