Drupal – Finally I see the light!

For some time now, I’ve been looking for a web framework that I can work with.  I’ve been a huge proponent of Wordpress, vBulletin, DZOIC, and phpFox.  Those allow for very specialized types of sites.  Lately, I have been looking for something that is very configurable without me having to re-invent the wheel or code it from scratch.

I’d been looking at Joomla for some time but it just seemed too constricting for MY tastes.  I had looked at Drupal in the past and was not impressed.  Recently, about a week ago, I decided to take a look at it again.  My it has come a ways. 

I still love Wordpress for what it is.  A great blogging platform.  It’s also a great basic to medium content management system.  If you want to get a decent static site up, it’s still the way to go.  But, what if you want to do a bit more.  Multi-user blogging, extensible user profiles, forums, etc.  I think Drupal is the next step.  Of course, you can do some of this with Wordpress but in my opinion, not as cleanly as you can with Drupal.

I have been working with websites on many different levels for about 15 years.  Pretty much since the internet was opened up to commercial and private endeavors.  I’ve gone from coding sites on my own to the point where I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel and using various web frameworks to build sites.

I consider myself a big iron guy.  I know how to install, secure, and maintain a server quite well.  When it comes to designing and building a site, I like to use stuff that’s already out there.  I am an intermediate coder at best.

My experience with Drupal thus far allows for an established and fairly mature framework for me to use.  Especially in designing sites that have a specific purpose.

For example, currently TechnoChubby.com is running wordpress.  It does the job well, but as that site is growing, I find that I need to add some forums, an easy way to manage multiple contributors, the permissions what each of those contributors can post, and a better way to organize the site in general.  I believe Drupal will be the answer to growing that site into a robust community.

Another one is this site, for what it is, (just a personal blog)  I don’t see the need to update it to Drupal.  It will remain using Wordpress for now.  (but who knows)

I went to the Drupal LA Meetup tonight here in Santa Monica, I was impressed by the level of discussions and the overall “community feel”.   I think I can learn a lot from this group.  [ Drupal LA group at Drupal.com ]  Hopefully, within this group, I’ll be able to expand my knowledge of Drupal and find other uses for this framework.

I am still new to Drupal and what it has to offer, so far I am liking it.  Time will tell.