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Rage Against The Content Management Machine

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By Bud Kraus
bud@joyofcode.com
Joy Of Code
Creator And Instructor

v5 i3
Originally Published: February 5, 2009

Have you ever heard anyone talk sweetly about the Content Management System that their business or organization uses?

I haven't, that's for sure. I'll bet the same goes for you.

If you're one of the few who can make and manage a mid-sized site without even knowing what a CMS is, then your innocence is a blessing.

There's not much mystery to what a CMS is, since Content Management Systems have been around for well over ten years now. Put simply and generally a CMS is a web site that makes web pages,

A CMS's promise is that it features intuitive, robust, and dynamic ways for content creators and managers to develop and produce content for large scale web sites. I'm more familiar with a Learning Management System which is really a CMS tailored to develop content to teach students online. In many respects it's fantastic. It offers choices I can integrate into my class - discussion forums, drop boxes, instant messaging, blogs, and more. All these are cool widgets I can add to my online course.

But, as for tailoring those fancy widgets for my specific needs, that's a different story. That's where the rage begins. CMSs have their limitations. Oh, do they have their limits!

If you're not familiar with a CMS, there are many online (and free) CMSs that will do all sorts of things for you. Or so they say. WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Mambo (I love these names) are but a few.

So here's my little take on why the rage against Content Management Systems:

  1. They take the soul out of the web.

    Unless you're really ready to spend a lot of time learning how to customize your page that you've created on WordPress (just to pick on one of them), then your page will have that cookie cutter "WordPress" look.

  2. The CMS interface is often not user-friendly and has many barriers to content.

    And that's just the half of it.

    The other half is that the web pages they generate are usually not very user-friendly. There is no excuse for this. CMS developers need to take into consideration that it's human beings that will be using a CMS to generate a web page, and it'll be human beings that use the page which is generated. I know there has been much improvement in this regard over the past few years but there is still too much room for improvement.

  3. They can be terribly inflexible.

    Yes, I know CMSs are getting better but so much of what is offered can't be customized. For example, say the CMS has a built in html editor. Sounds nice but what if the text box they give you is only 3 lines high causing you to scroll up and down like a mad man. 3 lines high and it can't be changed? Come on. That's lunacy.

Why Do IAs Hate Their Web CMS Tools

One of the things I reaffirmed while writing this JG was that I had a lot of company. I found that there was an Information Architect Summit in 2007 and one of the presenters found out this from those who attended.