[IxDA Discuss] categories, sections, tags

[Kim McGalliard]

I always told my clients that the 'magic' of a CMS is that it allows you to
separate the content from the display.  You use the CMS to create content
modules, then use the publishing process to output those modules into the
display or pages.  You can create a heirarchical categorization (a taxonomy,
really) that allows you to categorize content by type (story, about, etc).
The tagging and categorizing can allow you to assign content to a page that
lives within a section that matches the cateogry you give the content.

So, I wouldn't think about having types of content that live in categories
and types that live in pages.  Content lives in the CMS as an independent
thing that has metadata (categories, tags).   Pages can't really live in
multiple sections, but content can if the metadata says it does.

This is all mainly relevant if you have content that you think will be
re-used across multiple pages/sections.  It's also a little more difficult
for content creators to conceptualize, since we all tend to think in pages,
but once they get it, it means a far more flexible system.

On 10/17/06, Christina Wodtke <cwodtke at eleganthack.com> wrote:
>
> [Please voluntarily trim replies to include only relevant quoted
> material.]
>
> As some of you know, I've been working with a developer to make a
> light-weight CMS/publishing tool. We've focused on magazines and other
> small publications, and we've run into an interesting conundrum.
>
> Picture a webzine. You've got your stories, and you've got pages about
> writers guidelines, and how to advertise, and all that.
>
> We will have both tagging and categories on any article/story. So far
> we've had "stories", which are time based, more or less, and scroll down
> the front page, and "pages" that are fixed in time, and are just in the
> "about" section. We realized one day they weren't all that different,
> and now we are looking at potentially combing them. My partner-in-crime
> suggested stories have categories, and pages have sections, and a page
> lives only in a single section.
>
> But this raises other questions. Can a story live in a category *and* a
> section? Should a page live in multiple sections, one section, or a
> combination of sections and categories? Should we really mess with
> people's organizational mental models?
>
> Moreover, should pages have comments, just like stories?
> Advantages/disadvantages?
>
> Anecdotes, brilliant designs nixed by PM, and theories all welcomed, but
> real-life stories tend to trump....
>
> And anything starting with the phrase "the simplest possible" is extra
> welcomed...
>
> cheers!
>
> --
> Christina Wodtke
> Principal Instigator
>
> Magazine :: http://www.boxesandarrows.com
> Business :: http://www.publicsquarehq.com
> Personal :: http://www.eleganthack.com
> Book :: http://www.blueprintsfortheweb.com
>
> cwodtke at eleganthack.com
>
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-- 
Kim McGalliard
kimmcg at gmail.com
646-265-8353