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UER Forum > Archived Rookie Forum > Websites? (Viewed 464 times) makman  Location: Rochester, NY Gender: Male I live alone with a criminal  |  Websites? < on 2/24/2010 11:51 PM >   So it seems like everyone and their cousin has their own UE website for personal photos/stories/resources. What I'm wondering is what people are building their websites on. In general, I see the options as: -Flat file HTML/CSS/JS -Roll my own in Rails, CodeIgnitor, Django, etc -Build it off a CMS like Drupal or Plone -Build it off a blog engine CMS like Wordpress or Moveable type I can make any of these work- I'm just wonder what other people are using, and what sort of benefits/pitfalls there are to various options and specific platforms? [last edit 2/24/2010 11:51 PM by makman - edited 1 times] Be careful, not safe. "Urbex- so much fun that it should be illegal." Kairu  Location: Niagara Peninsula, ON, Canada  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 1 on 2/25/2010 7:03 AM >   Posted by makman So it seems like everyone and their cousin has their own UE website for personal photos/stories/resources. What I'm wondering is what people are building their websites on. In general, I see the options as: -Flat file HTML/CSS/JS -Roll my own in Rails, CodeIgnitor, Django, etc -Build it off a CMS like Drupal or Plone -Build it off a blog engine CMS like Wordpress or Moveable type I can make any of these work- I'm just wonder what other people are using, and what sort of benefits/pitfalls there are to various options and specific platforms? Being a fan of D.I.Y. scripting, I'd say roll your own. I've never been fond of using third-party scripts (as reliable as they generally are). I find third-party scripts generally bloated with unnecessary features as well as a generic look. Even if you customize it, I've found that it still doesn't have as much 'character' as if you were to make it yourself. Flatfile is alright but inefficient with large amounts of data. I would recommend at least using SQLite. I always recommend building it yourself (using a framework or not doesn't matter) unless you don't have much time to put into this. At least this way, you can give your website a unique design and function. You don't have to spend time trying to "map" and figure out a script someone else wrote and you can make it as minimal or as complex as you want. [last edit 2/25/2010 7:06 AM by Kairu - edited 1 times] Système International -- It's blasphem.ous, isn't it? metawaffle  King of Puns Location: Brisbane! Gender: Male Purveyor of Fine Lampshades  |  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 2 on 2/25/2010 7:35 AM >   It's worth bearing in mind that nobody every visits your site to see the cool layout Unless you're feeling really energetic, I'd just go with a common blog engine, pick a decent theme, and start writing content. [last edit 2/25/2010 7:36 AM by metawaffle - edited 1 times] http://www.longexposure.net makman  Location: Rochester, NY Gender: Male I live alone with a criminal  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 3 on 2/25/2010 8:40 AM >   Posted by Kairu At least this way, you can give your website a unique design and function. You don't have to spend time trying to "map" and figure out a script someone else wrote and you can make it as minimal or as complex as you want. The customizable complexity is a nice advantage of coding my own site. However, I'd be doing my own CSS in any solution, and any CMS worth its salt allows for that, so being able to do my own design is a non-issue. It's worth bearing in mind that nobody every visits your site to see the cool layout Unless you're feeling really energetic, I'd just go with a common blog engine, pick a decent theme, and start writing content. A solid point- the average personal UE site is far from high-traffic. Might be better off just using a Moveable Type (what I use for my non-ue site) and accepting the limitations. Be careful, not safe. "Urbex- so much fun that it should be illegal." fiftyone_eggs  Location: jerzey Gender: Male  |  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 4 on 2/25/2010 4:02 PM >   i would say go with a CMS. features you want are: 1. mailing list 2. rss feed 3. ability to manage content online (edit/create/rearrange pages) 4. full-featured photo gallery/slideshow capabilities 5. user-comments on photos (with option to disable) 6. the ability to scale down for mobile devices it's hard to get all that when you roll it yourself - unless you're an awesome web developer. yokes  Location: Toronto Gender: Male I aim to misbehave  |  |  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 5 on 2/25/2010 4:06 PM >   I built mine on Squarespace.com. Didn't have to hand code a single line (so nice). "Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." - Richard Nickel fiftyone_eggs  Location: jerzey Gender: Male  |  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 6 on 2/25/2010 4:43 PM >   Posted by yokes I built mine on Squarespace.com. Didn't have to hand code a single line (so nice). i checked that out. i have to say that looks pretty sweet. check out this vid: http://www.squarespace.com/tour/ you'd have a hard time rolling your own one of those. Liska  Location: Western Massachusetts Gender: Female  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 7 on 2/25/2010 4:51 PM >   I don't know how to do websites, or at least not decent ones, so I ended up just running with a flickr gallery. I may need to set up an actual website later, but for now the Flickr is working out and prevents people (mostly) from downloading and saving the photos. Does anyone know of there's a decent build-it-yourself template that those web n00bs like me can use to create a site? I can get hosting, i just feel like if i try to do it myself, it'll look unprofessional. makman  Location: Rochester, NY Gender: Male I live alone with a criminal  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 8 on 2/25/2010 5:51 PM >   Posted by fiftyone_eggs i checked that out. i have to say that looks pretty sweet. check out this vid: http://www.squarespace.com/tour/ you'd have a hard time rolling your own one of those. That's... surprisingly cool looking, actually. My developer pride and my student laziness would have to battle it out to decide whether to use that. Or they would, if my broke-ass-bum lack of money didn't want to pay for separate hosting. Too bad that system is tied to that. it's hard to get all that when you roll it yourself - unless you're an awesome web developer. Well, I /am/ pretty damn awesome. ;) But also quite lazy- those reasons are why I use Moveable type for my blog. Anyone know how well different CMS's lend themselves to UE type content (photo galleries, slideshows, text-photo combos, etc)? Be careful, not safe. "Urbex- so much fun that it should be illegal." yokes  Location: Toronto Gender: Male I aim to misbehave  |  |  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 9 on 2/25/2010 6:02 PM >   Posted by fiftyone_eggs i checked that out. i have to say that looks pretty sweet. check out this vid: http://www.squarespace.com/tour/ you'd have a hard time rolling your own one of those. You can try it out free for a week, which is how I got hooked. I used the promo code "geek" (from geekbrief.tv) for 12% of the lifetime of my order. "Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." - Richard Nickel tribeachpunk  Location: Halifax, NS Gender: Male  |  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 10 on 2/25/2010 9:02 PM >   Posted by metawaffle It's worth bearing in mind that nobody every visits your site to see the cool layout Unless you're feeling really energetic, I'd just go with a common blog engine, pick a decent theme, and start writing content. I tried a simple website and wasn't satisfied so I started focusing on my blog. I like this set-up. Feel free to look & follow Halifax UrbEx *not just UrbEx Halifax UrbEx (Blog) ||| Atlantic Canada Urban Exploration Facebook Group beatnik  you dig this jive?  |  |  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 11 on 3/6/2010 3:38 AM >   Whenever I'm making a website for anything, I generally go with Freewebs. Free, quick, and really easy to use if you have little to no HTML knowledge. kowalski   |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 12 on 3/6/2010 3:48 AM >   Posted by makman I can make any of these work- I'm just wonder what other people are using, and what sort of benefits/pitfalls there are to various options and specific platforms? I'm currently rebuilding my site in Drupal (eta: err, someday), but this would be overkill for someone just looking at starting a site. You can do a tremendous amount with Wordpress, and its original intent as a blogging tool may compel you to continue adding content in ways that a pure CMS won't. PhotoSeeker  Location: Sudbury Gender: Male MikeOnline  |  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 13 on 3/6/2010 4:18 AM >   I use a combination. Drupal provides most of the functionality of the site itself. I do some degree of custom coding within the pages. For the photo galleries, however, I use a tool called SimpleViewer, building galleries within minutes with a GUI tool called Porta. That's about it. I find that any functionality I require is generally available in Drupal, or one of its many add-on modules. Lots of Urban Exploration goodness at https://urbexobsession.com Intrinsic  Location: Collingwood Gender: Male  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 14 on 3/6/2010 4:31 AM >   Posted by Kairu Being a fan of D.I.Y. scripting, I'd say roll your own. I've never been fond of using third-party scripts (as reliable as they generally are). I find third-party scripts generally bloated with unnecessary features as well as a generic look. Even if you customize it, I've found that it still doesn't have as much 'character' as if you were to make it yourself. I always recommend building it yourself (using a framework or not doesn't matter) unless you don't have much time to put into this. At least this way, you can give your website a unique design and function. You don't have to spend time trying to "map" and figure out a script someone else wrote and you can make it as minimal or as complex as you want. Notepad and ASP (Active Server Pages) Pro: I know what every line of the hundreds of lines of code does. Con: The many sleepless nights debugging all that spaghetti. But it's a labour of love. Edit: It's a far cry from the days of when I used Hotdog to create HTML. [last edit 3/6/2010 4:33 AM by Intrinsic - edited 1 times] metawaffle  King of Puns Location: Brisbane! Gender: Male Purveyor of Fine Lampshades  |  |  Re: Websites? <Reply # 15 on 3/6/2010 7:43 AM >   Posted by kowalski ... [Wordpress'] original intent as a blogging tool may compel you to continue adding content in ways that a pure CMS won't. Yes indeed! http://www.longexposure.net UER Forum > Archived Rookie Forum > Websites? (Viewed 464 times) All content and images copyright © 2002-2024 UER.CA and respective creators. Graphical Design by Crossfire. 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