MODX vs joomla cms

I would heartily recommend MODx as the only true CMS out there. Its core doesn’t include forums, a chatbox, or any rubbish like that - it includes exactly what you need to manage content, and it does it damn well.

If you need forums and a portal style system, I would personally go for e107. However, I don’t see the communities or futures of either e107 or Joomla as being as bright as that of MODx; I’ve been around the block, having gone through everything from PHP-Nuke (something I’d rather forget) to the pleasure of MODx, MODx is the only CMS I really see as being capable of handling every type of content you can throw at it. For its purpose, MODx is simply as good as they come.

Sure, give others a go at http://opensourcecms.com , and see if you can find anything that suits your needs better. But bear in mind where the CMS’s are at and where they are going... if you’re planning to run your site for anything remotely long-term, you need a CMS that will continue to be developed and supported for an equally long period of time. This is something I can see in MODx’s community more than any other.

Quote from: Smoothie at Mar 15, 2006, 04:02 PM

I would heartily recommend MODx as the only true CMS out there. Its core doesn’t include forums, a chatbox, or any rubbish like that - it includes exactly what you need to manage content, and it does it damn well.

Wow!! That’s definitely going on our testimonials page. And that’s a very good summary of what MODx is. But I also want to say, that as our early adoption period in the developer community continues, there will be more and more components that cover just as wide a spectrum as Joomla and other, more mature systems, as well as new approaches to old problems made possible by the flexiblity of the MODx core.
Quote from: Smoothie at Mar 15, 2006, 04:02 PM

If you need forums and a portal style system, I would personally go for e107. However, I don’t see the communities or futures of either e107 or Joomla as being as bright as that of MODx; I’ve been around the block, having gone through everything from PHP-Nuke (something I’d rather forget) to the pleasure of MODx, MODx is the only CMS I really see as being capable of handling every type of content you can throw at it. For its purpose, MODx is simply as good as they come.

Sure, give others a go at http://opensourcecms.com , and see if you can find anything that suits your needs better. But bear in mind where the CMS’s are at and where they are going... if you’re planning to run your site for anything remotely long-term, you need a CMS that will continue to be developed and supported for an equally long period of time. This is something I can see in MODx’s community more than any other.

We definitely take pride in our community and see it as our strongest asset in these stages of our development. I’m glad to see others recognizing the value this represents to everyone involved in the project. And I’m of the same philosophy; use the right tool for the job. I still use WordPress, PubBB, or other systems on occasion in my freelance work, usually in conjunction with MODx, but, I certainly don’t see MODx as the solution for everything; not at this point anyway.

Quote from: Smoothie at Mar 15, 2006, 04:02 PM

I would heartily recommend MODx as the only true CMS out there.

sounds like a religious cult he he all hail the MODx god

I think in order for a CMS to be the supreme god of content managemetn, it needs to NOT (did I say NOT ? ) be taylored to developers but instead for the end user that being most of the people on the planet who are not keen on chunks, snippets and other developer nonsense

At the very least, it should provide user-friendly STEP BY STEP (did I say STEP BY STEP ?) instructions where a user can get their site up and running in no time.

I’ve read the curent documentation and its modanese language and not making much sense to a moron like me

so before you start performing the Modx superiority dance get to work on some of the things mentioned, if you can do that, I’ll run naked up and down the internet halls worshping the almighty Modx

MODx is defintely not targeted at end users now. It’s definitely more for advanced users, and people that need certain things that it enables. In due course we’ll have all the little Wizards available that make things simpler.

Given that though, the fact that there are many decidedly non-developer-inclined users at this stage says a lot.

Quote from: bugsmi0 at Mar 16, 2006, 10:21 AM

Quote from: Smoothie at Mar 15, 2006, 04:02 PM

I would heartily recommend MODx as the only true CMS out there.

sounds like a religious cult he he all hail the MODx god

I think in order for a CMS to be the supreme god of content managemetn, it needs to NOT (did I say NOT ? ) be taylored to developers but instead for the end user that being most of the people on the planet who are not keen on chunks, snippets and other developer nonsense

I am sorry that you are feeling overwhelmed with all this. MODx has a learning curve, especially if you have been using another CMS/Portal. MODx has a very different way of doing certain things, but as you can see from the community here, a lot of folks think that way is better. You are absolutely right, MODx is not one step, point and click, ready for novice users at this point. On that note, you will find no one here attempting to force you to use MODx or trying to convince you that MODx is the only option. You will, however, find a plethora of people who actually want to help you get through the growing pains of learning MODx if you are serious about taking the time to figure out why we speak so highly of this CMS.

-sD-
scotty Delicious

As I said, I’ve been through most CMS’s out there, and that’s definitely given me a general understanding of what to expect from CMS’s in general - what’s to be expected from an install, how to generally have a database and server environment all correctly set up, that kind of stuff. I don’t think I needed a readme - simply running an install.php seemed to get the trick done.

Unfortunately, from past experience it can be difficult for a dev to know how a newbie will approach software, and consequently pre-empting all the questions can be extremely difficult and time consuming. Imagine trying to teach someone to use a computer when they’ve never used one before and you get the idea - it can be harder to document software than you think.

For the time being, MODx is indeed suited to the more advanced user. But is that an entirely bad thing? Personally, I don’t think so. If MODx appealed mainly to newbie users, these forums would be full of people asking the typical newbie questions after not having consulted existing documentation. Sad, but true. Instead, there are a few experienced coders, who readily contribute to the community - and surely the community is better off with a few of these, than a million people without a clue (à la PHP-Nuke).

Maybe an elitist view, but when you’ve been around a while and seen newbies making hundreds of requests of the community when they can’t be bothered to learn a little code and do it themselves, you become a little tired of such members of the community. Personally, I welcome newbies who are willing to read the documentation, get stuck in themselves, and get themselves up to the standard of skill required to get the work done that they need doing. Creating quality documentation is the key to attracting and catering to this type of user, and this is another area in which MODx is currently progressing very well.

I’m sure the opinions of other members of the MODx community are different and more tolerant, but from a perspective weary of the antics of certain newbie members of other CMS’ communities, the MODx community is pretty great as it is.

modX and css coders belong together, and that’s not some kind of religious fanatical statement it’s simply that modX was built with css coders in mind - the problem is the css community, or the heavy hitters, really haven’t heard about modX

Who are the heavy hitters? Well - I just happen to keep a list that I’m happy to share

Tantek Celik www.tantek.com
Cameron Adams www.themaninblue.com
Patrick Lauke (aka redux) www.splintered.co.uk
Paul O’Brien www.pmob.co.uk
Dan Cederholm www.simplebits.com
Dave Shea www.mezzoblue.com
Jeffrey Zeldman www.zeldman.com
Douglas Bowman www.stopdesign.com
Andy Budd - www.andybudd.com
D. Keith Robinson www.blueflavor.com
Andrei Herasimchuk www.designbyfire.com
Ian ‘hixie’ Hickson www.ian.hixie.ch
Simon Willison www.incutio.com
Patrick Griffiths www.htmldog.com
John Gallant www.positioniseverything.net
Holly Bergevin www.positioniseverything.net
Mike Davidson www.mikeindustries.com
Christopher Schmitt www.christopherschmitt.com
Petr Stanicek (Pixy) www.pixy.cz
John Allsopp www.johnallsopp.co.uk
Jeremy Keith www.adactio.com
Simon Collison www.collylogic.com
Jon Hicks www.hicksdesign.co.uk
Dunstan Orchard www.1976design.com
Patrick Griffiths www.htmldog.com
Russ Weakley www.maxdesign.com.au
John Gallant www.positioniseverything.net.
Peter Gifford www.universalhead.com
Stu Nicholls. www.stunicholls.com
Anne van Kesteren www.annevankesteren.nl
Didier Hilhorst www.nundroo.com
Egor Kloos www.dutchcelt.nl
Danny Goodman. www.dannyg.com
Aaron Gustafson’s www.easy-designs.net
Richard Rutter www.clagnut.com
Blake Scarbrough www.blakems.com
Cameron Moll www.cameronmoll.com
Jeremy Hedley www.antipixel.com
Daniel Glazman www.glazman.org
Michelle Goodrich www.mandarindesign.com
Rachel Andrew www.rachelandrew.co.uk
Kynn Bartlett www.kynn.com
Eric Costello www.glish.com
Simon Willison www.simon.incutio.com
Peter-Paul Koch www.quirksmode.org
Seamus Leahy www.moronicbajebus.com

Pretty nice list of key influencers... we have them in mind, though we had a shorter list so far. I surely can understand the benefit of rallying even one of those : back in 2004 when I discovered and became involved with Textpattern, John Hicks did a lot to give some reputation to this fairly unknown CMS (another one with CSS coders in mind, BTW )

We definitely have to make a move toward those now that MODx has matured, part of why Ryan started posting @Stylegala, and I did too and will increase our presence there (Sitepoint is another place I roam... if you have suggestion about other designers packed forums, I’d be glad !)

Anyway, thanks a lot for this list

Sitepoint’s littered with newbies, if you can get Paul O’Brien’s seal of approval you’d be off to a good start - I’m sure most on the list will be happy to help out . ... ummm, I feel a book coming on

I hope you have plenty of bandwidth for the months ahead

Holly and John are good friends of mine (PIE.net), and I’ve chatted with several of the other folks on the list. I’ll be ready to start trying to get their attention after the next release. Anyone have first-name relationships with any of the others?