Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Software

How to Set Up a Gift Website? 447

Posted by michael from the don't-look-it-in-the-mouth dept.
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?"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

How to Set Up a Gift Website? More

How to Set Up a Gift Website?

Comments Filter:

  • Fix the Drupal link please (Score:3, Informative)

    by UnConeD ( 576155 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @07:57PM (#7563762)
    The colon in http:// is missing.

    We can handle a slashdotting ;).

  • .mac (Score:5, Insightful)

    by larry bagina ( 561269 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @07:58PM (#7563772) Journal
    you won't have the vanity of familysmith.com, but if your parents have a macintosh, iPhoto does makes web photo journals nice and easy.

    • 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)

      by Anonymous Coward
      If they have a Mac and you have a Gallery [menalto.com] get them iPhotoToGallery [zwily.com]. Makes publishing from iPhoto to Gallery a snap.

    • Re:.mac (Score:5, Funny)

      by Aardpig ( 622459 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:27PM (#7564067)

      you won't have the vanity of familysmith.com

      Sod the vanity, that Kelly [familysmith.com] is HOT!

    • .mac .mac .mac iBlog, Backup, Virex, iPhoto, iDisk (Score:5, Informative)

      by goombah99 ( 560566 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:56PM (#7564305)
      .mac is so seemless its absurd. With iDisk you almost cannot tell its a remote disk other than the speed. Everything about the user interface just makes it look like its part of the file system and FINDER that you know already. Panther takes it way beyond jaguar and light years beyong Goliath. its just so fast and robust now.

      .mac gives you iBlog software, backup software, iPhoto, and home page templates. Of these only the home page templates are primitive, but frankly you dont want to give illiterates to many choices. If they want more they can roll their own web pages.

      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)

        by blamanj ( 253811 )
        ...can be used without paying Apple for .mac. Some of us like a little more control over our domains.

        • Re:iBlog (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          whatever you say. I figure 99 dollars per year is cheap for a seamless headache free web site. Sue you can cobble together every feature on the .mac site. How much is that all worth to you and maintain? And as for control, well you can keep control on some other web site--thats not what the question was about. it was about how to set op a family web site for newbies.

    • Re:.mac (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Spy Hunter ( 317220 )
      If you do want your own domain, how about a Wiki? It doesn't get much easier than a link called "Edit This Page". There are a few varieties to choose from; one with authentication and file attachment capabilities would work for a simple blog/photo gallery site. That way your family can have total control over every aspect of the website, but it can still be incredibly easy to modify.
    • I've been using Gallery [menalto.com] as an online photo album for a little over a year. It's an absolutely awesome PHP-based tool. Very slick UI, automatic thumbnailing and creation of comfortable screen-size images, plus tie-ins to digital printing services (e.g. Shutterfly). There's even Gallery Remote, which is a nicely done Java app to allow you to drag-and-drop entire batches photos directly into your online galleries. I often have my pics on my site within minutes of returning home.

      I'm more or less a linux n

  • It really sounds like you are looking for AOL.

  • Why? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Man, you must really hate your parents to give them such a crappy gift. Why?

    • Online happiness (Score:3, Informative)

      by yintercept ( 517362 )
      I agree, giving someone a one size fit all content management program with the idea that it will make their online experience a wonderland is absurd. I will just lead to a lot of work and unhappiness.

      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)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:00PM (#7563791)
    Get them an iMac with a .Mac account. It handles all your needs :)

    • Re:.Mac (Score:5, Funny)

      by BWJones ( 18351 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:12PM (#7563926) Homepage Journal
      Get them an iMac with a .Mac account. It handles all your needs :)

      I second this. I purchased an iBook and a .Mac account for my sister who just had a kid so she could do just this sort of thing for family around the world so we can all see pictures of the baby. She is a complete computer novice, but her digital camera was immediately recognized so she could download pictures and then post them to her .Mac website so we can all see them. Additionally, there is/was a free iBlog program that came with the .Mac account.

      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)

        by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @11:42PM (#7565512) Journal
        I'm going to "third" this suggestion!
        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 .Mac. You get iTunes and the Apple music store (start them out right, instead of trying to pirate music of questionable quality off Kaaza, Morpheus, etc.). And lastly, you get (at least in many major cities) a nice clean, store you can walk into and get a respectable amount of customer service and assistance. (Before you flame me on this one, I'm well aware of some of the horror stories. But *in general*, you're talking about a place that offers regular free training on their popular products, a "genius bar" that's there just so you can ask questions/get help, and more. Beats calling some 800# and waiting on hold for 40 mins.)
    • I agree. Not only will they get a easy way to upload photos- but they'll get a place to publish calendars others can subscribe to(not just iCal users either- Netscape w/Calendaring plugin for one), and a place to back up stuff like their bookmarks, address book, etc.

      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)

    by verch ( 12834 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:00PM (#7563803)
    If you want to give them blog functionality, I'm a big fan of moveable type : http://www.moveabletype.org

    I know lots of tech challanged people who use it for their sites.

    • Excellent Solution (Score:5, Informative)

      by shakamojo ( 518620 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:10PM (#7563911)
      Moveable Type [moveabletype.org] is an excellent solution. Very user friendly with excellent online documentation. It's also easy to set up! I'd totally recommend it, I too have set it up for a few folks that aren't all that computer savvy, and they've had no problem using it to blog. There's also their pay service Typepad [typepad.com] that is even more newbie friendly and requires no setup at all! Either of these solutions will do what you need.

    • Re:moveabletype (Score:5, Informative)

      by morcego ( 260031 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:11PM (#7563921)
      Looking at the moveabletype website, I just noticed they saying:

      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)

    by tabacco ( 145317 ) * on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:01PM (#7563807)
    Why not make your own? that way it's exactly how you want it, and it means more as a gift.
    • Because compared to the systems already there, a DIY system wouldn't fit the bill. I mean, sure it works great for you because you know the kinks and how to get around bugs. If you're giving it to someone less computer literate, try to build a decent photo album program that'd work better than Gallery. I can install the Gallery Remote program on someone's computer and let them go at it.
    • I was stuck with this same question, a lot of our clients, art gallerys, adult entertainment, etc. all needed self-publishing (basically so they'd leave us, their site designers, alone), I didn't find anything that fit the layout of their sites (I didn't want to change the overall look) so I started writing something that was somewhat flexible in terms of layout.

      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

  • DIY (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xchino ( 591175 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:01PM (#7563810)
    If you really want it to be a gift, customize it yourself. Just find a good php script that does each of the things you require, then customize and combine them. Then you can create your own administration interface, or combine the admin interfaces of the individual scripts if possible. I've never found a CMS I liked, as they all seem to try to do too much, and it becomes a pain to customize them due to their massive codebase. And you're wise to stay away from PHPNuke.

  • What about PostNuke? (Score:4, Informative)

    by The_Myth ( 84113 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:01PM (#7563816)
    I know the author has had serious problems with PHPNuke but the PostNuke project branched away from PHPNuke a while back. There are plugins for it to incorporate the Coppermine Gallery amongst others and is very easy to maintain and customise.

    http://www.postnuke.com
    • I was going to make the same recommendation. I set up gallery as a module in PostNuke. I had some problems setting it up as the start page, but it looks like the problem's been corrected in the latest CVS version. (Read more here [menalto.com]). I must say I'm impressed with both Gallery and PostNuke, and with a bit of instruction, a non-technical person should be able to administer a website built on a combination of the two.
  • mac.com?

    *ducks*

  • Plone (Score:5, Informative)

    by Gunfighter ( 1944 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:03PM (#7563826)
    Try Plone [plone.org]. It's easy to install, works right out of the box, and has available blog and photoalbum modules that are easy to install and configure.
    • That's what I did, wish someone had told me about the 2gb zodb filesize limit. [zope.org]
      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)

    by Kris_J ( 10111 ) * on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:03PM (#7563830) Homepage Journal
    Buying someone a service (or a pet) as a gift is, well, stupid is the most positive thing I can think of. Don't buy people things that need money fed into them forever.

    • Re:You gunna pay for it forever? (Score:5, Funny)

      by MarkJensen ( 708621 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:09PM (#7563910) Homepage
      Don't buy people things that need money fed into them forever.

      Like a computer?

    • Buying someone a service (or a pet) as a gift is, well, stupid is the most positive thing I can think of

      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.

      • 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?
        So long as you're paying up front for a whole year, there aren't any extra costs that could suddenly appear and you won't get upset if it doesn't get used after the first month, then I guess it's your money to risk.

  • Zope (Score:5, Informative)

    by The Munger ( 695154 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:03PM (#7563833) Homepage
    Zope [zope.org] is a very powerful, yet friendly content management system. If you ever get beyond the basics of a bunch of text and images, it allows Python [python.org] scripts. Zope is written using Python. Everything I've seen about it seems pretty nice, and I haven't heard a bad word against it.
    • FUCK Zope.

      Actually, I've never used it myself; just trying to show you that there are no absolutes, my friend...

    • Re:Zope (Score:5, Informative)

      by the_rev_matt ( 239420 ) <slashbot AT revmatt DOT com> on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @09:55PM (#7564775) Homepage
      Zope is extremely powerful and flexible. Zope is an application server, it is not the complete solution on it's own. Your best bet for what you want to do is to use zope hosting someplace (I've used hurrah [hurrah.com] in the past and currently use Zettai [zettai.net], both are great) and get them to install (or do it yourself if you are comfortable with that) either Content Management Framework [zope.org] or plone [plone.org] and add the photo album tool and a blog tool (there are at least three). CMF/Plone provide a very user friendly interface for managing documents, photos, files, etc etc. Plone is built on CMF and basically adds more complex functionality to CMF. You can probably do just fine with the core CMF.


      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.

  • if you are made of money... (Score:5, Informative)

    by TedTschopp ( 244839 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:03PM (#7563835) Homepage
    Macromedia Contribute is right up your alley. $99 last time I checked. And very idiot proof.

    Check it out
    • I agree. Contribute isn't going to give you the whole PHP-shebang of blogs, forums, private messages, newsfeeds, and coffee-makers. But for making basic web pages, it's dead simple. You can set up templates for them to use as well - photo album pages for specific topics would be sensible.

      Very, very easy.

  • That's neat, but.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by thewiz ( 24994 ) * on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:04PM (#7563836)
    Will they actually use/update it?

    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 plone

  • Get them to change their name to 404 (Score:5, Funny)

    by corebreech ( 469871 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:06PM (#7563859) Journal
    Then make up a URL and tell them it's their new home page.

    (and that if they want to change it that they'll have to wait till next X-mas.)
  • horde.org [horde.org]

    Gotta use the CVS code for photo album, etc. but it's pretty stable.

  • WebGUI (Score:3, Informative)

    by Archangel Michael ( 180766 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:06PM (#7563869) Journal
    I use WebGUI [plainblack.com] from PlainBlack Software [plainblack.com]. It uses Perl [perl.com]/MySQL [mysql.com]/Apache [apache.org].

    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)

    by Dugsmyname ( 451987 ) <thegenericgeek@gm a i l.com> on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:07PM (#7563878) Homepage
    For my web site [genericgeek.com], I found that the easiest content management system is Pivot [pivotlog.net]. A friend has also set up a site where his parents can post directly to his web site... It's "grandma proof" (once set up) and easy to maintain..

  • Look around at all the perdy choices (Score:5, Informative)

    by Zapperlink ( 635003 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:07PM (#7563879) Homepage Journal
    http://www.opensourcecms.com/

  • Dear Sir and/or Madame (Score:4, Funny)

    by mikeophile ( 647318 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:07PM (#7563885)
    It has come to our attention that you are discussing the creation of an online gift site. We are required to inform you that our client holds extensive patents on not only online gift sites but the discussion thereof. Please cease and desist immediately. Thank you for your compliance.

    Sincerely,

    Amazon.com Legal Department

  • I gave my family a vanity site in 1997. It was fun to set up, but then it got boring and then it sat, idle, while my youngest brother grew up. You have to be a little weird (like most of the slashdot crowd) and have a little time on your hands to maintain a personal web site. Most people aren't weird enough and/or don't have the time.

  • The easiest solution (Score:5, Funny)

    by skinfitz ( 564041 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:11PM (#7563920) Journal
    Have you considered just getting them socks or chocolate?

  • Rethink this (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cybermace5 ( 446439 ) <g.ryan@macetech.com> on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:13PM (#7563939) Homepage Journal
    If your parents are as computer-unsavvy as you claim, they will not use this. Maybe, with your help, a couple family photos and a minimal blurb of self-awareness "Hey, this is our website and it works!"

    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.

  • 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)

    by Eberlin ( 570874 )
    It's a fun and interesting project to come up with a blog-like set of scripts. There's a lot out there that do way more than you care for it to do, and there's always the satisfaction of having created one yourself.

    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)

    by HansF ( 700676 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:16PM (#7563962) Journal
    Jeez, what is PHPnuke doing mentioned in this post?
    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 /. concept.
    Bashing PHPnuke in this post sounds too stupid to be true, it's like bashing MySQL for not being a good word processor.
  • If they're using a Mac, then .Mac is the best thing I can suggest. Publishing photos from iPhoto is a breeze, and Apple is even offering iBlog for free and $20 off of Macromedia Contribute right now to .Mac members (and Contribute is a great way to handle editing to people you may be less than excited about giving that type of access to). In all, a great package. Of course, $99/year for just web publishing is possibly cost-prohibitive, especially if your parents wouldn't be inclined to use the other feat
  • Nice gift. Leave it to a slashbot to find a gift that makes some skank-ass tie look good.

  • Dot Mac (Score:2)

    by Zoop ( 59907 )
    Seriously, that's the target audience of Apple's .Mac. It integrates with the apps that they already use on the machine.

    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.
  • I gave my wife a domain name + website as a gift some years ago (http://www.trickenzie.com/). She wasn't my wife then, we were just seeing each other.

    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)

    by rjung2k ( 576317 )
    Like others have said, a Mac and a .mac account will do everything you want, and more. One-click publishing of photos, idiot-proof web blogging, plus the benefits of using a Mac over a Wintel PC. :-)

    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)

    by Shoten ( 260439 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:27PM (#7564068)
    Almost any functionality of any form requires learning to some degree. A radio-controlled car, a new stereo, a new cell phone. To expect something like this to require no learning curve at all is unrealistic. Also, most people take some interest in learning things (although I know I'm speaking for people I've never met here). With that in mind, could you not use TikiWiki [tikiwiki.org] and tune it a bit to strip off the goodies they won't use.

    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)

    by delfstrom ( 205488 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:28PM (#7564079)
    I've looked into all sorts of content management systems and have tried many of them out.

    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.

    • Don't use Plone/Zope, Drupal, Slashcode, etc. etc.
    • Macromedia Contribute [macromedia.com], though $$$$, might be a good solution because you can lock them out from messing around with the site, but there is still a learning curve for newbies
    • Good blogging software like MT mentioned earlier would work well, along with something like Gallery [google.com] for photos.
    • Quite frankly, Mac.com [mac.com] seems to be the best out there. It's really easy to use. Of course, you need a Macintosh to make it worthwhile, but it really seems to be a good solution for what you're looking for.

  • CityDesk (Score:3, Informative)

    by JacobO ( 41895 ) on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @08:32PM (#7564105)
    You should take a look at Fog Creek's CityDesk. Their "starter edition" is free and lets you publish sites of up to 50 pages.

    CityDesk [fogcreek.com]
  • We used to use Gallery for our photos, but while it's easily the best installable package around, and much better than lots of online photo sharing places, we eventually outgrew it. It wasn't easy enough for my computer-illiterate family members, and it wasn't powerful or stylish enough for those who were literate.

    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
  • The problem with web-based CMSs is uploading. HTML form-based uploading is no fun when you want to post a few hundred photos from a session for somebody to review or whatever. And people (especially clients and computer-illiterate families) don't want to use FTP. What people want is a cross-platform, drag-and-drop upload system, seamlessly incorporated into the CMS, that'll allow them to manage files on the website as though they were part of the local file system, using OS-native dialogs and such. And I kn
  • You can set both up on a server, very nice to use, fully web based.

    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)

    by GRW ( 63655 )
    I have been using the Homebase Anywhere [oeone.net] service from Axentra Corporation [axentra.com]. They provide IMAP and webmail, 100 megs of web and storage space and your own portal page with webdav access. Photo albums are automatically generated by uploading photos and description files to your "Photos" directory. Other features include compatibility with Mozilla calendar, an LDAP capable address book, and an online web page generator. There is a free 60 day trial. Axentra also sells the Rumba Multifunction Server Applianc [axentra.com]
  • Depends on what you want:

    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.
  • Something I'm considering is setting up a Wiki for the in-laws; I figure the easy formatting and linking will be a godsend, and there's got to be a way to limit editing to just them, right? (Oh god -- awful random thought -- what happens when spammers find wikis? Jesus...)

    That said, my father-in-law may be technically inclined enough to be interested in pico + HTML for Dummies. Know your audience, I guess.

  • Try Typepad ... it's a pay-for service, but it's damned simple to use. I was a second-round beta tester, and I found it one of the easiest web-publishing software out there, as did the hundreds of other beta-testers I talked with. It's an updated version of MoveableType (which is also very good), but simplified for the average shmoe. It even includes a handy 'layout' editor, which allows the sort of page customization most people want, without *any* understanding of how the stuff actually works. Everyth
  • On the topic of blogs, I've recently had a brainfart idea that's in my journal. I want to see an open source CMS as an Apache module in C!

    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.
  • I built this last year for a quick demo for a job. [windbournetech.com] This year I have it set up for my girlfriend's family. It is not quite where I want it, but......
    You will need Apache, perl, and CGI.pm.

  • CityDesk (Score:2, Informative)

    by TheCodeFoundry ( 246594 )
    Joel on Software [joelonsoftware.com]'s company, FogCreek [fogcreek.com], makes a very friendly, easy to use content mgmt software package, named CityDesk [fogcreek.com].

    Very intuitive and easy to use...yet it is pretty powerful. Good for novice and knowledgeable users.
  • With the Pagesetter & Photoshare modules is pretty simple, if you set it up for them and remove all the extraneous stuff.

    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)

    by dirk ( 87083 ) <dirk@one.net> on Tuesday November 25, 2003 @09:42PM (#7564681) Homepage
    I find it interesting that no one has suggested Blogger. While other tools are more powerful, for something simple, Blogger seems like the best idea. It is free, they can host it for you if you want, and it's even integrated into the Google toolbar. Nothing seems easier than just telling them to hit the toolbar and type in the window.

  • Not always a great idea (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @12:00AM (#7565615)
    Have you considered that giving computer illiterate people their own website may have unpleasant side effects?
    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)

    by yoyoboy ( 21613 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @02:15AM (#7566336) Homepage
    I should know, I did exactly what you are proposing for my mother last mother's day. She wanted a website where she could share her quilting and craft projects with family and friends...

    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)

    by breon.halling ( 235909 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @02:48AM (#7566466)

    Man, and here I was all proud of making my folks a clay ashtray.

  • phpWebSite (Score:3, Informative)

    by thegraham ( 700880 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @04:06AM (#7566714)
    Try phpWebSite http://phpwebsite.appstate.edu/, I haven't used it myself, but it seems good and people have given me positive reviews.

    Thomas

  • Stupd idea (possibly) (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Big Nothing ( 229456 ) <tord.stromdal@gmail.com> on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @08:12AM (#7567335)
    People always say "get them what you want, what you'd like to get, and you're home safe"...

    ...which is a load of CRAP! My family has been following that logic for years, and all I get is tasteless crap that they'd love to get for themselves, but I hate and wouldn't ordinarily touch with a ten foot pole.

    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)

    by arevos ( 659374 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @08:40AM (#7567432) Homepage
    Mambo [mamboserver.com] isn't bad. It's certainly pretty simple to use. opensourceCMS [opensourcecms.com] has an example of it.

  • Myfamily.com (Score:3, Informative)

    by Washizu ( 220337 ) <bengarvey@nosPAM.comcast.net> on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @11:32AM (#7568879) Homepage
    I come from a huge extended family and one of my cousins set up a site on MyFamily.com [myfamily.com]. It's not perfect and you won't have a lot of control, but it has a ton of features and is pretty easy to use.

Slashdot Top Deals

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." - Bert Lantz

Close