By curiousgeorge-1 on

I'm evaluating a few platforms with the end goal of building a similar site to Seeking Alpha - though not finance related. Its essentially a news site where users submit content but editors review and filter the content before its displayed. The editorial process will need management control to easily publish the content. I'll need to add in modules for forums, email and rss subscription. For the most part, any CMS can probably handle it but I want the cleanest fastest set up that will scale. Its sort of one part newspaper type site one part social site ...really, just like seeking alpha.

I dont' mind getting my hands dirty. I'm a skilled web designer, decent web developer and have ok php. I haven't worked with either joomla or drupal though...so trying to get a sense from those who've used them how easy this would be.

Any feedback greatly appreciated. Joomla looks like it'll be the better choice but would love to hear from those with experience using it.

Comments

Amarnath-1’s picture

Amarnath-1 commented

The core Drupal can do most of the things you have mentioned (I believe Joomla too). But the real difference that any CMS can make is depends on the designer/developer.

Drupal interface is clean and simple for the end user as well as to the developer. Very easy to create user contents and modules. More control in categorising the contents with various level of user access rights.

Joomla is more flexible to the end user with many options while creating the content.

curiousgeorge-1’s picture

curiousgeorge-1 commented

Thanks amarnath, that's just the kind of feedback I am looking for. I know my wants and needs can be met with either, or probably quite a few other CMS systems. I just want a sense of which is easier for the developer ...eg ME.... to get it up and running. From that feedback it sounds like Joomla is a better fit.

Hopefully others won't mind throwing in their two cents as well. Seekingalpha really is a great example of what i want to do - and i'm thinking Drupal (or using RoR to build something from scratch) is a better fit but insights from those more experienced are a big help. I could set them both up on development boxes and test and play with them for a while until I figure out which i like better, but ultimately, any headstart i can get is better than aimlessly fishing. SO thanks!

Amarnath-1’s picture

Amarnath-1 commented

Drupal interface is clean and simple for the end user as well as to the developer. Very easy to create user contents and modules.

I think my statement was misunderstood. Clean and simple interface is easy for the developer to create new modules. Sorry about that.

I could set them both up on development boxes and test and play with them for a while until I figure out which i like better

That is the right decision. Test both the CMSs until you are satisfied. And stick to one until you master it and then you can look at others. Many people simply waste their time in keep trying many CMSs.

tldagent’s picture

tldagent commented

I've use Joomla for a couple years and it has it's good features as well as it's bad ones. In a nutshell, Joomla is easier to build a website with for someone with little or no experience but when it comes to the search engine optimization out of the box, Drupal is much better.

I would depend on what you are looking for. Joomla can be seod but I'm finding it very difficult to make it all work and many of the joomla components cost money and there's always those copyright links within the components that you aren't supposed to remove. Don't get me wrong, I love Joomla and I look forward to it getting much better, but after careful evaluation... If I'm building a site for the long haul with scalability and all that, Drupal is the direction that I'm going to go and I think you can do more in drupal and have more control in drupal than with Joomla of many aspects of your site including permissions.

Drupal would be my choice for a site like Seeking Alpha. Also, multisites is much easier in Drupal than in Joomla. Good luck with your quest.

tldagent’s picture

tldagent commented

One thing that I would like to add which I think makes a major difference in which content management system people use, is the format in which the modules and components are delivered. When you go to the Joomla website, all their components are organized under headings and sub-headings in a much more friendly fashion then that of Drupal. When you click on a component category, the highest rated component is at the top of the list and then on downwards. Each user can rate and write a comment about the components and it's nice and easy to find your way around without asking too many questions, based on what other users are saying about it.

As for Drupal, we don't know which modules are the best without asking or actually attempting to use them. I think if the Drupal site has the modules organized a little better with subcategories and the ability to rate and review each module, people would find that it's easier to get the functions that they desire. This is the main reason why Joomla is more popular than Drupal. Drupal is much cleaner and offers much more scalability but the Joomla.org site is set up much more functional for the average user than the Drupal.org site.

This is probably the show stopper for the masses. When people are looking for solutions, they want to be able to pinpoint the best module or component for their solution and the rating system works well for this. Let users rate the modules that are offered and tell how they used them. Once the Drupal.org site is a little more user friendly and users can find a solution much quicker, then Drupal will be the #1 content management system out there... until then, Joomla will be #1.... but it's not a question of the quality of the code, it's their sites that make the difference.

So, I hope to see Drupal take their own site to the next level and make it easier for people to find what they want. Currently, it's very difficult without having well defined site recipes and even those differ. Joomla.org site rocks and while Drupal is in my opinion, much better CMS, the Drupal website itself is lacking.

I hope this helps you in making your decision and I also hope that this site will be a little easier to use in the future.

curiousgeorge-1’s picture

curiousgeorge-1 commented

Thanks all. This is just the kind of feedback i am looking for. And TLDAgent, I agree with you - without having experimented much with either platform, the Joomla website is much more inviting. There, trying to find out what exists, what doesn't, and what's doable, seems much easier on the surface. I imagine that is a factor in popularity with end users....After all, if you're offering software that helps build a site, your own site (Drupal, Joomla) is the best marketing tool you have. If its easy to navigate, looks appealing....seems fresh and crisp...it brings more confidence and comfort for the average user.

Experts are a different thing....but if we all started out as web development experts...none of these tools would be difficult to review, or decide to use.

Wordpress - while clearly more a blogger tool than a true CMS - is another example. Their site is easy to navigate from a support standpoint (more or less). There's a lot of information available, and for newbies trying to find a starting point, there's a great theme viewer that lets them search whats out there. It helps make things approachable.

Drupal seems more powerful and capable for my goals, but time of development is also a factor. I dont' want to spend a month evaluating what software to use...and i don't have time to drop my other web site projects unrelated to this one while i figure out what to do with this Seeking-Alpha like site.

I will test both drupal and joomla, but i want to start with an educated guess and reduce my time committment. I'm leaning toward drupal purely on teh basis of scaleability and development freedom .... I want to be able to create something somewhat unique....do it quickly...and not pull my hair out getting it done.

thanks fall for the insights. further feedback much welcomed.

ineffable’s picture

ineffable commented

I'm in almost exactly the same situation. I'm taking over for a webmaster of an old site, and completely rebuilding it. I was originally going to wait for Joomla! 1.5 (which supposedly narrows the gap between Joomla and Drupal), but opted for Drupal since I had no idea when 1.5 is coming out. My requirements for the website are that I need a way for users to submit newspaper articles, and for social networking. Joomla seemed very inviting at first, and I even finished a prototype of what I thought would be the final site - on Joomla. After trying out Drupal though, I have come to realize that Drupal is indeed much more powerful, and that all the components that I had installed on Joomla (e.g. community builder, docman, etc.) had comparable Drupal modules, which were also more customizable and powerful in my opinion. I am mostly a web designer and I don't have much programming knowledge, but so far I haven't had many problems with Drupal and it seems to be the better CMS for me.