Struggling with the differences and useage of Blogs vs CMS?

[Fusion2]

I am having difficulty figuring out when users should use Blogs versus CMS Posts on my website.

I would like people on my website to be able to write about their experiences in life, travel, book and movie reviews, discuss their thoughts and perspectives, post informative things to help other members etc.

Blogs and CMS both can do this. But, I want to ensure both are used consistently on my website, by defining when either of these should be used.

How are you using these functions on your website?

Does one tool offer greater ease, functionality and accessibility than the other for users and visitors?

What are the major advantages or disadvantages of using Blogs vs CMS?

[CK]

Remember you don't have to enable both. I would love yee either but there hasn't been the demand so I've got both disabled at the moment.

[Fusion2]

Originally Posted by ChemicalKicks

Remember you don't have to enable both. I would love yee either but there hasn't been the demand so I've got both disabled at the moment.

You have no idea how much i am struggling with this item. Googling the subject, and trying to figure out how to best use them.

Both have benefits and limitations. Both are also very different, functionally, in their own right. From menu options to how the content is displayed.

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For example, when i post CMS with a youtube video. The main CMS page shows a smaller size video, while the individual CMS page shows the fullsize video. When i do the same post for Blogs, it only shows a fullsize video for either view.

Another example, is the main CMS page shows the video to the left, with preview text to the right of video. This same posting on the main Blog page shows text either above or below the video, not side-by-side; even though the page layouts are identical.

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Another major difference is that you can promote a FORUM Thread to article or blog. You can promote a BLOG thread to article. But, you cannot promote an article to Blog or Forum.

So some users prefer to write blogs, so that its closely tied to their profile, as you can easily view the users blogs, and search blogs. But that functionality is not so easily done with CMS postings.

On the same note, you can customize layouts, widgets, and what aspects of articles are shown. You dont have the same flexibility with Blogs, your sorta stuck with the limited menu of options in the sidebar.

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Both have tags and categories. But, people can search these differently. With CMS you can limit what categories people can use. But, with Blogs, people can use default categories or create their own categories.

Blogs have a calendar function, while articles does not.

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So you can see there are lots of subtle differences to consider, and not so easy to change everything once someone begins using blogs vs articles etc.

So i need to make sure which ever direction my website goes, that its expected to be a long term endeavor.

[Fusion2]

Learned some facts while playing around with CMS versus Blog....

If you use the Facebook Developer application, which allows your vbulletin content to post to your facebook account etc. Well blog entries on facebook only show title and date. But, CMS entries also display the meta description and if video is embedded, it also shows video!

Having seen this, decided i will use CMS for all posts, and keep Blogs only for personal entries such as status comments or journal style entries....