What's everyone up to?
I've been thinking a lot about blog/community software, specifically a new one for OP. Here are some that I know, please suggest other sites or platforms that you like.
http://www.soapblox.net
http://scoop.kuro5hin.org
http://drupal.org / http://civicspacelabs.org / http://bryght.org
http://ning.com
http://mu.wordpress.org or http://lyceum.ibiblio.org
or just updating and souping up our current platform: http://wordpress.org
Migrating this site to another platform isn't anything I have time to work on in the next month or so, but we might was well start talking about it.
Issues:
Comments
I've made blogs from Scoop,
I've made blogs from Scoop, it is fairly straight-forward once you start using it. BlueNC is on Drupal and the back-end is okay, but I haven't played with the back-back-end.
How about something that allows you to integrate other tools? I see you put ning up there, so maybe something part socnet and part blog.
I voting for souping up
I voting for souping up Wordpress or using Lyceum. I was into the Drupal idea... Bryght.org might be acceptable.
My favorites of the options
My favorites of the options you list are drupal and lyceum, but I'm definitely biased. You've got local help for lyceum if you want it. It's ibiblio's baby, after all. Have you tried talking to JJB about it directly?
Other thoughts:
* I like the openid integration on scoop.
* the soapblox site is tragically ugly. :(
* ning feels too product-y?
Cheers,
CMP
I'm a Drupal fan myself when
I'm a Drupal fan myself when it comes to sites heavy on user created content. I used Textpattern for my '05 campaign site out of frustration with "heavier" content management software, and then got bogged down trying to reinvent the wheel while I was setting things up, when I should have been knocking on doors instead. I've had a good experience with Joomla as well, but honestly I've mostly used it on corporate and presentation-style sites, not exactly things which encounter a lot of user authoring.
I'm a huge fan of Wordpress!
I'm a huge fan of Wordpress!
Ruby, why would we change?
Ruby, why would we change? Is there a problem with what
we are doing now?
With Lance backing away from
With Lance backing away from BlueNC, I'm learning more and more about Drupal and finding it's pretty good all around. The "track changes" feature is especially valuable for people who want to follow certain threads without wading through everything.
The search function sucks.
Thank you James, for
Thank you James, for reminding me that I forgot to answer Joe's question!
Basically, what the site does now is one thing: publish blog entries and take comments. Having used other blogging platforms I don't feel it does those things particularly well, but more importantly I would like this site to be able to do more. What else could it do?
I would like to maintain a calendar of events with upcoming meetings and forums.
I would like each registered user to have a profile page so you can learn more about the people whose comments you are reading. For example, Joe's comments take on additional meaning if you know that he served as a member of the Chapel Hill Town Council, etc.
I would like for the participants of the site to be able to each have their own blog, and possibly even having the community vote to promote personal entries to the front page.
I would like for registered users to be able to collaborate on building more useful voter and advocate information (ie: an election wiki & government wiki).
And I also spend a lot of time thinking about whether it would be helpful to have people rate each other's comments as a way to reward contributions to the community (and to provide disincentives disincentives to trolls).
Many of the above are things that BlueNC.com and/or DailyKos.com do, if you want to see a good example of a community site. (However I personally feel that DailyKos has developed such a strong culture that outsiders find it difficult to break in and get heard there, and I certainly do NOT want that for OP.)