Aargh!
So after yesterday’s post, and Meg’s going all Nike on me, I just did it: began the process of starting up a multiply-authored site at ElectraPress.com. In fact, I’ve started up two such sites, one using Drupal and one using Joomla, both of which are there and available for your registration and participation.
Why two sites? Because I can’t get either of them to work just the way I want them to. The Drupal site is easy-peasy, and is doing pretty much what it’s supposed to, but it’s not quite extensible in the way that I’d like it to be, or at least I’m not yet figuring out how to make it so. It allows for multiple authors and multiple modules; among those modules are a front page that allows any registered user to contribute “stories,” and individual user blogs. What I’d like, though, is a front page that basically lays out the organization of the content, with glimpses into the various sections of the site, and then a bunch of sections that actually contain the various content elements of the site (such as a group-authored blog, a repository of electronic articles, a collection of links, and etc). I’m sure Drupal can be massaged into doing what I want, but I’m not up to figuring out how right this second.
On the other hand, there’s Joomla, which is tremendously powerful and lends itself to precisely the kind of organization I was imagining. But it’s awfully complex, and — and this is absolutely stunning to me — the software does not include a built-in commenting system, and so I’ve had to install a third-party component, which gives every appearance of working right up until you click “send” to actually post the comment and absolutely nothing whatsoever happens.
I’m the teeniest bit beside myself on this, and really really have to get some other work done right now. So here’s where this multiple author thing might come in handy. If you are of a mind, and would like to work on this ElectraPress project, in whatever form it winds up taking, visit these two sites and create an account. Email me if you’d like more privileges than registration automatically provides. And let’s see if we can be collectively smarter than I can be on my own, right now.
(By the by: I reserve the right to delete the accounts of trolls, and to change account creation to a moderated process, if I must. I’m just saying.)
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