Best way to code web site? CMS? Outsourcing?

[DieScum]

I want to set up a website that will be a community based round projects.

So a project might be (not a real example) "Steps to cook a nice cake". The project will act as a sort of war story, best practice template.

Users can then create their own sub-project based on this describing how they got on cooking a cake following the steps, their own improvements, etc. The sub-project will be viewable to all users.

So their would be a main page with a directory listing of all projects divided by category and then a listing of all user generated sub projects associated with the project.

A user should be able to log in and see a customized page with all their current sub-projects. They can also start their own sub-project on any topic they wish.

A project/sub-project is just a kind of blog page which can contain text, embedded video, graphics and which can be updated on different days with a date stamp. So a blog but for a very specific topic and easily visible to other interested members in the community.

There should also be a forum.

Now I imagine this could be done pretty easily with an off the shelf CMS system (joomla, etc ... ). It would need a customizable blogging component but I imagine that is standard.

So anyone got any thoughts on best way to attack this? Code from scratch? If so which language? Or a CMS system? Could this loose set of requirements be outsourced on rentacoder?

[minestrone]

I would use Joomla then you get your forum and user management as standard and if you cannot find a module that does what you want I would rentacoder it.

There must be a module very close though that can be tweaked.

Would think bob shawadiwadi could knock up what you want in a week at least.

[DieScum]

Thanks Mini.

Just installed joomla on a test domain so I'll have a wee play about. It all sounds fairly out of the box though doesn't it?

[DieScum]

Turns out Joomla doesnt have an off the shelf user blogging component (allows logged in users to create their own blogs). Anyone know of one that does?

[d000hg]

Drupal perhaps? That's only a guess though.

[DieScum]

Looks like a good guess - http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/blog . Just what I need.

Thanks!

[juststarting]

I am doing something similar ( well not really ) but using Sharepoint , which has blogging. Thing is , in my experience , sharepoint sucks with high loads. But then I dont know anything open-sourced.

[Fred Bloggs]

PHP Nuke has what's called a "Journal" module that is (I think) a Blog module. Latest distro is 8.1. A port of PHP Nuke called "Raven Nuke" has a good reputation amongst Nuke users for security.

[minestrone]

Although joomla is a pretty good package once you start using it's major flaw the last time I looked was that it never had a forum built in, you had to go and get one as a module.

I did a bit of digging and found one with all the features that I wanted with the right look and feel but they were no longer handing the thing out as a plug in for joomla.

Supposedly the free software foundation threatened them with the lawyers as one was GNU and one was Apache commons.

Some of these open source types are probably still get breastfed from their mothers.

[Fred Bloggs]

Admittedly, the long term support for some of these open source CMS's must be in doubt once the small number of enthusiasts typically behind them loses interest. A look around many of the PHP Nuke "support" websites reveals many of the forums with few posts in the last few weeks/months/years and a closer look often reveals any number of unanswered bug reports and requests for help a lot of the time. I think unless you're prepared to roll your sleeves up and really learn the guts of the PHP behind these open source CMS's then there could be nasty surprises someway down the track with them. I'd not count on any support to speak of worth its name for the free CMS's out there.