If you are looking for a powerful content management system with tons of bells and whistles, Drupal might be in your future. Equipped with tons of great features, it makes for the perfect way to get a CMS powered website up and running.
Tag Archives | blogs
10 Wonderful Web Site Widget Resources
There are many services out there that offer widgets you can embed into your own web site layouts. How do you know which ones are the best? Well, I am not an expert. Since this is the Internet though, I can pretend.
Here are my top 10 favorite widget related web sites.
Widgetbox – Tons of free widgets to put on your site.
LinkWithin – Post related stories and thumbnails on your web site.
ShoutMix – Free shoutbox/tagboard chat widget.
Happy 5th Birthday to Mitchelaneous.com
Firefox isn’t the only thing celebrating it’s fifth birthday this year. This very blog, Mitchelaneous.com, is also now half a decade old. As one of my oldest web sites still in existence, I have much love for the web site that really inspired me to write more.
Thanks to the powers of the Wayback Machine, here is the earliest layout I can find for Mitchelaneous (then hosted as a part of the lockergnome.net blogs). Actually, you could probably say that Chris Pirillo (and the old Lockergnome team of writers) played a big part in this web site’s existence.
Great Resource for Designers and Devs Alike
I am always looking for great web development resources to share, but this time around I am going to give you a link that also highlights the best of the best when it comes to designer or developer tools. Corkdump.com is one of the best resource web sites for webmasters.
They provide resources for:
- CSS/XHTML
- JavaScript/AJAX
- Flash/ActionScript
- Photoshop/Illustrator
- Blog Resources
- Design Insperation
- PHP/MySQL
That is not all, but I have to leave you with a few surprises, right? So if you want a database of some of the best web developer links – check out and bookmark corkdump.com. You will not be disappointed.
Best of the Blogging Scripts
Over the past few weeks I have reviewed a ton of blogging script software selections. Some are good, some are just ok – and some, well I might not have a reason to use them, but you might.
- Dotclear – Great Blogging Alternative
- Easy Blog Publishing with Zomplog
- Eggblog, the Free PHP MySQL Blogging Script
- Beautiful Blogging with Textpattern
- Database-less Blogging with Flatpress
- A Wiki/Blog Hybrid in WikyBlog
- Habari = Next Generation Blogging Script?
- WordPress Sucks? Try Nucleus CMS
- Small, Yet Powerful Blogging with Pritlog
- Media Publishing Made Easier with Loudblog
- LifeType is Your Blogging Solution?
- Flexible Blogging/CMS with Serendipity
- The King of Kings is WordPress
Have any other blogging script suggestions you would like for me to check out?
Beautiful Blogging with Textpattern
Textpattern is another one of those great blogging scripts that often gets forgotten about with the surge of popularity that WordPress has had over the past few years. It is a elegant, flexible and easy to use content management system that is both open source and free to use.
The requirements are pretty basic to get it up and running, so any Linux-based shared hosting environment should do. The install is just as simple too, with your basic download, configure, setup database, and upload.
It can handle just about any blogging task you throw it’s way. From content publishing, multiple contributors, link management and the inclusion of Textile, a simple syntax for nudging plain text into structurally sound and stylistically rich web content, it is not lacking in features.
If you want to give it a test drive, there is both a front end and admin demo up on OpenSourceCMS.com.
It comes ready for themes and plugins too. Your best resource to pick those up would be the Textpattern Resources web site. TextGarden.org also has a number of Textpattern themes to use.
All in all, I think Textpattern is a simple, yet effective blogging script that is well worth trying out.
Flexible Blogging/CMS with Serendipity
If you are in the search for a PHP-powered blogging application that gives you an easy gateway into running a blog, online diary or even a complete web page – Serendipity is a free script worth checking out.
Looking over the fresh install instructions, the process looks pretty straight forward. You upload, configure and get your blog going. Some of the features include (but are not limited to):
- Simple. Designed for users of all technical levels.
- Robust Editing Interface. Featuring an (optional) WSYISWG editor, easily browsable image manager, extended entry support, entries statistics and a host of other features.
- Threaded comments, Nested categories and posting to multiple categories are supported.
- Anti-Spam / Comment moderation. Through use of a (bundled) plugin you can enable CAPTCHAs, SURBL-blacklisting, automatted comment moderation based on the content of a comment. Highly configurable.
Here is a little more about the blogging script from the developers:
Serendipity is a PHP-powered weblog application which gives the user an easy way to maintain an online diary, weblog or even a complete homepage. While the default package is designed for the casual blogger, Serendipity offers a flexible, expandable and easy-to-use framework with the power for professional applications.
There is also full support for both themes and plugins. So extending Serendipity is an option, if you need a few more tools at your fingertips. Also, be sure to check out the demo hosted over on OpenSourceCMS.com.
Want to know more? Check out the FAQ. I would highly recommend Serendipity to anybody looking for an alternative to MovableType or WordPress.
WordPress Sucks? Try Nucleus CMS
Nucleus CMS is like WordPress’s less popular friend, that does all the same things but doesn’t get the same love from the public. A light, flexible and secure publishing platform, Nucleus CMS is definitely worth check out if you are looking for an alternative blogging platform.
The Nucleus CMS install process isn’t rocket science, so that is defiantly a good thing. Any basic Linux hosting account should make a good home for it.
You can check out more screenshots of Nucleus CMS in action here. You can also play with the demo too, if you what to try some of the features out for yourself.
Here is a little more about Nucleus CMS from the developers:
Thanks to an international community of sophisticated developers and designers, Nucleus CMS remains simple enough for anyone to learn, and expandable enough to allow you to build almost any web site you can imagine. Nucleus CMS lets you integrate text, images, and user comments in a seamless package that will make your web presence as serious, professional, personal, or fun as you want it to be.
The must for any blogging platform, skins and plugins are both there. So this means you have even more possibilities when it comes to customizing Nucleus CMS to meet your own needs.
You can download Nucleus CMS for free, so why not give it a shot?
Eggblog, the Free PHP MySQL Blogging Script
While a little light on documentation, Eggblog looks to be a nice alternative blogging script for those of you who might not want to follow the fold and use WordPress or one of the other more popular solutions out there.
Some of the features of Eggblog are:
- easy to use web-based administration to add, edit and delete news articles
- easy to use web-based configuration to manage your web site settings
- WYSIWYG easy-to-use text editor for publishing or editing news articles
- download themes to easily change the style, layout and colors of your site
I also like the forum feature, which is simple – yet unique. You can check it out (with examples) on Eggblog’s own web site. Check Eggblog out in action here:
The installation process looks pretty easy. You download it, edit the configuration files, and then you are done. They also have an installation guide to help you along the way. The server requirements are lightweight too. You only need to have a fairly modern version of PHP, MySQL, and the PHP-GD library. There are a number of different themes you can use too, just in case your not happy with the default one.
If you want to check out a demo of the script in action, be sure to visit this page for the login details. Eggblog might not have all the features that a script like WordPress might have, but it is a nice alternative if you want to move away from the fold.
Dotclear – Great Blogging Alternative
There are a lot of blogging tools out there under the sun. One that does not get much credit, but I think is pretty nice is Dotclear. An open-source web publishing software, Dotclear has been around since 2002. The project’s purpose is to provide a user-friendly tool allowing anyone to publish on the web, regardless of their technical skills.
Some of the features included in Dotclear are:
- Automated install
- Fully customizable themes
- User-friendly administration
- Naturally optimized for search engines
You can read more about the many features of Dotclear over on their features page. Did I mention they promise you can get it up and running in a minute too?
One minute install from Dotclear on Vimeo.
If performance is your main concern, Dotclear is fast. It promises to be as responsive as possible, no mater the quantity of the blog. Need some help to get it going? They provide a pretty nice documentation guide to go along with as you customize it to fit your own needs.
Since it will not cost you a thing, Dotclear is definitely worth checking out.
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