Thread

I’ve volunteered to take responsibility for our new church website.

EE handles everything that I possibly want and having spent the last 4 months getting to grips with EE (still learning daily 😊 ) it’s EE I want to use as my CMS of choice. For too long now I’ve looked at various CMS systems and EE is by far the most logical and functional.

However, another church member (also an elder) is very clued up on the web (he runs a very successful web company). He’s getting his company’ graphic designer to do the logos etc and has said last week that I should look at .net Nuke and Umbraco as alternatives to EE because they are more robust.

I know that these 2 CMS run on asp.net but wondered if there’s anything I can go back to him with. I’ve looked at .net Nuke before and didn’t like it. Really can’t be bothered learning another CMS, especially given how good EE is.

Cheers,
S

IMHO EE has all the available tools a church site would need - which is why I choose a church site for the second “Building a site with EE” series.

I’d put it back in his court to tell you where he thinks EE falls short.

I also look at it this way - if you’re volunteering to provide the labor to build the site, then you get to choose the tool.  If he wants to dictate the tool, then he can provide the labor through his company.

I apologize if that seems harsh, but I have a bit of history with church sites and learned to dig my heels in.

Thanks Michael,
Yeah I guess that would be the sensible thing to ask where EE falls short - this isn’t even his opinion; it’s coming his developers.

I hear what you’re saying - I guess it’s maybe a respect thing. I respect him as a succesful web business owner and also church member, I guess that’s a 2-way thing though. I’ve spent time learning a tool and it doesn’t suit me just to down that tool to pick up another, especially as there’s no $$$ involved.

Also, consider the technology behind the system.  Do you want Windows/.asp, or a PHP based system?  I’ve seen this question as the deciding factor; some people are very married to their programming language/environment of choice.  For some companies, their policy doesn’t allow any change.  I wonder if that is part of it.

Is it just a suggestion? Or a request? Is he offering .NET hosting, for instance? .NET developers?

Make a chart and compare the three, where they’re similar, where they differ, and include server details available and anything that would complicate the project. Emphasize the value of simplicity and appropriateness, and wargame with someone who is knowledgeable but friendly on .NET.

.NET is usually much more expensive to use in total (Total Cost of Ownership, TCO).

Make the point that you know how to use EE and designer’s really care little what system is putting the designs out there.

Usually, a little preparation and organization and a one-page summary of that work can nip these kinds of “executive suggestions” before they get out of control. It’s frustrating, but he means well, I’m sure. It’s just what he knows.

My feeling is EE is probably most appropriate, unless there are significant needs that need greater sophistication (and is more costly to provide).

Here is a post from a thread about Dot Net Nuke on Port80, an Australian web forum (of which I am a member).

http://forums.port80.asn.au/showpost.php?p=94509&postcount=20

I’ve been using DotNetNuke for 2 years now, and can say that once I discovered ExpressionEngine, it was a HUGE relief not to have to resort back to it. In fact, I’ve recently made a post on a prominent DotNetNuke forum regarding how much ExpressionEngine has helped me and have received a ton of thank you notes for new users discovering EE.

Honestly, you’d have to question what kind of developer would ACTUALLY recommend DotNetNuke over something like ExpressionEngine. To me, it just boggles me because ExpressionEngine actually for me, seems like an evolution in publishing over anything seen in DNN. The template/theme system may be somewhat similar in that it involves tagging and such, but asides from that, DNN stumbles on every ground of publishing.

I’d love to provide a ton of pointers for you, but just let me point to a reply from that thread I opened on the DNN board from another member:

Thank you so much for this info. It is really helpful to me, and I wanted to thank you. It quite possibly just saved me a few thousand dollars….maybe even more. (measuring $ in both cash terms + in terms of the opportunity cost of my time).

I am working on a website and I am not a developer. I found out about DNN because its the only CMS that is compatitible with my current Windows hosting plan at Godaddy. Anyway, to make a long story short, I’ve spent at least 100 hrs over the last few weeks trying to learn about DNN and trying to find my way. I’ve spent countless hours looking at various forums, researching consultants, developers and commercial modules. I’ve purchased a few modules and skins, and I’ve subscribed to a few sites. Thing is that it seems like I’ll need module customization by a developer no matter which additional modules I decide to purchase. I had resisted looking at other solutions besides DNN because I thought they’d be expensive, and because I thought it might take me back to sqaure one (and I’d have to spend another 100+ hrs learning about a new one). But then I saw your posting with the info on Expression Engine

I love what I see so far. It seems like a solution that is well-suited to my needs and I can’t thank you enough for pointing it out. Yes, it costs something, but it looks like it would be singificantly cheaper for me than patching together a group of (additional) DNN modules that might fit my needs and then hiring a developer to customize them. e.g. a few hundred bucks for Expression engine versus at least $500 for the various 3rd party DNN modules I’d need (to start with only) plus more for customization services…plus the personal frustration factor of me trying to use DNN and having to searching so many places to find how to do something (so at least I’d a vague idea of what was going on before I hire somebody to it…) The “frustration cost” of using DNN is turning out to be quite high for me personally (since I am not a developer and don’t know much about site development). I’ve been trying to use it for about a month now and its kind of driving me nuts. I love the concept of DNN and have heard really great things about it, so I’m not knocking DNN in any way…it just seems really hard for somebody like myself to find a decent way to make it fit my needs. I still might end up going with DNN (we’ll see)....but I am early enough in my project to cut my losses and switch over to a different CMS (like Expression Engine).

The point of all of this is THANK YOU!!! I feel very fortunate that I saw your posting—incredibly lucky timing for me as I’m just starting my site.

Stay away from it! Performance is sluggish as hell, and without third party modules, honestly, it’s nothing more than an advanced blog (and even that can be argued). Not to mention it has some serious issues with producing simple search engine friendly URL’s and such.

... without third party modules…

.NET in a nutshell.