Why Content Management Systems Aren't Magic...

I have to thank Frank Johnson over at Strategic Digital Outreach for pointing me in the direction of an article from Gadgetopia entitled What Content Management Won't Do. As you've probably read before, I'm a semi-advocate of the CMS. I am strongly in favor of the ease of use and plug-in capabilities of most CMS software, but then there is the problem of cookie cutter websites where they can all begin to look the same.

The above article also lists some other potential pitfalls of CMS, and it could have easily been titled Content Management Won't Save You From Yourself. It points out that a CMS cannot write for you, edit for you, format your text, prevent you from writing something, or force you to update your site. These human errors are outside the realm of Content Management, so they must be addressed by other means, such as human editors, screening processes, or some other management structure to make sure only appropriate content appears on your website.

Like the name suggests, a CMS simply manages content. Controlling what that content consists of is up to you.