Right now I’m running Joomla! 1.5.8 as the main website, and it’s been doing us good so far. Took me a few months to put everything together (this is my first production CMS site) but it’s here. Since we’re starting a podcast this season, I figured that I would need a way to maintain episode releases, including (but not as important) a pretty interface to manage an iTunes podcast entry.
For that, I looked into WP. I love the way it works, the administration, etc. As I look at it, and what it can do, I think about what it would be like to just use WP instead.
Obviously, this late in the game, I’m sticking to the current site, but I figure I’d try switching down the road soon. So, to the teams using Wordpress as their CMS, do you have any insight as to how it works out? Does it meet your needs, etc.
Our site (http://team.prhsrobotics.com/) is currently using Wordpress as a core system. It used to run on Joomla for a very short time, but a few of us who worked on it decided it was more than we currently needed at the moment. So, we switched to Wordpress, I’ve worked with it a before and it works nicely to run a site with.
We’ve got all the static pages as pages (you know: history, our team, about first…etc) and then all our news-like displayed as posts. If you don’t have a need for the posting, then you could just redirect to a static-page on the index (which can be done from the admin interface). I can’t really think of anything that I don’t like about it, mostly anything that isn’t with it can easily be found via it’s ability to add plugins.
In a daring move, I’m pretty much getting ready to shift over the content now. Right now, this is just too much to handle at the moment, despite taking all the time to integrate it. Maybe it’s the theme I don’t like, I don’t know…
I’ve done several WP websites and I’m probably going to move adambots.com away from MediaWiki and on to Wordpress because of the user interface and the simplicity WP.
Thanks for the examples/advise. Right now, it sounds like our mentor wants to get some other kids to work on a [separate] site, so they can help with the team or something. Well, problem is, the last two years, we practically didn’t have a site, and when the one was basically finished, the season was over. We don’t do anything outside of FIRST (yet) so it sits there and expires for the next year.
I understand what he’s trying to do (give some people a job), but judging from our team’s performance the last few years, the website should be the last thing we need to worry about. Hence why I just spent the last two months working hard on this site. Well, that, and because I need some experience building sites.
I changed the theme, and edited a few things. I’m satisfied with it currently, so I don’t plan on wasting anymore time on it. If they don’t have a finished site, or if nobody does it at all, we’ll use mine. If they do have one up, more power to them. I don’t mind it that much, really. Just don’t want to see my hard work go for nothing. Anyway, enough of my ranting.
Somewhat related to the topic, without revealing too much, I’m planning out an online community for FIRST. Mostly WordpressMU, Drupal, and vBulletin (CD ;)). Anyone want to help? PM me…
Bobcatrobotics.org is currently using WordPress as a backend. You really want to be comfortable with PHP because you’re probably going to be making a lot of custom pages. I haven’t worked with the current 2.7 release, but there are a few new features and the interface changed a lot.
Inconceivable is currently running on Wordpress 2.7 and loving it. Our reasons for using it were its vast plug-in selection, extensibility, and ease in updating content. (Sadly, only about two people on the team know any HTML/CSS and, unless that changes, the site is stuck in a rut.)
At least this way, we have a site for future years the can update it.
Oh, also it’s currently using a theme found online, not a team-created one. Haven’t gotten around to doing that yet, though I probably ought to, seeing how kickoff’s in eight days.
The DeWALT robotics site is running word press as a backbone with a bunch of plug-ins for extra features. http://www.dewaltrobotics.com/
I have used joomla/mambo for a bunch of personal sites over the years but am now in the progress of migrating everything over to word press. I highly recommend it for teams who are looking for a high quality fairly easy website.
this is true for many cms systems, wordpress atleast has an autoupdate plug in which will notify you when updates are available and do the process for you.
i prefer joomla.
furthermore, i prefer drupal. but the learning curve is too much for the students who will take over after I leave (I dedicate way too much time for the computer!!!).
joomla can be learned quickly enough. there are many tutorials. And with wordpress, comments can be a hacker target, as well as other places. Always look up security precautions!
Drupal is nice, but as you stated, it can be way too steep for incoming webmasters (though I might be that guy for a while). Also, I have a personal blog that uses Wordpress, and now I’m getting a stupid amount of spam comments. Especially after I change the site’s theme, I’m pretty set on using Joomla! for the site, which I already have. Been using Joomla! for months now, so I’m pretty well-orientated with the system.
Sparky uses wordpress as their page template and it works great…its easy for new students because it provides ease of use as you can design in code or visually
