Written by I’ve really dug my feet in and started working with this Joomla content management system in order to learn it and utilize it in order to build my next generation of web sites. My first and foremost project is the MarcellusKing.com photography web site, which I’m working on now, which will be followed up by racismonline.com, and Kcphotolink.com as well as some other minor projects, which will include possibly learning some PHP programming as well as building completely new and custom templates for my sites and possibly the open source community (if I’m really feeling it after learning how to do my own).
Warning: Upcoming rant! Take cover!
Throughout the months, there have been people that have approached me about helping them create a web site, and from my own past experience, custom web site development is both timely, and expensive. And if there is a product out there that can already do what you need, then why reinvent the wheel? That’s my philosophy, but people really don’t see eye to eye with me on this. They never want to take the time to spend to sit down and learn something new, but they still want results, and they want someone to produce those results for them, for the cheapest possible price at that.
Let me honest, yea, that’s what I used to do in the past, and I have plenty of web programming experience as well a skills with databases, but if you’re going to make me pull out the stops and bust out the Dreamweaver and some html/cold fusion/database coding skills in order to make you a web site that does this and that, then it’s going to cost you a MINIMUM of a grand. And even then, I still don’t want to do it. The only exception to this is my boy Rob, who being a programmer, can understand how time consuming and nerve wracking it can get.
So if you don’t want to pay the big bucks, then you’re just going to have to spend the time to sit down, learn, study, and experiment with using an open source solution. If you do so, then you’ll find that they are often MORE than capable of what you’re looking for in a web site solution. But as your needs grow, then your web site can grow with them. You’ll find that a content management system, although intimidating at first, is MUCH easier to manage than a custom built site.
And if you don’t have the time to build it, or the money and resources to have it built for you, then apparently, it’s not important enough to you. So why should it be even more important to me?
So here are some questions that I get along with my typical answer.
|
I want a blog! |
Go to www.Myspace.com |
| No, I want a REAL blog that I can put on my own web site | www.wordpress.org Hope you can run PHP! |
| I want you build me a web site | That will be a minimal of a thousand bucks. Unless you want me to slather some colored text on a page and be done with it. |
| I don’t have a thousand bucks, can you still built it for me? | No, but you can build your own with more features than you can shake a stick at by utilizing a content management system |
| But I don’t have the time to learn how to use a CMS | Go away, stop wasting my time. Bye |
| Okay, I have time to learn a content management system, which one do I use | I suggest either Drupal or Joomla. Both are open source (free) and have a vast community of plugins and themes to support them. |
| Can you host my web site on your server? | Depends on how cool you are, and how much I trust you. Chances are though, the answer is no. So I say check out hostmonster.com |
| Can you help me if I get stuck while learning on my own? | Most likely. |
Hi Marcellus,
I keep coming back to this post and rereading it, I think of it in terms of photography though. There’s a big difference between asking a question and showing up with a camera saying “what do I do to take a good picture”. Yes, it is amazing how much time some people can expect you to invest in their endeavors. People that won’t read the first word of the instruction manual but want you to figure out what all the buttons and dials do, “I’m gonna have to read the manual to!” Though I would have a heads up I believe, being familiar with photography in general. Then, if you make the mistake of going that far, now you have to worry about all the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO issues that their not going to want to read about either! And then, do we dare go into post processing, when if they wouldn’t read anything before, you know damn well their not going to sit in front of computer going through online tutorials to learn anything!! It seems many people want instant/good results without much input of time/effort on their part. Recreation time is precious, it’s up to each individual to decide what is interesting enough that their willing to read and start learning and ask questions as they go along. Personally, I couldn’t imagine spending my rec. time trying to do something that wasn’t important enough to learn at least a little about on my own. A lot of the fun in rec. activities is just figuring it out, so you can do what you enjoy. People must understand that if they want a service done in it’s entirety or someone to walk them through every single step so they can do it on their own, they are expecting someone to do a job for them. It’s “doing it”, or “teaching it”, and people already spend 40+ hours a week doing that for someone else already. Though, the difficult part is the friendship issues that arise. Yea, that’s the difficult part, and I’m still always trying to figure that out. About the only thing I can come up with, which much like “read your manual” or “take a lot of pictures” no one wants to hear, is this. In NO way, having spent the amount of time I have reading forums, looking at other peoples pictures, practicing in the field and on the computer, all the countless hours I’ve devoted because I enjoy it, there’s no way I would expect a friend to invest that much time in my own personal hobby/project. So, I’m either an asshole for not wanting to invest all the time in someone else’s venture or I’m a nice guy for not expecting so much out of my friends. No one looks at it from the perspective of the second opinion though. So I guess I’ll be asshole to those who wish to believe I am, and a nice guy to those who know better. Hell, I may be an asshole all the time, and if I am, I’m growing more comfortable with it :)
Heh, I actually started this "comment" for another reason.. I'll have to come back. I remember you from DPreview a couple years ago it seems, you posted a picture of you coming out of a bathroom, it was great.
Michael
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