I completely disagree with the above comment. It is completely not-ok to accept unnecessary complexity, and the complexity in Drupal is working in the Drupal ecosystem is not necessary in my opinion. People complain ocPortal is hard to use all the time and we take that as a signal to make it easier, we don't just bury our head and say "well, only pros should get powerful tools". The primary mission of the last 4 major ocPortal releases has been in improving ease of use, but we define it as ease of use for people to create the complex stuff they want to create. If things match a pattern then you can make that pattern relatively easy by implementing the UI/lexicon in the terms that people already understand ("nodes" aargh). Users have these complex ideas in their head, the software just needs to talk their language, and 80% of what most people are trying to do is really common anyway.
We've loads more work to do in ocPortal:
- we need to get to the point where people can just do a few clicks to install a choice of theme for a gallery, set to their own colour scheme
- we need to make theme editing as easy as it was to change layouts in Microsoft Frontpage back in the day
- we need to make it so you can modify all your content in your favourite tools (e.g. articles in word, databases as CSVs in excel) just by browsing the website from Windows explorer (Webdav…)
As web development standards raise I think it is absolutely crucial to make things easier. Could we write web sites in assembly language? I don't think so, it is increased usability of programming tools and languages that has made it viable to make complex software.
This said, people do need to either set some reasonable limits on either not being able to implement things that do 100% of what they want the way they want it, or have budgets that can pay the salaries of good experienced programmers (all too often we see people wanting really complex custom websites done by a proper agency for a weeks wages for one member of staff).
This is a cross-post of the reply I made to this comment. Because my post is not yet validated I thought I would share the reply here too:
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My 2 cents works
Joaquin as since replied to that post, buy my reply to his reply has not been validated yet, so I have cross-posted it here:
You have completely ignored the main thrust of my post which is the need to make the CMS, or any software, as simple and intuitive to use as possible. Keep the focus on the user, reduce their frustration, keep them productive and lower the entry barrier for new users.
While your "top 5 reasons to choose Drupal as your CMS" are indeed good reasons, the notable lack of any user focus (admins are not your largest user base), I think speaks volumes.
*grin*, give you one guess as to which platform I chose! ocPortal wins again ;-) The other platforms just did not give me the overall flexibility that OCP does and I do NOT want to go down the road again of having to install a bazillion addons/plugins/components etc. The one big thing with OCP IMHO is that it provides more than one way to skin the cat and I can usually accomplish my goal.
OCP complex/complicated? Possibly, but complexity is in the eyes of the beholder. ;-)
The fact that both Chris and temp1024 have made excellent points in the argument for more user-friendly and productive CMS'es were not missed by the article's author, they were flatly ignored. Why? simple, his article was not an unbiased look at what is needed in the CMS world at all, but simply trying to say why Drupal is the only CMS that should even be considered because it is the CMS he loves, and that its complexity is a feature, not an issue.
People like him cannot be argued against because they are too deeply and blindly in love with the product they support. It would be like trying to argue with me against using ocPortal, a failed argument before it would even begin!
You guys got your message out thee, made great points, and hopefully will be heard by someone. They were, however, not heard by the article's author simply because he was not listening. The tune of Drupal was playing loudly through his well hidden earphones.
Probably why I didn't chuck in my two-cents-worth. I leave the cogent arguments to more accomplished guys. I haven't used anything other than the 'Nukes' and 'Wordpress', so it seemed pointless extolling the virtues of ocPortal to a closed mind!
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