Written by a newcomer to Post Nuke shortly after installing
version 7.2.3 (2 days after, in fact)
January 4, 2003
Note: I hope the references to PostNuke won't be confusing, but it
was the CMS I first used. Much of it applies to MDP as well, which did not exist at that time. It wasn't until I had used PN for a year and a half that I installed MDP and converted
to it.
If you have a web site or are about to open one, and expect to have more
than just a few informational pages, you may wish to consider switching
to or adding a content management system (CMS). A very popular one is
MDPro (MDP), which you have already discovered if you are reading this.
You are probably wondering why you might want to use it and what the benefits
would be. There are many. I’ll explain some of them in a moment.
First, though, a bit of background. This story is being told from practical
experience from more than 8 years of administering an online community
of enthusiasts of a leisure activity.
In communicating with other site administrators, I learned that many
sites, even those devoted to enthusiasts and participants of certain activities
whose primary purpose was not making money, had many things in common
and had similar needs for many different types of programs. This is true
of interests ranging from luxury watches to recreational vehicles. Those
needs include:
- guest book
- discussion forums
- database (member listings and profiles, etc.)
- chat rooms
- links submission
- events listing and signup
- polls
- surveys
- quizzes
- tests
- contests
- reviews (with background on reviewer)
- classified ads
- book store (Amazon.com affiliate, etc.)
- greeting cards (electronic)
- shopping cart
- auction
- site search engine
- links directory (Yahoo like)
- banner rotator
While some programs include many of these features, a site administrator
still had to have an array of separate programs to perform all these functions.
That meant different interfaces, separate and different registrations
and logins for various parts of the site, and usually a very different
look for the different programs. The different registrations easily cause
confusion for some site members. News and articles would be submitted
to the webmaster, who them had to put them on an HTML page, link and add
it to the site.
I wrote a brief article about the interoperability of programs and submitted
it to the authors of the (perl) programs I was using in 1999. While my
forum program did include many of these features, and another program
(Event Handler) was multi purpose as well, no single program did everything
and the disparate programs did not communicate with each other. Each had
a separate registration. They were simple to install (generally), but
that simplicity came at a price. They were independent from each other
and looked it. Furthermore, being perl based, they had certain limitations.
Along came PHP and open source CMS programs to change all that and further
enhance sites, adding features and benefits not possible before. This
is the fun part, where you find out the really neat stuff that MDP can
do for your site. For starters, remember that MDP is a content management
system. Its various parts and components (referred to as blocks
and modules) can share user registrations and more. That means that your
forum members who post classified ads won’t need a separate registration
for it, nor for events sign up, sending an e-card, taking a quiz, participating
in a contest or anything else. Even many PHP programs that do not have
a MDP interface module can be modified to use the MDP registration.
It gets even better though, much better. Anyone can submit news or stories
through your site without you having to format their submissions. All
you will have to do is decide whether to allow the submission to appear
on site and you can even give others access to post without your review.
My own site is about scuba diving and has a strong community spirit.
Members have gotten together offline as well as on for years. We’ve
met and gone diving together, had dinner together, and much more. Members
have contributed articles based on their knowledge and areas of expertise.
This includes doctors, ocean engineers, instructors and more.
Most online communities are built around a forum program. This is natural
since it is the program that allows the greatest interaction among the
largest number of members. However, as with my site, that community can
encompass much more than just the forums. I always seek to enhance that,
and the search brought me to Post Nuke. After installation, I discovered
Post Nuke would allow me to do the following:
Allow submission of articles and news directly onto the site without
the need for me to format them in HTML. By making it as easy as possible
for submissions, it may increase participation by others. I learned a
long time ago (or knew instinctively) that if you make things easy for
people, more of them join in. Submissions of articles by members and news
by others, like equipment recall notices, will now be easier than ever.
Allow submission of articles and news without my involvement to anyone
I give access rights to. A few environmental groups send regular notices.
I can now give them access rights and let them post their messages in
the proper section without the need for my involvement in the process.
MDP has the ability for me to program articles to appear on a designated
date. I can write a lengthy, multi part article and have each segment
appear when I want it simply by designating the desired dates for each
segment. I suppose the same is true of news.
Allow comments by members on any article. As in discussion on a forum,
other people may be able to add to a piece. There is also a module named
Wiki that allows several people to collaborate in writing articles.
Have a section for reviews of equipment, resorts and more that will remain
easily accessible. When posted on a forum, they eventually disappear from
view. Now they can appear in a section all their own.
Organize files available for download better. Right now, there are downloadable
files in appropriate sections throughout the site. MDP will allow me to
consolidate them in an easy manner showing all available files
The ability to offer choices. This is one of the most appealing things
about PHP and MDP to me. I can have an ornate, graphics intensive view
and have fun being creative, a graphics moderate view similar to what
I presently use, and a plain, black on white view for all those members
and viewers around the world who have slower connections. Some of them
even pay by the time they use and have nothing available faster than 28k.
My buddy Mike on Fiji and many others have very limited connections, I
can cater to their interests without sacrificing the visual appeal to
others.
Multiple languages. I actually have a limited amount of content in several
other languages and some of the links I have are multi-lingual as well.
I’ve marked them with flags of the appropriate country. MDP allows
me to mark them even easier, and people can filter out all other links
and see only those in the language they choose.
All the above are possible with MDP and the modules and blocks included
with it in the distribution file right now. There are other modules and
programs, third party ones, that can do even more. A gallery module will
allow me to have an onsite gallery of our members and our diving trips,
administered by one of our members. We no longer have to rely on sites
like Photopoint or Yahoo that strand users with no photos ( lost when
they have a change in policy and are no longer free or close up altogether).
A PHP forum program is an important part of any online community using
a CMS like MDP. Many such programs can announce the birthdays of members.
Using an e-card module (in MDP), they can be sent electronic birthday cards.
Incidentally, members can submit their own photos and artwork for consideration
for inclusion for use in e-cards
A calendar with events sign up is included. My forum program has that
now but having it in MDP will allow for announcement of more events from
a wider range of sources, including all the expositions around the world.
Links submission, another feature my forum has, is also included in MDP.
This allows members or the unregistered, (as you choose) to submit links.
A lot of features that are normally found only in certain forum programs
are a part of MDP. This includes the recommend to a friend feature, the
ability to e-mail to all members, and many more. There are lots of neat
little features too, like ephemerids. They are a “this day in history”
type feature. A site search engine is naturally included.
Except for the gallery module, I haven’t even touched on third party
modules, blocks and programs. There seems to be a lot of interest in MDP
and a number of developers working on it as well as integrating third
party programs into it. Between a module named Post Wrap that someone
wrote and a data bridge under development, it is or will be possible to
integrate existing sites and other PHP programs. Be sure to check both
out if you decide to use MDP.
I have a neat little script that does equipment checklists that I’m
looking forward to integrating in MDP on my site. It looks like it will
be simple enough, even without that data bridge.
One last thing for now, since a MDP site is administered via the web,
it is easy to make changes while you are away. In my case, with a notebook
computer or access at a cybercafe, I could add daily reports from one
of our group dive trips.
I’m still learning about what MDP can do, as well as learning how
to do certain things. I will revise or add to this article as I learn
more, helping others who discover MDP decide why they might want to use
it and how it can benefit them and their online communities. In short,
it expands the concept of an online community from a forum program to
an entire site and makes it easy to encourage greater participation. It
takes a whole solution approach, everything from online editing and submissions,
to a unified, integrated approach to what otherwise would be separate
programs with their own separate registrations and interfaces. Much of
what MDP can do I envisioned years ago. It just took a few years for the
software to catch up to my vision. You don’t have to wait. You can
download MDPro now and get started right away.
MDPro Administration Guide 
