Patricia - it sounds to me that WordPress would probably be a lot better for you than Joomla.

The reason I'd recommend going with one of the top three CMSs is that the community of people who have learned to use them is huge, so help is usually quick and free. There are literally hundreds of CMSs, home-brewed and open source and commercial, and there could be the perfect one that we've all overlooked so far, but, unless you know someone who can help with the one you're using, the ones with the largest following will probably have the largest number of people who have learned it and can help out - both from the creators of the CMS, and the online forums.

One of the reasons I like Joomla is that it feels a bit like a contra dance - the forums have a lot of smart people being nice to one another... I don't know much about the WordPress community (forums and the like) but it's probably the same.

Did you know that Bill Tomczak (clarinet player with the Latter Day Lizards) helped write part of a really good book on Joomla? (*Joomla, Start to Finish*, by Jen Kramer, teacher extraordinaire) and a Joomla extension, *Grumpy Contacts*. So it must be good. :-) I wonder how many other people on this list have written CMS extensions? I'm guessing more than one!

M E

On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 7:39 PM, P. Campbell <countrydancecaller(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:

> > > > I appreciate hearing about the differences among WordPress, Joomla, & > > Drupal. I created my website in iWeb which will not be supported after > this > > year, and I've been trying to figure out what to do. I think I need > > something more than WordPress, but I'm not really a techie. I kind of > > learned what I needed for each step of what I did/do, and then crossed my > > fingers that it would work (and also got help with some of it at the > Apple > > store). I'm not too happy to think that I'll probably have to start from > > scratch (though there were limitations to iWeb that I didn't know until I > > had spent a few months creating the site), and I'm not really interested > in > > learning any complex web design (like Dream Weaver, etc.). I see things > like > > Site Builder and Ruby on Rails on my hosting service - but I have no idea > > how easy any of them are to use. Joomla sounds like it might be what I > > should look into. > > > > > Thanks, Patricia > > > > > > > > > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > > From: Martha Edwards &lt;meedwards(a)westendweb.com&gt; > > To: "Caller's discussion list" &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt; > > Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:08:13 -0500 > > Subject: Re: [Callers] contra dance webmasters unite! > > Chip - I've been using *Joomla *for our site here in St Louis ( > > http://childgrove.org) for about a year. For myself, it's the perfect > > blend > > of front-end ease-of-use for content updaters and back-end flexibility > for > > the designer-techie who wants to make the site jump through a few hoops. > I > > love it. I can do things I always needed to hire a programmer to do > before > > - > > like make online registration forms that send you an email with the > > registration info AND send the registrant on to PayPal (thank you, > > Chronoforms!). > > > > However, since it looks as if, in the big Content Management Systems > > shakeout, there are three popular survivors, *WordPress, Joomla,* and * > > Drupal*, I've done some investigation into the other two as well. > > > > If the folks making the web site don't have a bunch of tech experience as > a > > web designer or programmer, I'd probably recommend *WordPress*. It's a > lot > > easier for non-techies to set up, and I've seen some spiffy sites done > with > > it. On the other hand, I also hear it's a lot less flexible for web > > designer/programmers. In other words, if you want to do what IT wants you > > to > > do, it's GREAT, but if you want to do something slightly different, you > may > > be out of luck. That makes sense, though. I figure you get extreme > > ease-of-use OR extreme flexibility, but not both. Don't know if you could > > do > > an online registration form with it, for example. Anyone have experience > > with this? > > > > I can't imagine a contra dance group ever needing something like > *Drupal*, > > which (I hear) falls squarely in the techie (extreme flexibility) camp. > But > > hey, if you've got someone who knows it, rumor has it that it can do > > amazing > > things. > > > > Uh-oh, just realized that we're not already on the contradance web-stuff > > discussion list. My apologies. > > > > So, in penance, and to keep the discussion about dance, I will include > here > > a link to my cute little double grand square Flash > > movies<http://www.westendweb.com/doublegrandsquare/> > > . > > > > M > > E > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > Callers(a)sharedweight.net > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers >

-- As you set out for Ithaka, pray that your journey be long, full of adventure, full of discovery... May there be many summer mornings when, with what pleasure, with what joy, you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time. ~Constantine Cavafy, "Ithaka" 1911 _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers