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In defense of CMS Users
Comments
Hey Ron - Great thoughts. To clarify my original post on the CMS Myth, I wasn't making the case against non technical users in general. Simply the occasional user that wasn't a regular part of the web editorial process. For some reason organizations seem to throw any sense of an editorial process out the window when they buy CMS technology. Just because they can use a CMS doesn't mean they should.
Jeff Cram
www.cmsmyth.com
Hi Jeff:
Thanks for the comment. Like you in your post, I was exaggerating my point a bit to make a point about the non-technical end user, but if you put checks and balances in place, it can work even for the occasional user by creating levels of users. Those who publish only occasionally might have to pass through an editorial filter before the content gets published to the web site. There are certainly ways around that problem.
Thanks again for your comments. I really enjoy reading your blog.
Ron
Hey Ron,
Good article. I think sometimes its not the CMS that is the issue, but rather the implementation of the CMS. Many of these products work great out of the box, but many customers want custom features and processes. How these are developed and implemented can be the difference. The trick is for the group/company/agency implementing the solution to stop thinking about it like a super-user and more like a "non-technical user".
Mark
Hi Mark:
Thanks for the comment. As someone who has had a lot of experience with non-technical users over the years, I can tell you (as I wrote), that they tend to have tunnel vision. They know exactly what they need to know and nothing more. In some cases, this is good. In others, when something goes slightly awry, they don't know how to fix it.
But whatever the system does, for the content producer, it's really about writing and submitting and that is pretty much the same across systems with only minor differences. You click B to bold. You click I for italics. You click ABC to spell check. You click link to add a link. You click Submit/Publish/Post to submit.
No matter what you add to the system, you always have that basic functionality and most users are going to get that.
Ron
Hey Ron,
You are right. Basic content updates in a CMS are not much different then using an email client or word processor software. The only time they don't understand (or pretend) is when they are filling in for someone or are too busy to make the content updates!
Mark
Hey Mark:
Well that's an entirely different problem. That's people who don't want to use the CMS ever for whatever reason, but if it's part of their job to get content on the web site, most people are capable of learning how to use it and the work can get done. Refusing to use it is a people management problem, not a content management one. :-)
Ron








