Blog software for other purposes

Philocrites opined that

In the interests of full technical disclosure, though, I am trying to find simple ways to introduce basic CMS to UU writers — preferably the sort that doesn’t require busy ministers to learn how to manage Drupal or write php or muck around with scripts and codes. (I’ve been learning Drupal and WordPress, and must say that you really have to be a geek to use either one effectively.) Blogger or TypePad would meet most of these needs — at least until people discover just how powerful the publishing tools can be.

A quick, bloggish follow-up to what blogging software would be a appropriate to a non-blogging site.

I don’t think WordPress is as bad as Philo suggest, and since it is probably the best free general purpose low- to medium-scale CMS out there, it is worth the learning curve. (Drupal is great but gives me fits.) Of course, the learning curve would be easier to climb if there was a clear, integrated step-by-step guide for such stumblingblocks as FTP and CHMOD. Plus healthy dose of honest advise.

A first step is to see if a writer (contrast, blogger) or publishing group is invested in their project long enough to take that learning curve. A free Blogger account is probably the right step. And even if the need is there but the expertise isn’t, I think a CMS clinic would be an appropriate response. Perhaps informally at GA, or before or after.

But more than ease of use, I would want to know if my CMS had features to extend the message (rather than passively waiting for readers) and that’s where RSS comes into the picture. Plus it would be nice if the CMS output could be incorporated into a word processor or publishing software with minimal alteration. Not knowing enough about XML, I hazard to say to much but I suspect WordPress is better for both than many of the usual competitors.

By Scott Wells

Scott Wells, 46, is a Universalist Christian minister doing Universalist theology and church administration hacks in Washington, D.C.

1 comment

  1. We have been pretty happy with GeekLog for one of our sites in my work. On our main agency website we have a homespun system for writing pages that we have been pretty successfull in getting clerical staff to be able to maintain page content. It is a little more static than a blog though.

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