Recommend a Content Management program

Starting an E-zine

[jefuchs]

Here are the options that come with Fantastico:

Drupal
Geeklog
Mambo Open Source
PHP-Nuke
phpWCMS
phpWebSite
Post-Nuke
Siteframe
Xoops

I'm starting an e-zine. I need to post and categorize articles, and other content. I also want to easily integrate a newsletter signup on the front page.

Of course, I'll be adding affiliate links and ads.

It's got to be easy to use. PHP-Nuke is too complex... or is it? Maybe it's just too daunting because I'm a newbie.

What have you used? What would you recommend?

[moltar]

I was just exploring Drupal indepth yesterday. It seems to be really nice once you overcome the learning curve! And it has lots of modules. And it can be standard compliant. It also can create SEF URLs. I think I am going to use it on the next client project.

[mack]

I have used most of the apps you mentioned as some point or another, and to be honest each has it's own good and bad points.

To be honest what I would do it give each one a try out and see what one you feel you would be able to work with more effectivly. Where cms's are concerned a lot of it comes down to what you need it to be able to do. By testing each one out you will be able to discover the limitations of each then decide what system fits your bill best.

Mack.

[jo1ene]

I've used Drupal. It wasn't a great fit for the site that I was working on so I had to hack it up a bit, but I bet it'd make a good e-zine.

[encyclo]

Not on your list, but one system I've used which is designed as an "online newspaper" CMS is SPIP [spip.net]. It includes options for using mod_rewrite for search-engine-friendly URLs and has an easy admin section for authors to publish articles easily, including full editorial control.

[kazecoder]

PHPNuke is great for that type of enviornment.

[griz_fan]

you might want to check www.opensourcecms.com. You can test drive all the available open source solutions.

I installed Apache, PHP, MySQL, etc... on my home computer so I could test drive a bunch of these systems to find which one fit my needs the best (Apache2Triad is a pretty nice install kit for this purpose). My experience was that each had its strengths and weeknesses, so you might have to test several to find the one that best matches your current needs, and looks to handle what you might do down the road. Here's my impressions on your lists:

Drupal - liked it, haven't tried in a while, though
Geeklog - haven't tried
Mambo Open Source - I really like Mambo, currently my fav.
PHP-Nuke - tries to do too much, too complex, dificult to customize
phpWCMS - haven't tried
phpWebSite - really liked. Generates very clean HTML output, seems well managed.
Post-Nuke - similar to PHP-Nuke.
Siteframe - haven't tried.
Xoops - I found this a bit more complex than others, but was intrigued by the quality of the output and the extensibility.

Again, lots to choose from, and the best match for you might not even be on your list. Scout 'em out on www.opensourcecms.com, then come up with a short list of systems to install on your home computer to come up with your best match.

Good luck!

[Livenomadic]

If you got some $$ on hand then articlelive is pretty awesome.

[jefuchs]

FYI: I settled on Mambo, which seems to be working well.

[mack]

Mambo is a very nice solution. You should look into one of their features that enables search engine friendly url's. It's pretty easy to set up from within the mambo admin area. You set it from in there, the cms then provides you with an htaccess file to make it possible.

Mack.

[Mr Bo Jangles]

Content Management systems almost need a Forum to themselves - seem to come up a fair bit......

[jefuchs]

I've installed and uninstalled many of the ones in the list from my first post. Many of them seem like quagmires of excessive controls, and hard-to-figure-out features. Mambo is the most intuitive for me (I suppose it depends on the user's learning style), so I went with it.