Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Picking a Platform


After not knowing too much about CMS platforms, I decided to research three platforms and compare and contrast their capabilities.  The three platforms that I researched were WordPress, TextPattern, and Blogger.  Other than WordPress, I have no experience with any other platforms.

WordPress is the world’s leading blogging platform.  It attracts 330 million visitors who view 3.4 billion pages every month (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jjcolao/2012/09/05/the-internets-mother-tongue/).  I think that this platform is ideal for college students who have never created a blog.  Topics are unlimited and users are able to read millions of blogs using the same platform.

TextPattern is not as widespread as WordPress.  According to http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-popular-content-management-systems-online/, TextPattern is a minimalist platform that is fast, powerful and provides plenty of options.  Although there is a small learning curve for new users, once you get past that, it is very easy to navigate.  If you are considering transferring content form another CMS, TextPattern is equipped with import tools that allow this.  This platform also features an anti-spam system that allows users to block unwanted comments.
             
I do not recommend this site for college students.  I think that they will give up on the platform during the learning process.  I also do not think that users of this platform will blog about topics that college students are interested in.
            
Another CMS critic, http://www.cmscritic.com/textpattern-review/, finds that textile for article writing is more intuitive and produces a cleaner content.
            
The last CMS platform that I researched was Google’s Blogger.  According to http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2081842,00.asp, Blogger is free and very easy to use.  If you do decide to purchase your own site using this platform, it will cost $10 a year.  This is the cheapest price compared to other platforms.
            
I think that this platform will also be useful to college students because it does not require much knowledge about hosting a website or coding HTML.  

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