I guess my take on this topic is this.
I like to prepare my kids for the "real" world. A real world website developer now-a-days will not just be coding in html only or hard code everything. My students need to understand how the backend works. How to SSH into the web server and issue command line commands. How to use MySQL, and edit the database. How to install php scripts, and fix Unix permissions to run dynamic scripts. Installing something like a CMS is a value add that just coding a static HTML site will not give to my students. This is purely my opinion and my aggressive approach in teaching them how it’s going to be life after college.
However in the sprit of FIRST, the judging is based on "CONTENT". If you code an html site "Static" and have good content, then yes you deserve to be praised. Using a CMS or not is irrelevant based on the scoring sheet of FIRST judging. They are looking at your content, layout, and navigation. Things that are important in a basic website REGARDLESS how or what tools you used to make it.
From my perspective, if I had to choose today to hire a student to be a webmaster for me, I'd choose a student that is experienced in PHP installation, Linux, MySQL, and DNS administration. That's because that what's important to me and my business model. Others might not need that in a student or employee but I view this as a value add that a student can bring when interviewing for a system administrator position within a company.
Again though....CONTENT is the key to winning the judges over, not what technology you used to create it. Anyone can have a crappy website if they don't put it together right or get their act together.
The best thing to do in my opinion is print out the scoring sheet in the AWARDS section. Give that scoring sheet to several people. NON-TECHNICAL people you know. People you go to church with, your grand parents and ask them to score you. You’ll find a wide range of opinions about what you’ve done. If you can’t design a site to score high marks with those people, then you’ve got some work to do to impress the judges.
Good luck with whatever you guys decide.
Here is my success story; In 1999 I started a website mrplc.com which is a “bought” forum board software much like chief delphi. Today mrplc.com is a 16,000 member site with almost a 1 million page impressions a month. People keep coming back because the “content” is dynamic. Technically a forum board is somewhat a CMS system. Are CMS systems bad? I dunno, but it makes it easier to manage the content that is put forth in the website, and people like this organization in a website, or they probably wouldn’t be coming back.
Another aspect of engineering is being effective in engineering a project. I use new technology tools every day to speed up the design process of machines that I design. Hence why I believe FIRST released “EasyC” to all the teams. What a wonderful tool to make a team more efficient in their software design. Efficiency in my work place is #1. The more efficient our engineering department is, the more money we make for the company. If that means spending $10,000 for a piece of software that makes our job easier, then that is what we will do. A recent example is spending $7,000 for AutoCad Electrical in our department. This one piece of software improved electrical design in my department by 47%. That’s truly amazing. Would I go back to doing the electrical design the old way and drawing each symbol the “Hard Code” way…probably not….I even made an AutoCad Electrical menu system pre-AutoCad Electrical to help, but it was time to find a faster "easier" way. I hope someday, you’ll share your success stories when your in the work field.
Autocad menu thingy I made for free download, sorry you have to register to get it though..forum rules...