On Jan 15, 2005, at 9:15 PM, Sascha Ebach wrote:

>> So, to get back to the original post, I'd ask first: What is it that 
>> the web site's supposed to do, anyway?
>
> A good question. But not for building a flexible CMS. This is the 
> golden question to ask a customer who needs any kind of web site in 
> the planning stage of a project. The most important question of all.

Right, but do you think that such a general CMS can satisfy the needs 
of everybody? I'd say no, because people have vastly different needs 
for a System that Manages their Content. ( This relates to that other 
thread about too many Ruby web app frameworks: Part of the reason that 
there are more than one is that the problem is too big and too varied 
to be sensibly solved by any one framework anyway. )

> For a CMS like I plan the most pressing question is: How do I program 
> a blog that can later be a forum and a shop with customer relationship 
> management including email marketing capabilities? It might not even 
> be possible.

Most anything's possible in the world of code, it's all about the 
economics and the engineering. Some questions to try to tease out the 
cost/benefit dynamics:

When you say "blog that can later be a forum", whose blog is it? Just 
one person? Or does each participant in the forum get their own blog? 
How strong is the notion of identity--for example, do you have to 
create an account to participate in the forum or is it as simple and 
transitory as entering your email address in a blog comment form? How 
far do you want your CRM to go? How tightly is the forum going to be 
integrated with the blog, or with the online store?

etc., etc. Software's important, but it's no substitute for strategy.

Francis Hwang
http://fhwang.net/