Which CMS to use for allowing comments on articles?

[jim]

My new site is going to feature articles on dating culture; for example did you know that physical intimacy develops more slowly for young couples in Korea (Many of my university students were shocked at the idea of kissing goodnight on the first date and insisted that this would take from 1 week to 2 months in a typicl Korean relationship).

I would like people to be able to leave comments on each article so what CMS should I use?

1. I figure I could use a blog, though there would need to be some modifications. After all, this isn't a blog and won't be updated as frequently.

2. I could use a forum (link to the forum thread at the end of the article).

3. I could use some sort of article manager with a comment system.

Anyway, I need advice - what do you recommend and why?

[petertdavis]

Use WordPress, yes it's typically used on blogs but not always and it's very adaptable. Plus, the price is good. ;)

[Coupons]

Hello Jim!

I also advise Wordpress. Very powerful, lots of plugins, and seo friendly (if you need it).

[MattEvers]

I use Joomla! and it works fine for one of my sites. It allows for users to register (or not, depending on your settings) and leave comments on articles or news that you publish.

[jazzylee77]

I suggest beer bongs. They'll kiss anybody after that. Oh wait...wrong forum.

I just installed wordpress, joomla, mambo, xoops, and drupal in a test domain (http://learn.drupaltest.com/). Feel free to poke around and post throwaway nonsense. Kinda like what I do here. :rolleyes:

I'll see how quickly I can open up permissions on them all for threads.

[jim]

Wordpress is certainly a possibility, especially since manipulating a blog would probably be easier for me than learning a new CMS. Unless there's some compelling reason not to use a blog, that's probably what I'll do.

[petertdavis]

You can do some basic changes to the template to make it look less like a blog and more like a CMS. That, plus some great plugins, and people looking at your site won't think of it as a blog.

[jazzylee77]

I just spent a couple hours playing with them all...the 5 I mentioned. I wish I had tried wordpress sooner! A lot of places where I used drupal I could have gotten away a lot simpler. I don't normally install with fantastico, but it sure made it easy to compare install them.

[Coupons]

Thanks Jazzylee! It was helpful.
Joomla seems very good! And Drupal allows to post as guest??

[jazzylee77]

Thanks Jazzylee! It was helpful.
Joomla seems very good! And Drupal allows to post as guest??

In Drupal you can set access content permissions for different user groups (guest is one group) for

comment module

access comments
administer comments
administer moderation
moderate comments
post comments
post comments without approval


page module

create pages
edit own pages

story module

create stories
edit own stories


Similar permission control over other page types you may create.

I'm not that familiar with Joomla. I spent 5 minutes browsing the backend and couldn't find how to edit user levels and groups. I would be completely surprised if it wasn't possible.

[GeorgeB.]

Wordpress is so great.

And with all the plugins, it rivals vbulletin as the most useful and adaptable software out there.

Sometimes it's hard to believe it is still free. :D

[jazzylee77]

Wordpress is so great.

And with all the plugins, it rivals vbulletin as the most useful and adaptable software out there.

Sometimes it's hard to believe it is still free. :D

I'll defintely be tacking wordpress onto a couple sites for article functionality. Looks too easy not to! Maybe subdomain since the look nav structure will be on its own. I have a bad record of having too many looks on some sites. :o

[jim]

So who does everyone recommend to do Wrodpress templates?

[Coupons]

To design a customized theme? I would like to read some testimonials too. I'm also interested, if the price is good.

[jim]

I know alexking.org (or.com I can't remember) had a WP template contest. I suppose that we could find someone who made a nice template and contact that person directly...

But a few referrals would make it easier, eh?

[Coupons]

And we never know who is willing to do a template...
Some designers already announce that they do custom works, but not all. And I don't want to harass people "do you want to design a template for me?", a dozen times.

[vanessa]

You can also review LAMP based open source software at OpenSourceCMS.com

[jim]

I've already started building with wordpress. I found a template that does what I want (displays categories nicely, including chicld categories) and think I'll be able to customize it (colors, graphics, and things). I did the static front page plug in. Hopefully in lkess than a week it'll be in the review section...

[vanessa]

Awesome, thanks for updating the thread. I use WP on my blogging site and really enjoy the ease of use. It does exactly what it says it will do without any glitches. I'm also looking forward to upgrading to their latest release.

[montux]

what is about www.phpwcms.de

[jim]

For my custom work, which included modifying a 2.0 template, changing the stylesheet so links displyed the way I like them, making certain plugins i wanted to use 2.0 compatible, finding the best plugins for what I wanted, putting images in my pages, getting a list of articles to display at the top of each category archive, etc. I use the webmaster at www.webgazette.co.uk and I recommend anyone who wants wordpress cutomizations to talk it over with Ainslie Johnson And we never know who is willing to do a template...
Some designers already announce that they do custom works, but not all. And I don't want to harass people "do you want to design a template for me?", a dozen times.

[DomainWorks]

Anybody have an opinion between Mambo and Joomla? I've used earlier versions of Mambo, but wasn't entirely satisifed and was waiting for the promised upgrade. Now that the project has forked (looks like it was a mess, too) I'm wondering whether to look into Joomla or Mambo. Anyone tried both and have an opinion?