Need CMS 4 Video/Picture Upload + User Community

Thinking Wordpress + Another cms Combined,

[wannabe]

Alright so I have an idea that I want to get started working on right away. I am not full of money so I am looking at cms's right now. I would like to use wordpress for the front page and then use another cms for the user community. Although I have no experience what so ever in coding I do like wordpress ease of use. I am looking to see what cms would provide me these fuctions with the ease of use that wordpress offers.

Private messenging.
User uploads.
Simple profile.
Forums.
Profile pic.
user roles within the community for promoting.
Anything else that can be considered user community.

I would also like to be able to integrate wordpress user base with whatever cms I end up running. Also if its even possible to integrate it with wordpress. If you have any suggestions or am unclear of what I am asking post and I will try my hardest to clear it up. Thanks

[ergophobe]

Honestly, I think it's a mistake to have WP and a CMS. Any ease of use you get from WP will be negated by having two code bases to maintain.

All decent open source CMS have pretty simple blog functionality. So if you want all the other features I just can't see a reason to complicate it by throwing WP into the mix.

Furthermore, if you have everything under one application, your front page can easily include a box with recent forum posts, recent blog entries, etc etc, whereas if the forum is run by one package and the front page is run by WP, you'll have to write some sort of code that populates the "recent forum posts" block within WP and all that will complicate upgrades on both ends (what if your forum package has a major upgrade that changes the API or database structure - your box in WP will die). It seems like a long-term hassle.

I'm mostly a drupal person, but I think all of the things you're looking for would be available in Joomla as well (and probably lots of others). They are not that much harder than WP to install and use, though there is more to get your head around at first. I'd say Joomla is closer to WP, being both simpler and less powerful than Drupal, so that might be a good option for you to check out.

On the other hand, most if not all of what you're looking for might be found in a forum package and if that would work for you, it might make sense to integrate a forum package (several options) and Wordpress. So everything in your list would be handled by the forum software, and WP would simply be for the site blog. You still have the integration issues though, which I find aggravating.

One question: Would your users have blogs or is that just for you and the site admins? I'm not exactly sure, besides the front page, what WP handles.

[wannabe]

Hey thanks for the detailed reply. I appreciate it. I do see what your saying about the integration issues at hand. I didn't realize mos cms's come with a blog feature. Now I gotta ask where is drupal more powerful? Just for the front page and such for the blog function. My main thing is I have been using wordpress for almost a year now on my personal site and I love it and know it well. Do forums have user uploads. I know they have like pic uploads that are small but can you change the size limitations on the forum settings? If I was to go the forum route which forum would you recommend for the job? I also need the forum software to allow non-registered users to upload to. Sorry for all the questions but I wanta know what I am getting into there. Anyways thanks again for your help I appreciate it.

[ergophobe]

>> Now I gotta ask where is drupal more powerful?

More powerful for/than what? Compared to WP? I don't know where to start, but if you are building a complex community site, it's probably mostly in there (drupal or joomla or dotnetnuke if you prefer to go that way). WP is a blog and you can use it as a portal or a brochure site, but it can't run a forum, doesn't have a full e-commerce package and on and on.

As for forum software, I don't run any forums so I don't know what capabilites the apps have and what limitations, but you might ask about them in the community building forum [webmasterworld.com]. I don't know much about it, but threw it out there as something to consider.

Personally (and this is just habit, so take it with a grain of salt), I would simply grab drupal, which has pretty decent upload and user management, activate the forum and blog modules (part of the default package), set the forum up as non-threaded (I don't like the default threaded forum) and go from there. Up to that point I wouldn't even have any additional modules to download (just activate a few default modules).

That would give me
- blog
- forum
- uploads (limited by settings you create in the admin sections and by any server limitations).
- and with an add-on module, I could have advanced, rich user profiles.

If I were happy with the default look for getting started, I'd be done in a few hours perhaps. Less if I were happy with the default URLs and menus.

[ergophobe]

PS

>user roles within the community for promoting.

I'm not really sure what you mean there.

>Private messenging.

Some CMS and forum apps just redirect to an email address, some keep the messages within the system. A similar result is achieved either way, but you may prefer one to the other. In any case, most if not all will have some form of this capability built in, another difference from WP

Don't get me wrong - if you just want to set up a blog and go, and you don't want to use a service (blogger or worpdress.com), wordpress is just as easy as it gets and, if you keep it up to date, reasonably secure. It's my choice for a blog or simple site. It just isn't the tool for every job and you quickly find its limitations.