I have recently been evaluating the future of this blog.  Not in the context of will it continue, so rest assured that I'm not going anywhere.  My evaluation has been in regards to the core site engine and whether PostNuke is the platform I want to continue using.

Much to my chagrin, despite my original evaluation of CMS platforms, I have realized that PostNuke simply carries too much overhead for my needs.  It is, in terms most IT professionals will understand, bloatware — a software package with too many features and too much fluff to be of use in this context.

I'm not bashing PostNuke.  So far as CMS packages are concerned, it is one of the better open source products available under the GNU/GPL license arrangement.  It's full-featured, has a very active development team, is supported by a myriad of interested parties busy developing modules, themes, updates, and so on, and is quite simply a robust web site engine.

And therein lies the problem.  For someone like me, a PostNuke installation simply carries far too much baggage.  The vast majority of the modules are disabled because I don't need them, yet the core engine overhead is still intact (those modules are still referenced/checked during normal site operation).

Honestly, what do I need?  I need a blog.  I need a gallery.  I need the ability to store and present web links.  I need comments support.  I need statistical reporting and referrer management.  I need SEF (search engine friendly) URIs.  I need an archive function.    I might consider using a FAQ function, but, following the original FAQ setup for this site, that's not been a function I've used much — and is therefore not a requirement and probably not even a nice-to-have feature.  I need a valid XHTML engine.

Outside of those things, however, I don't need the rest.  Sadly, PostNuke carries far too much overhead baggage to fit my needs.  Although I originally thought I'd use the majority of those features, after more than two years I have realized that it's very unlikely that I'll ever use them.

It is with some level of trepidation that I have now decided to completely revamp xenogere / strange behavior /.

This is no small undertaking as there is no direct migration path from PostNuke to any of the platforms I’m currently evaluating (such as b2evolution and WordPress).  That means I will have a significant amount of manual work.

But I’m neither worried about nor afraid of the work.  My intention is to make the site better, to simplify it, to reduce the overhead and clutter, and to move forward with a tighter set of features which more closely match my requirements — rather than making my requirements fit the features available to me.

I don’t know when all of this will take place, but I suspect it will be soon.  I also suspect it will be somewhat disruptive.  I’ll do my best to minimize that, of course, and will be diligent in getting the changes done quickly.

What does this mean to you?  Many of the current extras on this site will go away, and many of the useful features will change.  The look and feel of the site will also change… for the better.

Stay tuned, poppets, as I strongly suspect these changes will be welcomed as much by you as by me.