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By CMSnewbie on
I have been trying to use drupal for about a year now and I will admit that I am pretty dense when it comes to database management but I have to really scratch my head when I see people say how great drupal is. It makes me wonder if that is just some drupal engineer logging fake posts because to me it is full of bugs, with practically no support and which requires a PHD in database management to do the simplest things.
I sincerely dont mean to post this to cause trouble. I realize it's free and you get what you pay for I guess and I am sure if I did have a PHD in content management then it would be a great system as it is powerful, but it is irksome that all over this board I see people say how simple it is to use which is incredibly misleading... WMD in Iraq has more credibility for me at this point and I dont mean to be a troublemaker honestly but I do feel decieved because I have wasted nearly a year of my life 20-30 hours a week trying to figure this thing out and now that I upgraded to the new version everything went haywire and now I cant even login or play videos.
But as I said I am not meaning to just post to criticize and I was just wondering if anyone knew of any alternative to drupal specifically with regards to handling video or even just a good aggregator I could switch to that is actually as advertised. I would genuinely be very appreciative of any advice anyone has to offer.
I should mention that it does not escape me that it probably does not help my cause to solicit advice when simultaneously condemning drupal but I assure you wholeheartedly I am holding back my true feelings of this @%&# thing 99%
I should reiterrate that I realize and fully admit that the drawback is mainly mine as I have seen some great sites made with drupal, but the fact is everyone here hails it as the second coming and are very defensive of any criticisms I have seen on other posts and I think a lot of that criticism stems from the completely false and dubious claim that drupal is so simple and easy to use when that is a patently false and blantant lie and I think possibly if the people here were more honest about the STEEP learning curve that drupal absolutely requires then there would be less hard feelings from people when they realize the truth after wasting inordinate amounts of time on this monstrosity.
I dont know when the geeks that code this stuff will ever figure out that 95% of the people who mean to use these CMS' arent Stephen Hawking because I see complaints like mine over and over both on this forum and on the other CMS forums also, but whoever does finally figure it out will get rich because there is definitely a market for one that does not require one to be a rocket scientist to be able to log in to-
My site is www.filmportal.com if anyone cares to take a look to give you an idea of what I would like to have although dont bother joining it because you wont be able to log in or play videos since the whole thing has gone completely haywire.
I thank everyone who takes the time to read this in advance and want to make clear that it is not my intention to denigrate the efforts of people here. I commend the effort to create an open system made freely available to the public. It is very laudable... however it would be even more so if you guys did not make it so that one needed to have a degree from MIT to actually be able to benefit from it.
Kind regards.
Comments
You're right .. and wrong too
It's true, installing, configuring and managing a website is hard, even with a CMS. You need to know a lot about browsers, a few programming languages (HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP and SQL) that each are big enough to be a challenge on their own. So it's really not a surprise if someone does not grok all of that.
It is however a misconception that managing a site is easy. It is hard, and you really need to know some stuff, and if you understand one part another part pops up that you need to know about, be it SEO or the newest Microsoft browser.
Why people say that drupal is easy: Drupal takes care of a lot of the basic stuff you need, like keeping track of what pages are on your site, templates for the layout and users who have access to your site. This means the people managing the site have time to actually generate content on the site. Drupal also compares well to other solutions.
Why people say it is hard: Drupal is not a solution that takes care of everything out of the box. Drupal does not make managing a website simple, only simpler than doing it all by hand. Drupal still has bugs. Drupal does not have every feature of all other CMS in the world.
Oh, by the way, there are many alternatives to drupal: see http://opensourcecms.com/ and http://www.cmsmatrix.org/ for a list.
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My ego is here
When I started using Drupal
When I started using Drupal last year I only had a few months experience with HTML. But this forum and the term TUTORIAL + what I was looking for in Google search helped me. I learnt through necessity and I also learnt quickly that if I didn’t tackle the headaches in configuring, updating and maintaining a CMS & content with Drupal then I would end up doing it with another CMS.
There is no such thing as a CMS for every single application, it just doesn’t exist. Drupal is great for a broad range of applications but that doesn’t mean another type of CMS wouldn’t be better for a specific type of use however I will say that I believe Drupal is a great when you require a CMS to handle a wide selection of content.
I’d like to make one final comment. When I first tried Drupal I found it to be a bit of pain in the ass so I moved on to Mambo, Joomala, Xoops and a few other CMS before I realized that while configuring and customizing Drupal can be time consuming it’s actually easier to use in the long run.
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underpressure
http://ravalonline.com
No idea, I use Drupal
you are better off asking on http://www.sitepoint.com or other such generic help sites where you will find a broader array of opinions.
Who says Drupal is simple? It depends on your skills, abilities, experience,etc. See the handbook for a brief listing of whether or not Drupal is suitable for you. Perhaps you missed it...
handbooks >> Is Drupal right for you
I certainly didn't lie to you about whether or not Drupal was easier to use or not. Drupal is not an indivdiual, it is thousands of people with vastly differing viewpoints and styles. Your posting history is 5 days old. Typically I expect people to come up to speed on Drupal basics in 3 weeks to 3 months depending.
Also, every question doesn't get answered. Just not enough people. Phrasing such as the above comparison to WMD's that's resulted in a war are out of porportion and offensive. It seems a post designed to bring out the reactionary element.
I will also note, that they way in which a question is phrased can also cause it to go unanswered. If it is not clear, or it is aggressive/confrontational, etc many people will just stay out of it unsure of the reception waiting for them.
I suggest you read: http://drupal.org/forum-posting for some approaches.
NOTE: Cross posting is discouraged and your duplicate post was removed. Please note that this one is still here before going off on me.
Drupal may, or may not be right for your site's needs. That is what you need to decide. You should take a look at how IBM Developer works decded on a CMS for their Sample IT Project series. It's not a simple process for deciding on a CMS. A CMS is not simple if it is as flexible as Drupal.
-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain
-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide
"I sincerely dont mean to post this to cause trouble. "
Hmmm...doubtful sincerity given your recent conduct on drupal.org.
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Charlie Lowe | cyberdash
Tips for posting to the Drupal forums
wow
Well, so much for trying to help.
-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain
-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide
Upgrade
His frustrations came from doing an upgrade without reading any documentation on how to go about it.
http://drupal.org/node/74474. Apparently he had an option on fantastico todo a one click upgrade of Drupal. This seems to be outrageous and I cannot see why a host will even attempt on giving users an option like that.
Or am I wrong??
fantastico
I've seen instances where fantastico even screws up an initial install; my host offers no support for using it even though they provide it. It seems more attention is paid to marketing fantastico than to making it work well as an easy install and upgrade system.
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Charlie Lowe | cyberdash
Tips for posting to the Drupal forums
whereas my fustrations come
whereas my fustrations come from trying to do more than fart about with the system.
Unlike our friend I have not been rude, and not bent to the huge desire to go bizerk when the endless stream of problems and smart remarks get's to me.
I think that's why I love nucleusCMS so much. For so many needs it is utter shit but the support and community spirit means I have a hope of getting the job done anyway.
It's not the code that matters it's the willingness of the support and support here is worse than HSBC, AOL or XOOPS but slightly better than Blog:CMS although I get the same learning curve line and the same RTFM, UTFS etc as that jackass that runs Blog:CMS.
I'm officially giving up on the project I am engaged in and will go back to the company and tell them sorry it can't be done. I can't support druple when druple isn't supported and I've been at this thing months. My self deception about may-be hopefully one day has gone and I am left with the stark realisation that no one knows what we are trying to do with this code base other than break compatability every few months.
Drupal is dead.
I was starting with the intention of writing a helpful reply..
I was starting with the intention of writing a helpful reply.. but I failed.
Somehow you should really try to understand that a learning curve and RTFM remarks sometimes have a reason.. even the guy from Blog:CMS might be right about those two...
My apologies to all the other people who made the effort to read this posting
I,sadly, agree
While in potentia all the functionality exists here and while it is slightly better supportted that XOOPs with better range and functionality of modules (which sadly don't work and have obtuse and deaply coded unhelp files) it sucks because I don't understand how the hell it works and I code php for a living.
The support is typical of all big php projects if you are not a geek god running a brand of *nix that you rolled up yourself and a cluster of PC's running as a super node of the internet and powering half the world by themsleves then you get slapped with comments that are as clear as mud.
I once replied to a particularly obtuse register_globals comment when I was definitly a php n00b with "remember that preching the theology or meta-trans-substansiation is theologically unsound and morally questionable" I have no idea what it means but that's the point I didn't understand the comment.
There is currently an error that not even the developers understand
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&as_qdr=all&q=U...
What realy get's my goat though (is not the lack of support which is simply as bad as AOL and HSBC) is that other than truely minor changes n.y.x.p.0 to n.y.x.p.0.1 the bloody thing breaks backwards compatability.
What are these people (who seem to never read the threads) trying to achieve?
By the way I only rarely use druple only after trying to see if everything else... anything else fits the bill and then I do so on the same basis that I would with an orphaned project. Yes that's right - if it works great, if not sigh remove it and try something else.
the only group worse are Blog:CMS
http://stuff.techwhack.com/archives/2004/08/17/blog-cms-and-wordpress/
who's lack of support is widly documented
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog:CMS
If you do find something better please drop by http://lordmatt.co.uk and let me know too.
Sorry to hear
Sorry to hear,
Can you point to specific threads where you need(ed) help? I can only see a few posts in your tracker, none of them looking that dramatic. Note: support requests in the handbook are usually deleted on sight or not seen at all.
PS this CMS is named Drupal.
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The Manual | Troubleshooting FAQ | Tips for posting | How to report a security issue.
Why leave an exit rant after
Why leave an exit rant after 4-5 posts in the forums?
The note about the major version releases alone points to not reading the handbook about major version api's being stable.
It's unfortunate that some folks don't 'get' Drupal but the need to take parting shots about software people don't pay for and arn't paying people for has always been an interesting experience for people who have tried to help others for free.
-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain
-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide