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Choosing CMS for review site

by ultimalite
2 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Hello,

I have an old project that I started long time ago, but never finished.
The idea was to make a review site with several sections: clubs, restaurants, hotels, etc.
I had hard time deciding what CMS I should use for it.
At first I thought I needed to develop my own custom platform. Now I think that maybe I can use an existing CMS like Joomla and just add plugins or perhaps modify something :confused:
Right from the beginning I knew that the ordinary forums platform will not fit, because listings and comments must be completely different in terms of looks and data.

The minimal set of features would include the following:
1. The users should be able to comment and rate listed places + set their location, age and gender while commenting (no registration)
2. The users should be able to submit / suggest new places.
3. Admin should be able to approve / disapprove / edit suggested listings and comments.
4. Each section must have its own header
5. Advanced captcha / IP ban / Forbidden words

The advanced version would include the following additional features:

6. Registration process / Profile with avatar
7. Full administrative control
8. Communication between users
9. Ability to sort comments by different criteria, etc

So I am still in doubt what to do :confused:
#choosing #cms #review #site
  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Joomla or Drupal would be ideal for this project!
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  • Profile picture of the author PaulChester
    Hi ultimalite,

    I'm a director for a pretty large Drupal site that's not dissimilar to what you're talking about. So with the benefit of hindsight and a fair bit of experience.

    The short answer is 99% of social sites achieve nothing more than being a hobbyist state akin to a ghost town in which case iAmNamessLess is absolutely right (sory iAmNamessLess, having re-read that sentence it sounds harsh - I didn't mean it to be, you are right for smaller sites). If you think it'll be more than that then read on...

    A quick comment on your idea:
    Firstly it sounds like you're entering a really crowded market. For example qype.com seems quite similar to the idea you mention. If you're looking for something more geographically specific (e.g. your home town) maybe you can dominate that - but with a generic, geographically disperse site you'll find it difficult to gain traction (I speak from experience here...). The only caveat to this is _maybe_ if you're targeting hotels or clubs that can be categorised as "alternative" in some way e.g. "best hotel for trekkie conventions" or "best club for spandex parties".

    On to your choice of CMS:
    For most people on these forums WP/Joomla/Drupal is the right choice for creating review sites or niche sites. If you're talking about a highly interactive site then that's quite a different proposition. For example Drupal (version 6) has all the features you want (and more) but there are fundamental issues with how Drupal manages authenticated users. If you want to get Drupal to perform well with a lot of logged in users you need to work quite hard. Frankly it's better to choose a platform that lets you focus on the business instead of getting the site to perform well. Drupal does scale but you need a high level of technical ability to make it work.

    We evaluated Joomla prior to selecting Drupal. This was a few years ago but at the time Joomla wasn't a "serious" CMS for major sites. Before you choose Joomla I'd have a look to see how many significant sites use it - I'm guessing it's not a lot. If that's still the case give it a miss.

    If you're _absolutely_ serious about creating a social site like you describe then some level of custom development is the way forward. So maybe look at building what you want with a framework e.g. django or if php is your thing then something like yii. Your time to market will be a bit longer but the cost savings and flexibility you'll have will be well worth it over the lifetime of the site.

    Hope that helps,
    Paul.
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