On being an inept and reluctant webmaster

A website I am managing (not this one) is proving exceptionally frustrating. When I disabled the ‘what you see is what you get’ (WYSIWYG) editor in WordPress, I did so because its name was a filthy lie. In truth, what you code, and check, and then check again in every other browser you care to support is what you get. Well, the content management system (CMS) for the other site it like the the WYSIWYG editor writ large: nothing you do actually shows on the site in the way it showed in the editor. Like with the WordPress editor, hundreds of useless tags get added in opening and closing pairs. What’ s more, the CMS has added many layers of complexity to what it, in essence, a very simple site. The only way I have been able to edit tables in one part of the site has been the grab the HTML, edit it using jEdit, then paste it back into the site. This is clearly not the kind of thing you should have to do when you are running an elaborate CMS.

The simplicity of the content, versus the complexity of the management, is tempting me to copy the whole site over to a new CMS that is more comprehensible. Right now, we are using a system called Mambo. In many ways, it is a lot like WordPress. It uses an SQL database to store content, then displays it on dynamically generated pages. I am pretty sure WordPress could actually handle everything this website does, though having it look like a blog would not be acceptable.

Does anybody know of a free CMS that can be hosted using Apache and MySQL that might be easier to work with than Mambo?

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here. View all posts by Milan