Content Management Systems

I have never been a big proponant of content management systems. Don't get me wrong, they do have their purpose and in the right hands they can be made to do some really nice things. However, my hands are just not the right ones.

My first look at CMS was about eight to ten years ago. I explored Joomla, Drupal, Concrete5, and many of the others that were popular in those days. Since then several of those I looked at have fallen by the way side and are no longer supported. Looking back does this concern me now? It does!

Of the many things that I have problems with them are these:

• My choice of CMS could go dormant.
• A lack of updates from the developers could introduce security issues.
• A template used may not be updated by the developer to keep up with new releases of the CMS. This could totally mess up the website.
• My lack of knowledge to adjust a template to meet my needs. I have never found a template that looked like what I wanted.
• Popular Management systems like Wordpress become targets for hackers.
• There is the constant need to keep the CMS on my site up to date as new vulnerabilities are found and updates are issued.
• There is always the problem of a database crash and you loose the whole thing.

Don't get me wrong, a good CMS has its place and those who know them like the back of their hand will have no problems.

What I discovered is that the time I spent on researching and trying to learn various systems and databases was better spent on learning html and w3.css. With these I was able to put together a responsive webiste for our congregation is just a couple of days and with the results that I was looking for. Html is a standard that has good backwards compatability, and w3.css is nothing more than a collection of css scripts. The two work beautifully together. I have learned that the W3.org is a worldwide consortium on web standards and you really can't go wrong doing things your way and according to the worldwide standards!

In the meantime, take a look at w3.schools and learn how code. It's fun, productive, keeps your mind active and you don't have to rely on CMS that could give you future problems.