hosting script

[Dustin Decker]

On Mon, 15 Apr 2002, Seth Dimbert wrote:

> I'm looking for a way to let members of an organization "create"
> webpages on a web server. I'd like, ideally, to have a template or two
> that they can fill in, along with space for the uploading of pictures.

The problem with most of anything like this I've ever seen is that the 
resultant web page are extremely cooki-cutter, and it's quite impossible 
to avoid the crappy appearance that becomes the inevitable result.

I would in such a situation look at this from a cost/benefit sort of 
analysis.  If the customer is paying "real money" for web hosting space 
and the like, then I would expect them to fork out some "real money" for 
web authoring software.  Obviously, you're doing your best in such a 
situation to extricate them from the necessity of learning (or even 
understanding what the hell it even is) anything about html.

The sad truth of the matter is, this doesn't really work in 2002.  (I'd 
venture to say it really hasn't ever worked all that well.)  If the 
client is in a position to spend money on the hosting space (asuming 
this isn't the free 10 or so MB of space that you can get on free 
hosting spaces) then I would point them to any of a handful of software 
titles like Adobe "Go Live", NetObjects "Fusion", or that awful thing 
the Other folks out in Redmond use.  (It is in a tongue that I shall not 
utter here.)

I'm expecting of course that the client is on a Windows OS, since they 
are asking for something (I assume here) that falls right into the good 
ol' click and drool mentality that has made the web the often sparten 
thing that it is.  They're really stuck, and need to understand this.

Of course, this could have been brought to mind by the magnificent '86 
St. Francis Merlot I've been enjoying as I celebrate my paltry $600.00 
tax return this evening, but I suspect that even in sobriety I would 
feel very little sympathy.  All apologies,
Dustin

-- 
E = MC ** 2 +- 3db