A few days ago, we relaunched CMS Report with a new layout and under a much different content management system than we've used in the past. This journey began more than two years ago after realizing this site needed to evolve beyond my comfort zone. After being approached by Agility nine months ago, new ideas quickly took form and I decided to host the site using Agility's Magazine Publishing Suite. We're still smoothing out the rough edges of the new site but I think we've taken some important first steps. If you are truly passionate about content management and information systems then I hope you'll accept my invitation to stay with us because I think you're going to enjoy this ride.
Whether you're a developer, web designer, analyst, information professional, project manager, or owner of a website, I want to get to know you better. I believe one of the biggest strengths of CMS Report has always been our willingness to ensure we provide two-way conversation on the subjects of content management that matter the most to you. A lot of work and hard effort has gone into this site to ensure that not only is knowledge of content management is presented but professional relationships are built out of respect. This has been done because at the end of the day, a CMS enthusiasts passion for content management isn't solely because of the CMS software but because of the people developing, managing, and using the software.
Contributors Matter at CMS Report
CMS Report is a great forum for CMS enthusiasts across the globe to get the word out on their favorite content management systems and also share their own perspectives in this important industry. During the past six years, almost 300 authors, content management leaders, and enthusiasts have contributed and published their content management stories here at CMS Report. Whether you're open source or proprietary, novice or professional, vendor or analyst, I hope you will accept my invitation to become a contributor here at CMS Report.
CMS Report has had the privilege of publishing articles from various leaders in the content management industry. However, it has been no less of a privilege for me to see someone new to content management systems write one of their first article on the subject and present it here at CMS Report. Whether you're a college student, professional, or enthusiast your input is important here and such diversity in our contributors is key for innovation and knowledge sharing. This value of bringing people together of all parts of the CMS world is something I've written about before (thanks to Andrew McAfee) and falls under the Strength of Weak Ties. The point is, if you've been wanting to publish a story here but have been hesitant in the past...I want to assure you your articles are welcomed here.
A lot of effort has gone to improving the experience for submitting articles to CMS Report and I think it's a big improvement to what we previously offered our contributors. If you have an interest in getting your articles published here, you can do so in three easy steps. For detailed instructions on how to open an account and to be granted the ability to contribute articles, please see "How to Submit a Story" page.
Our Work Continues
While the crew at Agility have been very helpful in getting this site migrated from the Drupal into their Agility CMS there have been some challenges. Some of the comments from the original site were lost and I'm not sure I'll put the effort in restoring them on this new version. In the end it might be a blessing to see those comments go as I don't think Google was liking some of the spam-like comments that sneaked into the conversation. I also unfortunately used a number of differing path aliases to the same content which caused some links in articles to break. If you see a broken link or come across anything that annoys you about this site, feel free to let us know through the site's contact form. These are all minor things, but I wanted to acknowledge that we still have some rough edges to address in the coming weeks.
Overall though, I'm glad to see the migration from the old site to the new site coming to an end. This whole migration project has been an eye opener in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of both Drual and Agility, and something I plan to write about in future posts. Despite the experience gained, I've concluded that migrating six years of content from one CMS and moving it to another is an undertaking I wish to only want to witness on rare occasions. I've heard plenty of success stories with people updating from one version to another version of the same CMS, but I rarely hear anyone being fully satisfied when migrating from one CMS to another CMS. Then again, perhaps I just haven't been looking at the right places and someone needs to tell fill me in on their migration success story. I like stories like that. This is after all, why I started CMS Report in the first place.
Bryan Ruby
Site Owner and Editor
CMSReport.com