Page 1 of 1

Why we have stopped using CMSMS

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 7:28 am
by urheat
We love building websites with CMSMS, but there are a few things that has forced us to the change content management system we use. Why I wrote this message? Because we would like to use CMSMS, ‘cause it used to be the best option and the template system is still just great. So what’s wrong?

Update process is really a slow process and you have to do it manually which easily leads to mistakes. This should be automatic nowadays. Period.

Quality of the updates. Especially version 2 and it updates are really buggy. We have problems at least one of our sites EVERY update sequence. Sometimes it’s a module but mostly it’s the core. We have the same amount of Wordpress sites and we use automatic updates. No problems. It isn’t fair to compare to Wordpress, but maybe it is. Our customers don’t understand why they should pay more for upgrading CMSMS. And we wouldn’t like to use Wordpress ‘cause it’s just evil ;)

We are web developers and we don’t won’t to use our time solving technical server issues, but with CMSMS we are forced to do so.
And if you add a quite high frequency of the updates… well. We try to make business. It’s not a hobby for us.

A quite minor, but still… Support from the dev. Mostly we (I mean the whole community) get good support, but some of the devs are not polite. Most are and thanks for that! For example posts get locked/moved/deleted without warning/notice or information. Some of the posts/bug reports are closed and ingored just by saying “Not enough information” or “Works for me”. Excuse me?

I think that you should listen your clients more. The web developers who actually build sites for customers. For example no image roller when 2.0 was released, GCBs where deleted, Design manager is/was a mess from UI/UX point of view, everything seems to go more technical when the trend is to go more simplier.

Yes – I’m frustrated and this message maybe a bit harsh, but the main point really is to help building a better CMS and not just leave. Thanks for the good work and hopefully you have the power to make CMSMS even better, more competitive and simple again.

BR
Tommi (CMSMS user from the 2009)

Re: Why we have stopped using CMSMS

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 1:36 pm
by DIGI3
Thanks for your feedback Tommi. We do listen, and a number of the points you raise are ones we're working on. I don't necessarily agree with every point, but you've taken the time to express them professionally and that helps us greatly.

I won't urge you to stay, or refute any of your points, as that's not constructive. If others feel the way you do, and have the resources available, I would encourage them to consider contributing to the project and help make it better. The Dev Team is just users like you, with varying degree of skills.

Re: Why we have stopped using CMSMS

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:22 pm
by HarmO
Hi Tommi,

thanks for sharing.

I recently started to use Craft for big content driven websites.

I must agree that the updating process in CMSMS is not as fluent as in other CMS projects.
Also the compatibility and sometimes questionable update regimes of important modules, makes that i try to work a maximum without modules and plugins in my CMSMS installations.

I wanted to add some remarks to the list of reasons why i started to use an other CMS for bigger projects:
  • the messy pretty url's for modules like LISE.
  • The Lac of a real CCK. Yes we have LISE, but it stores all in text and isn't made for large data objects.
Now @DIGI3, i'm myself not a developer, so joining the DEV team is not for me. I try to give back by helping out on the forum from time to time and by sharing how some results can be achieved without modules.

Re: Why we have stopped using CMSMS

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:45 am
by urheat
Thanks DIGI3 for a great answer. I really appreciate the way you dealt with this. I will definitely follow the development of the CMSMS. We still have about 5 CMSMS sites that we update, but at the moment when we get a new project we will not use CMSMS. Hopefully in the (near) future we feel comfortable to use CMSMS again.

@Harmo - The Lise is so great module but I was suprised that it at least seemed so that the word LISE is mandatory in the url...

Re: Why we have stopped using CMSMS

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 12:18 pm
by DIGI3
LISE isn't mandatory in the url, you can set how it shows in the preferences for the instance.

Re: Why we have stopped using CMSMS

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 12:40 pm
by pierrepercee
Thanks for these very constructive comments. I 'm not a developper. I think a very important work has been accomplished on CMSMS "engine" (API etc..) unfortunately as end users it is hard to see what this implies.
Perhaps the ratio of opportunities for development / usability to end users is worse than in the past. (for users)
A feature request page already exists, but it seems almost deserted.
I had proposed to create a wishlist on the French forum. There were some interesting suggestions. But I do not know why, when one suggests improvements, it soon becomes complicated and having a constructive dialogue is almost impossible.We are immediately suspected of wanting to realize the cms of our dreams for free. It is certainly not with this type of approach that the tool will gain popularity.

Re: Why we have stopped using CMSMS

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 4:05 pm
by paulbaker
Interesting discussion here. Constructive, useful and generally positive. Thank you.

Just wanted to pick up on a couple of things.
HarmO wrote:the messy pretty url's for modules like LISE.
LISE has pretty URL capability, I have used it myself. What is not pretty about it? As Digi3 says you don't need LISE in the URL.
HarmO wrote:Now @DIGI3, i'm myself not a developer, so joining the DEV team is not for me.
I recently (almost a year ago) became a Dev Team member and I want to correct what I think is a common misconception here. We are not all hard core developers knee deep in object oriented PHP into the small hours of the night. Me for starters.

The Dev Team consists of a mixture of volunteers all with some sort of skill to contribute, examples being marketing, project management and layout. We all have lives, families, jobs and bills to pay. You don't have to be a developer to contribute to the Team. We're always open to new help and new ideas from fresh people, so if you think that's you and you have even just a couple of hours a month to spare please consider joining us and shaping the direction of the future of CMSMS.

Check out the current Dev Team here:
https://www.cmsmadesimple.org/about/team/