How to Set Up a Gift Website? 447
falzbro writes "I'm considering giving my parents their very own website for the holidays. However, it's harder than anticipated to find any type of Content Management System whose intended audience is a computer illiterate family. I personally use Drupal for content and Gallery for photo albums, and frankly can't stand PHPNuke. The only features required would be a blog of sorts and a photo album. I can't be the first one in this predicament, can I?"
Fix the Drupal link please (Score:3, Informative)
We can handle a slashdotting
Re:Fix the Drupal link please (Score:2, Informative)
drupal.org [drupal.org]
I tried this (Score:2)
Re:Fix the Drupal link please (Score:2, Funny)
Don't worry, there's more than enough colon here [goatse.cx]!
Re:Fix the Drupal link please (Score:2)
.mac (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:.mac or not 2 Mac (Score:2, Interesting)
If they have a windows PC check out NeoPhoto; http://www.neophoto.com. Makes webpages quick. Very easy for novice users.
Re:.mac (Score:2, Informative)
Re:.mac (Score:5, Funny)
you won't have the vanity of familysmith.com
Sod the vanity, that Kelly [familysmith.com] is HOT!
Re:.mac (Score:3, Funny)
Re:.mac (Score:3, Funny)
.mac .mac .mac iBlog, Backup, Virex, iPhoto, iDisk (Score:5, Informative)
Also the .mac site also has other things like update software, sample tunes for your imovies and lots of stuff thats not just a collection of freebies but focused on assisting your mac in ways that are actually productive.
No they dont have cgi, but you dont want that for your case anyhow.
Dont say, well .mac is out of the question cause I dont have a mac or a free .mac site. for illiterates macs a re cheap compared to the training you would have to give these people to be as productive on any other computer. THROW the WIINDOWS machine on the trash and buy a used mac for them on e-bay--it's way cost effective.
iBlog (Score:3, Informative)
Re:iBlog (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:.mac (Score:3, Interesting)
PHP Gallery is hard to beat (Score:3, Informative)
I'm more or less a linux n
In all seriousness (Score:2, Troll)
Why? (Score:2, Funny)
Online happiness (Score:3, Informative)
Personally, I think people are better off playing with a variety of programs. For example, you might try an online gallery with Yahoo, oFoto or those types of programs. Geocities pages are easy to maintain. There's tons of multiuser genealogy sites. If a person wants a simple home page for articles, I would
.Mac (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:.Mac (Score:5, Funny)
I second this. I purchased an iBook and a
She tells me "I had no idea setting up and running a website was this easy. All that time you spent on your computer years ago entering all that HTML code was kinda wasted. Wasn't it?". I responded with something like, "uhhhhh, yeah. But back then....
RE: Mac, all the way! (Score:5, Interesting)
I just got home from a LONG day of doing on-site PC service, and the last 3 calls I've struggled with were the same old story. Clueless family orders high-speed Internet access and plugs cable/DSL modem straight into the back of the computer. A month or two later, system has slowed to a crawl and loses connection constantly. Web pages often produce "DNS error" messages. Pop up ads are out of control.
Say what you will about the Mac, but none of this crap happens in the "Mac world". Not only that, but you get photo software that actually downloads images off their digital camera with zero pain and hassle (just plug the thing in and away it goes). You get easy web site creation via
Mod parent UP, not down...morons. (Score:2)
OS 9/X have a rather strong shareware and freeware market- lots of little programs out there to enhance various aspects, and .Mac is no exception.
Of course, it does mean buying them a Mac if they don't have one- but one of those gumdrop fla
moveabletype (Score:5, Informative)
I know lots of tech challanged people who use it for their sites.
Excellent Solution (Score:5, Informative)
Re:moveabletype (Score:5, Informative)
If you just want to get started with a full-featured weblog, we recommend TypePad, our simple weblog service, which is based on the Movable Type engine and requires no installation. TypePad weblogs are easy to customize and offer features like photo albums without requiring you to have a web server or any technical knowledge.
Haven't tried it, but looks like just what you want.
Link [typepad.com]
Why not DIY? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why not DIY? (Score:2)
Re:Why not DIY? - One Experience (Score:3, Informative)
All I knew, well, was asp so it's written for IIS, and uses some PHP for file uploads and Graphicsmagic (spawn of ImageMagick) for image manipulat
Re:Why not DIY? (Score:2)
DIY (Score:3, Insightful)
What about PostNuke? (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.postnuke.com
Re:What about PostNuke? (Score:3, Informative)
Have you considered... (Score:2)
*ducks*
Re:Have you considered... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Have you considered... (Score:2)
dotDone?
Re:Have you considered... (Score:2)
Plone (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Plone (Score:2)
Yes, I know it's technically not Plone's fault, but I bet I'm not the first person to encounter it needlessly. A simple warning in any of a number of places would have been appreciated.
You gunna pay for it forever? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You gunna pay for it forever? (Score:5, Funny)
Like a computer?
Re:You gunna pay for it forever? (Score:2)
Re:You gunna pay for it forever? (Score:2)
Like a computer?
. . . or a CAR?
Re:You gunna pay for it forever? (Score:2)
If after a year, the recipient doesn't feel like keeping up the site, they have still had a year out of it. If they do keep it up, they've recieved a year for free. How are either of these stupid?
A pet is bad, unless you know the person wants it, because you can't just abandon it (without being an asshole), like you can with a website.
Re:You gunna pay for it forever? (Score:2)
Zope (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Zope (Score:2)
Actually, I've never used it myself; just trying to show you that there are no absolutes, my friend...
Re:Zope (Score:5, Informative)
Rolling your own blog tool with BlogFace is pretty straightforward, or you can use one of the custom blog tools (CoreBlog, PABlog*, or CMF WebLog). For a very simplistic blog, you can just use the built in "news" tool.
*I wrote and maintain PABlog, I like it obviously. It doesn't currently work with Plone, CMF WebLog only works with Plone. CoreBlog is the most flexible of the three, as it runs on pure Zope, CMF, or Plone.
Re:Zope (Score:4, Informative)
> First of all its interface is terrible, and extremely hard to customize
Plone [plone.org], CMF [zope.org], CE [communitye.net]
> For instance you can't really just write an HTML page and upload it and hope it will work
Uh... yes you can. And when using a CMF based solution, it automaticall renders it using the default template and stylesheet.
> I've never seen a photo-album plug in, and I expect one would be terriblely difficult
A quick google search turned up quite a few. And if their wasn't, it would be trivial to whip one up in an hour or two.
> Simple scripting is difficult. I wanted to add a simple Python script to a zope site, and there was almost no way to do it
Python scripting is pathetically simple- My Mom could do it. To add a python script, just... add a python script from the content type menu. I dont see how that could be considered hard.
Overall, I think your post is just a big Troll. IMHO Zope is, by far, the most powerfull solution for, well, anything to do with a website. ZPT Leaves ASP and JSP in the dust, and is trivially easy to use. I've trained several people how to use it in a matter of hours.
if you are made of money... (Score:5, Informative)
Check it out
Re:if you are made of money... (Score:2, Informative)
Very, very easy.
That's neat, but.... (Score:3, Funny)
Too many websites go into the bit-bucket simply because it's no longer "fun" or becomes too much work to manage. If your parents are really interested in having their own site, go for it! I'd recommend getting them a free website to start then move them to a larger setup when the time comes.
Don't forget to wrap it in continuous feed printer paper and use a ribbon cable for the bow!
try (Score:2)
Get them to change their name to 404 (Score:5, Funny)
(and that if they want to change it that they'll have to wait till next X-mas.)
your one-stop shop (Score:2, Informative)
Gotta use the CVS code for photo album, etc. but it's pretty stable.
WebGUI (Score:3, Informative)
It is OpenSource, and very easy to use. It has WYSIWYG for those that don't know how to cut/paste. I suggest anyone looking at a CMS to take a look. It isn't perfect, but none really are.
Try Pivot (Score:4, Informative)
Look around at all the perdy choices (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Look around at all the perdy choices (Score:4, Informative)
Dear Sir and/or Madame (Score:4, Funny)
Sincerely,
Amazon.com Legal Department
First advice: don't. (Score:2)
The easiest solution (Score:5, Funny)
Rethink this (Score:5, Insightful)
After that, it will be as static as if it were etched in a stone tablet. Any updates will be done by you when you're visiting, you'll show them how to update the site, they'll nod and smile, and then it will be etched in stone again until you come back.
Just go ahead and buy them a new clock or a DVD player or a warm blanket. Better than saddling them with something that will be perceived as a responsibility and continual drudgery.
Bad link (Score:2)
Was the error in the link to drupal.org made on purpose ?
Maybe they didn't want to slashdot this website before that some of us could discover this CMS :?
For the DIY'ers (Score:2, Interesting)
A few caveats, I suppose -- make sure you're up on security when it comes to scripting. The last thing you need is for a gift site to be defaced because you messed up on a SQL-injection vuln.
Then there's the "idiot-proofing" portion where you have to come up with a coherent enough UI for the
PHPnuke ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Phpnuke [phpnuke.org] is "a news automated system specially designed to be used in Intranets and Internet. The Administrator has total control of his web site, registered users, and he will have in the hand a powerful assembly of tools to maintain an active and 100% interactive web site using databases."
So it isn't a wiki, it isn't a CMS, and it certainly isn't a blog. It's an open source project loosely based on the
Bashing PHPnuke in this post sounds too stupid to be true, it's like bashing MySQL for not being a good word processor.
Re:PHPnuke ? (Score:5, Funny)
Hah! Another piece of dirt I can throw at these mysql monkeys!
.Mac (Score:2)
Nice gift (Score:2)
Dot Mac (Score:2)
Since iBlog comes with it, you get a blog of sorts, too.
I'm not a fan of it, and use Moveable Type for mine, but as you say, I'm a geek and not the target audience.
I know, Apples are expensive, blah blah blah.
A bit off topic but ... (Score:2, Funny)
When I told her about her new email addresses (as many as she wants!) and website she just looked at me and said "You bought me a domain name?"
"Yeah."
This was followed by that utter dead silence men know only so well - it was a pivitol moment...
Then she smiled and nodded. Now she wouldn't live without it.
A geek love story, presented to you by the letter
Go do the Mac thang (Score:2, Flamebait)
The upfront costs are higher, but think of that as the time you save not having to walk them through the steps every few weeks.
They're going to have to learn SOMETHING... (Score:3)
Another thing you can do to minimize the learning curve is document the features they'll be using, on their own site. That way they don't have to know anything but the url...they can see help on the front page, and utilize it.
After hours of searching... (Score:5, Informative)
You can see my review of CMSs as a presentation (PDF) here [utoronto.ca].
Unfortunately just about all open source CMSs leave a lot to be desired in terms of out-of-the-box architecture and usability.
CityDesk (Score:3, Informative)
CityDesk [fogcreek.com]
smugmug - good enough for Howard Dean & my mo (Score:2)
Rather than look elsewhere, I built my own. It's now a thriving service all it's own, and our mantras are Easy and Style. Every decision we make is governed by those two directives, and it's p
Uploading via web page (Score:2)
Re:Uploading via web page (Score:2)
Re:Uploading via web page (Score:2)
.Mac for Windows (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.mac.com/1/mac_faq.html [mac.com]
If your family are using Linux, you're SoL, but from the context of the question (need an idiot-proof solution), I suspect this is not the case.
PyCS && PyDS (Score:2)
I use them for my site: www.pycs.net/lateral
If you don't want to handle the hosting, the pycs guys give accounts for free.
Homebase Anywhere (Score:2, Informative)
Check out These (Score:2)
The best CMS for actually making websites that I know of is Mambo [mamboserver.com] on the other hand it sounds like you don't want that.
If were going for simple I'd have to say I haven't found anything that better than Gallery for pictures. You then need to figure out if you want a Website or a Blog. I haven't used many blogs but you if you want easy webpages use a Wiki [pmichaud.com]
Hope you find what your looking for though.
Weird, I'm in the same boat myself (Score:2)
That said, my father-in-law may be technically inclined enough to be interested in pico + HTML for Dummies. Know your audience, I guess.
Typepad (Score:2)
For consideration (Score:2)
Linkage [slashdot.org]
As for ease of use, it would certainly require a geek to set up, but after that I don't think it would be particularly difficult to use.
I just think the current OSS CMSs fall short in some areas (performance being one) and this could really help.
Here you go. (Score:2)
You will need Apache, perl, and CGI.pm.
CityDesk (Score:2, Informative)
Very intuitive and easy to use...yet it is pretty powerful. Good for novice and knowledgeable users.
Post (not php) Nuke (Score:2)
Then they can just login and start making galleries and logs, pretty much just using a form and the nice little pagesetter online x-platorm wysiwyg.
http://www.Postnuke.com [postnuke.com]
Pagesetter & Photoshare: http://www.elfisk.dk [elfisk.dk]
What about blogger? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not always a great idea (Score:3, Insightful)
For some reason people forget about the simplest security measures, such as publishing their mailing address on one page, and the pictures and names of all their children on another.
After all, only the family is going to see it, right?
If you're going to set them up with a site, sit them down and give them a good lesson on what they should and shouldn't post.
'Kwiki' is a CMS so easy, even your mother can... (Score:3, Informative)
So I setup QuiltZilla [quiltzilla.com] for her. I took me five minutes to get it up and running, and it only took her 10 days and a digital camera to get the first 200 pages of content in the system.
But don't take my word for it, check it out for yourself.
Kwiki [kwiki.org] is a simple wiki based content management system, that even my mother can use, and it only takes minutes to set up.
Website?!?! (Score:3, Funny)
Man, and here I was all proud of making my folks a clay ashtray.
phpWebSite (Score:3, Informative)
Thomas
Stupd idea (possibly) (Score:3, Insightful)
Consequently: don't get your parents what you'd like to get yourself, or what you think they should have. Get them something they actually want. My guess is that a website/blog is NOT on the top of your their whish list.
P.S.: For those of you who whish to buy ME a gift, you (almost) can't go wrong with Thinkgeek [thinkgeek.com] D.S.
Mambo (Score:4, Interesting)
Myfamily.com (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Your parents will hate you...NOT (Score:5, Interesting)
If the web site lets her see new pictures and print them, she'd giggle for weeks. The idea is fairly good I wonder if I could host somthing simple enough to allow the rest of the family to upload images, we've had lots of grandkids in the last 18 months. My grandmother can't use the VCR still but she can pop the memory stick from her camera into the printer we got her and her house is flooded with pictures or wee little ones doing cutsie things that only family members would appreciate or care to know about. The scary thought is getting busted for child porn for the shot of little jenny having her first bath or somthing like that...
I actually just got a surprise birthday site! (Score:4, Interesting)
So... my g/f Amy, not at all a techie, secretly learned how to set up and use Andromeda, emailed my friends for suggested listening, and surprised me on my birthday with a fully set up music site. It was totally amazing!
She even set up a fake Hotmail address so she could write me with tech support questions. Sneaky.
Re:Are the computer illiterate worthwhile? (Score:2)