3 ms·

Ironically, I've heard the argument that, for the malleable website case, most people will save time, money, and security headaches by avoiding the traditional

Ironically, I've heard the argument that, for the malleable website case, most people will save time, money, and security headaches by avoiding the traditional CMS. My point is that the traditional CMS is falling out of favor as the default solution for content on the Web. Need a blog? Wordpress is increasingly NOT the solution. As developers, we are trending away from the one-size-fits-all CMS and into specialized categories of CMS. The CMS renaissance is due to two factors: 1) A proliferation of great tools emerging into a toolchain ecosystems. Node's Grunt and Gulp are fine examples. This is largely different than the traditional CMS because... 2) Developers are increasingly wanting to gain more control over our craft.

gexla 12y ago
No way, building a custom CMS for a site which would have always been a good candidate for an off-the-shelf CMS is just as bad of an idea today as it ever has been. > As developers, we are trending away from the one-size-fits-all CMS and into specialized categories of CMS. Most of the sites which would typically get built on Drupal (and especially Wordpress) aren't owned by developers. Further, these owners probably don't even have a developer on staff or even on a maintenance retainer. Many of these sites are setup by relatively non-technical users. Many of these sites are setup by a developer the owner has paid and then that developer is out of the picture to be run by the owner. Even if you are a start-up building your own web app, it still often doesn't make sense to build your own blogging system. Rather, you would get your first version out the door ASAP, throw your blog up on a sub-domain running Wordpress and then maybe down the road figure out something different. Do what you want for your own site. But when you are doing something for clients who don't have a tech staff, it's not about what the developer wants.
- BrandonSmith 12y ago
  I agree that building a custom CMS is not the right answer in most circumstances. I'm not advocating building custom CMS. My position is that what has "always been a good candidate for an off-the-shelf CMS" is evolving. The traditional CMS will be losing ground at the high and low ends. On the high-end, long-form content organizations striving to differentiate are building their own systems focused on collaboration and content lifecycle features and, on the low-end, static site generators for custom websites. There is a middle, but the middle, over time, appears to be shrinking.

gexla 12y ago

No way, building a custom CMS for a site which would have always been a good candidate for an off-the-shelf CMS is just as bad of an idea today as it ever has been. > As developers, we are trending away from the one-size-fits-all CMS and into specialized categories of CMS. Most of the sites which would typically get built on Drupal (and especially Wordpress) aren't owned by developers. Further, these owners probably don't even have a developer on staff or even on a maintenance retainer. Many of these sites are setup by relatively non-technical users. Many of these sites are setup by a developer the owner has paid and then that developer is out of the picture to be run by the owner. Even if you are a start-up building your own web app, it still often doesn't make sense to build your own blogging system. Rather, you would get your first version out the door ASAP, throw your blog up on a sub-domain running Wordpress and then maybe down the road figure out something different. Do what you want for your own site. But when you are doing something for clients who don't have a tech staff, it's not about what the developer wants.

BrandonSmith 12y ago
I agree that building a custom CMS is not the right answer in most circumstances. I'm not advocating building custom CMS. My position is that what has "always been a good candidate for an off-the-shelf CMS" is evolving. The traditional CMS will be losing ground at the high and low ends. On the high-end, long-form content organizations striving to differentiate are building their own systems focused on collaboration and content lifecycle features and, on the low-end, static site generators for custom websites. There is a middle, but the middle, over time, appears to be shrinking.