Web 2.0 community sites
As one of the branches of my new IM strategy, I am developing a couple differently targeted community sites; one a hobby niche and the other a city CMS/Forum/Blog type. One is WP/Buddypress and the other Joomla/CB.
It has been about two years since I developed any Joomla sites. I was doing that professionally for a bit. What surprised me is that the platform has not moved beyond v1.5 in that time. A new 1.6 beta is in the works. After configuring CB, it was really obvious that the front and back ends look very dated--ala 2005, and are not very attractive looking.
Buddypress is a breeze (as is WP) compared to Joomla in integration--but WP lacks the page level display controls that Joomla has. I also note that there is a relatively small BP development community and the themes are still lacking in any great abundance. For that site, I am thinking about a trial of JomSocial instead of CB. Have any of you done integration on that platform?
As to WP/BP, I am seeing some interesting deficits for what ultimately will be high traffic sites. bbPress as it is deployed internally in BP is rubbish--ugly, lacking good moderation and spam controls, so on and so forth. I am doing a test of Simple
ress--but I see that it has some shortcomings.
The native PM function of BP SUCKS. In the Joomla development I am using uddeIM as that platform--but discovered that it does not support Subject lines and a few other display niceties. Any suggestions?
So, who has already "been there, done that" with the current status of these two platforms from a user community development perspective--and any solid advice to share?
It has been about two years since I developed any Joomla sites. I was doing that professionally for a bit. What surprised me is that the platform has not moved beyond v1.5 in that time. A new 1.6 beta is in the works. After configuring CB, it was really obvious that the front and back ends look very dated--ala 2005, and are not very attractive looking.
Buddypress is a breeze (as is WP) compared to Joomla in integration--but WP lacks the page level display controls that Joomla has. I also note that there is a relatively small BP development community and the themes are still lacking in any great abundance. For that site, I am thinking about a trial of JomSocial instead of CB. Have any of you done integration on that platform?
As to WP/BP, I am seeing some interesting deficits for what ultimately will be high traffic sites. bbPress as it is deployed internally in BP is rubbish--ugly, lacking good moderation and spam controls, so on and so forth. I am doing a test of Simple
ress--but I see that it has some shortcomings.The native PM function of BP SUCKS. In the Joomla development I am using uddeIM as that platform--but discovered that it does not support Subject lines and a few other display niceties. Any suggestions?
So, who has already "been there, done that" with the current status of these two platforms from a user community development perspective--and any solid advice to share?