/local/OK: Blogging + Forum Updates

When I first started my web presence way back last century just before the dotCom crash, I did everything by hand.

Graphics were either drawn or sketched and then scanned, and coloured on Paint Shop Pro's application software, and thereafter saved as jpg or gif; animation created frame by frame in gif or saved into from KPT instead of Flash since Flash was virtually still on the blueprint drafting table. I was also smitten by KPT's range of plugins that took most of my online learning time. Updating hardcoded scripting before simple CMS were created was tedious indeed, but I enjoyed the time spent learning hands-on, on everything webby.

Did I tell you I was once a sponge in my other life?

I had an idea of creating an application and would have called it a CMS. Of course at the time, I lacked knowledge in anything and everything technology. Now, I know what the acronym LMAO means. {It's an improvement don't you think?}

As I contemplate which MontBlanc or Dupont Fountain pen I should get myself or which Tiffany jewelry I should dream of gracing my finger, I decided to update /local/OK/ with updates on what's going on in the Open Source world.

Plainblack has just released its version 7.

I suggested this CMS extraordinaire {its also an application framework!} to a colleague, but he's more versatile with PHP. Perl is not difficult. Besides its more stable. Of course, PHP is much easier to fathom, but Perl whether we like it or not is a tested language.

It doesn't tease too much.

I tried working on Plainblack a few years back, and found it to be nifty, and quite simple. Albeit now, it has developed into something beyond Joomla + other WCMS put together. Many debutant webmasters avoid Plainblack primarily because most new wave {Web!} designers of the 21st century talk php or LAMP {no, not Gwen Stefani's LAMB}

To learn more what you can do with Plainblack, click here. If you do not have time to sacrifice learning how to operate Typo3, you might want to seriously consider it! This is one of the best software designed for online publishing!

Sahana is a framework for helping humans survive so to speak.

It is pluggable as a standalone, and if you're creative, implement it with your existing CMS or Blog as an added feature for your community. Designed to act as a SOS Disaster Management System, NGO's may want to consider this application to help with locating, and identifying victims of issues concerned. This is a NMS {niche management system} as it is designed specifically for a particular task.

Having won many awards, Sahana has also inspired the Free Software Foundation Award for Humanity - 2005. Click here, to learn more of Sahana

Before I started using Mamboserver {now, Joomla} as a blogging tool, most of my blogging were collated on a Perl based system.

I also tried working with Nucleus, and had pratically tried almost all blogging software from Wordpress to b2evolution, LDU and MT. The thing about installing your downloaded software application required learning from chmod{ing} to ftp{ing} and tweaking, and all I wanted to do then was to upload my words and just write away my thoughts.

Duh? I am a writer

Most developers fail to see the user-friendly pseudo-flow of how the world is like. Not every writer, not everyone is a developer, and not every human need to be programmers before using an application.

We need simple software with plugins and modules. Think end users who aren't geeks!

Not a fantastic blogging tool bloated with tools we may never use as a writer in the first place. Developers might heed this, and just make some profits selling plugins, modules and components which when charged at say 1 Euro, would and could equate to a couple of million if the bots are pluggable and simple to install like what Mamboserver / Joomla did when creative professional developers decided to interactively command their brains to reprocess their thoughts.

Nucleus is a blogging application. And it can be more than that if you took time to study the documentation and help files. With enough imagination, any blogging software can be turned into an NMS. Nucleus is systematic in its GInterface {gui-interface} and considering the simplicity of its ware, it is bound to evolve and turn into something more than just another CMS. Consider testing Nucleus, or read testimonials by satisfied clients, worldwide.

There are many excellent forum board software which is equally satisfying to use until a security breach is executed.

Apart from phpBB, aterr, cutecast... Vanilla is the next most minimalist forum software you should seriously consider if discussions are more important than, cosmetics. What I like about Vanilla is in its simplicity for usage. You don't have to be an intermediate expert in programming to understand anything about getting your personal forum online. Vanilla facilitates online discussion to a T.

It is definately going somewhere, and aesthetically Vanilla is akin to a Haagen!, and it is multilingual too!