hopefulI'm considering, God help me, moving the whole mess to a content management system. I'd kind of prefer one that doesn't suck, but
hypnagogie says there's no such thing as a CMS that doesn't suck--the only thing you get any say over is how bad it sucks and in what way it sucks.Here's what I'd like:
- Security. I don't want to have to install security patches every three days and I don't want to get pwned if I don't.
- Flexibility. I don't want to port every page over to the CMS, but I do want to port big sections over. I want hard-coded, static HTML pages to be able to live happily side by side with CMS-managed pages, and the navigation to work consistently across all of them.
- Template flexibility. I do not want the entire site to have the same template; I do not want the whole thing to get poured into the same HTML containers. I want, for example, all the BDSM pages to have a consistent look, all the polyamory pages to have a consistent look, but I want to make the BDSM pages look different from the poly pages.
- Ease of updating. WordPress sets the bar here. When I log on to WordPress, if there's an update, there's one button that installs the update automatically--downloads the files, unpacks them, installs them, updates the back-end database, all with a single click and all without disturbing any settings or customizations. If WordPress can do it, I figure other people should be able to do it too.
- The ability to incorporate JavaScript (even if it's built against a library like Jquery or Mootools) into pages as I please.
- Compatibility with analytics tools.
- The ability to specify an exact URL on managed pages. This is very important. Right now, for example, my BDSM page at http://www.xeromag.com/fvbdsm.html has awesome Google rank and literally thousands of inbound links. I do not want this URL changing to something like http://www.xeromag.com/cms/scripts/showpage.php?sectionid=4&pageid=23 and I do not want to create redirectors from existing URLs to point to the new, managed page URLs. The ability to do this is non-negotiable and is an absolute dealbreaker for any CMS that can't manage it.
- An optional comment system that can be turned on or off on a per-page basis.
- Free and open source.
So, lazyweb, whaddya think? Am I living in a Utopian fantasy dreamland where naked mermaids cavort with dolphins under a cotton candy sky, or is this actually going to be doable? Is there a CMS out there somewhere that will do what I want?
