If you take the time to visit any of the YAPNS areas of PostNuke, PHPNuke, etc... and start clicking through the links, you will notice that 90% of all nuked sites appear to use a common theme, or slight variance of a common theme and/or layout scheme. This is not to say that the standard NukeNews theme isn't a great theme, because it is!
The problem boils down to this, as developers in one capacity or another, we have the creative tools to take the net by storm. Sure we are making major dents into the realms once controled by the likes of Yahoo, HotWired, and C-Net, but our own creations are becomming the very chains that bind us.
The PostNuke development team has given us an excellent set of standards to follow. The API has been written to provide a basic guideline for module, block, admin, and end-user development. Through the use of this API, we can branch out into areas un-dreamt of before. Gamer/Developers can create modules that hook into their favorite Half-Life servers, pulling stats, etc... Author / programmers can write modules to help other authors deploy electronic versions of their books. There are no limits to the creative juices that we can place into a nuked site.
So why, then, do most nuked sites look the same?
For the past four months I have been developing my own site engine. It has many of the same features that PostNuke has. I started it as a personal learning experiment into the world of PHP. Now that I have a good understanding of the language, I can scrap my personal project and jump back into the world of PostNuke.
So here is my challenge. I would like to see what people can do with the PostNuke system. But! You must stay within the basic guidelines set forth in the API. The challenge here will be to make a PostNuked site not look like a PostNuked site. Why? How far can you mold the PostNuke system? Do you actually believe that *every* potential client wants a nuked site that looks like a thousand other nuked sites?
With the core engine, some handy graphics skills, plus a heavy dose of theme, topic, section, etc. orgainzation, I believe that a nuked site can compete with any other major site on the net. It will just take a high level of devotion and skill.
Who will be the first person to claim a spot on CoolHomePages.Com with a nuked site? Can we lift a PostNuke'd site to the level of respectability that other major sites recieve? We have the core engine. We have the modules. But do we have the secret ninja skills to bring everything together?
The challenge is yours...
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