FAQ Group: Content Management Systems

A blog is traditionally just a website with a stream of recent articles on the main page and links to chronologically-sorted and categorized articles. Blog authors and administrators usually create content and manage the site through a web browser or mobile app.

Not limited to just simple articles, blogs can facilitate posting of custom structured content types, such as status updates, asides, FAQs, how-tos, gallery posts, recipes, reviews, video diaries, etc.

With blogs, site visitors sometimes have the option to interact with the post authors and site visitors via a comment system. However, because of maintenance headaches caused by spammers and trolls, many public websites have chosen to disable comments.

A site powered by a blog content management system can be indistinguishable from one driven by an enterprise content management system. Sometimes you need a service like builtwith.com to help you figure out if a site was built with WordPress.

Web Development Services recommends the Drupal-powered Princeton Site Builder platform for websites for University departments, programs, centers, and events. OpenScholar, a Drupal distribution for academic scholars, is our recommendation for faculty, staff, researcher, or lab sites. We recommend WordPress for student organizations and department-sponsored blog sites.

For personal sites, especially if you plan on maintaining the site after your time at Princeton, GitHub Pages is an excellent solution.

Above all, we recommend that you use the website building system that you and your colleagues are most comfortable with.

OIT has published the Knowledge Base article, “I need a website. What are my options?”

Please contact webservices@princeton.edu if you are unsure about what direction to take with your upcoming website projects.

The WordPress platform is a stable, innovative, open-source publishing system with a vast library of third-party plugins and themes. It powers over 42% of all websites. An expansive, vibrant community of WordPress users and developers are actively refining the software, offering support, writing tutorials, and sharing best practices. With an average of three major releases per year, the WordPress user experience is continually evolving and improving.