By Kayz-1 on

Drupal blogs are very good, but there are major assetts missing for a blog wherever its from!

Firstly!

Ive noticed that new users cannot really choose their custom skins? and also they have to make do with the admins header banner..., can the user not have their own skin and title banner?

Also ive seen that images cant be applied nor videos?

I think they are very much needed for a blog to be a blog..., i was going to provide blogging for my forum users, but it seems quite pointless if they cannot edit their title banner and add images and videos....,

Ive tried Drupal Blog late last year in 2005, then uninstalled it due to its un popularity, and now ive come to see if theres any improvements being made, but couldnt find any..., but correct me if im wrong.

If somebody does address the issues ive mentioned then Drupal Blogging will be just like any other blog service!

Comments

bohtho’s picture

bohtho commented

It seems you have the impression that Drupal is merely a blogging tool. It can be used to make all sorts of websites, including group blogging sites. Because of all the possibilities provided through a flexible core and over 300 modules, you have to install and configure modules to your liking yourself.

Although I dont't know if they're updated to drupal version 4.7 yet, it seems like you need the blogtheme or sections modules for what you depict above concerning users own themes and headers, and you have to look through the image and multimedia modules yourself for what fits your site most.

cel4145’s picture

cel4145 commented

If the goal is to have a bunch of individual blogs where the users customize them, true. Drupal doesn't quite do that as well compared to some individual blog tools. But if the goal is to create a community of blogs on one website, one which better connects everyone together and facilitates interaction, then Drupal excels. Recent comments block can show everyone on the site where the most recent conversations are. The tracker page allows everyone on the site to keep up with which posts they have read. Using a voting module, blog members could vote for select blogs to appear on the home page. Organic groups could be used to create some speciailzed group blogs. There is a buddylist module for tracking favorite bloggers on the site. Subscription module would allow them to automatically subscribe by default to any blog post they create or any thread which they post in. Then there are all other features--forums, collaborative book, polls, and soon to be wiki--which can be useful to a community of bloggers which are never available in the same site, single sign on.

Then let's not also forget the support and maintenance issues of individual bloggers having all of that control of their individual blogs you describe. There's something to be said for fewer available options in terms of having to manage the site for many users.

So it's matter of what your priorities are. Drupal *is* the better blogging tool in some cases. Depends on if one is looking for "major assets" that are not a part of typical, individual blog thinking focus that doesn't take into account the power of the CMS to do something different and much more.

BTW: In addition to what the other poster has said, there is now an author block in 4.7 core where users can add in information about themselves to appear on their pages via their account section. If setup right, perhaps it could be used to let individual bloggers create content for their sidebars. If not, there is a block php snipped which will do so. Note that you could use a php snippet to create custom block which users would customize in their account preferences, and given the flexibility of phptemplate, have it show in the banner position.