How do you utilize the various features of Composr?

Looking for ideas

Hello everyone, 
I am building (actually rebuilding after a couple years off) a community site. I am curious to hear some of your ideas how you utilize the user generated content aspects of composr. I love the forums and points system and have a solid vision for how I want to use them. For some reason I'm just not seeing how I would use some of the other aspects such as member blogs and catalogs. 

How are you guys utillize some of the many composr features?

Thanks!
Ryan 

 

Hi Ryan! What I have found over the years with ocProducts is that I needed to change my approach towards site building from what I had been doing previously. Other products that I've used required exactly the approach you've mentioned in your post: "…how you utilize the user generated content aspects of…". Composr on the other hand allows you to come at it from the angle of "I want my site to do this or that, how do I make that happen in Composr" and in my experience, 90% of the time it has the tools I need. The other 10% is either modifying my wish list slightly or just building my own within the structure of Composr.

Big picture view: most of the other CMS style platforms are just that, a platform. Conversely I view Composr as a toolbox instead. The beauty of Composr is that the toolbox does not just provide the tools but also the raw material required to build that better mouse trap.

Sorry I can't address your question directly: my user generated content is generally me as the user

Bottom line: let your imagination wander, develop a mental picture of what you are looking for in a community site (polling users is also very helpful; always best to try to deliver what one's users/customers/guests want and not our particular vision of same) then dig into the Composr toolbox to make it a reality.

Best of luck and please keep the community posted!

I tend to approach this from the same angle as Bryan.

The point of any CMS is to manage the content.

If you have no idea what you want to do with the content, you can't ask the right management questions of your tools.

The member blogs make a great deal of sense to me - as we set out to support teams working elections, we're going to need to support team leaders who can communicate independently - and need more visibility to do so than they can get in a forum alone.

I'm contemplating using the cataloging to manage election objects - but really need to get a grasp on Composr basics first.