maybe the subject should be changed to "DotNetNuke Too Well Thought Out and Extensible"

Sheesh, don't waste your time on this guy.

Good answer Chris/John.

Nina is absolutely correct.  DotNetNuke was much easier to use in the early days.  Skinning was real simple:  You rewrote desktopdefault.aspx to look like the site you wanted, and then you had to manually upgrade that page with each new version of DNN.  Connecting to multiple databases was real simple.  You had your choice of SQL Server or SQL Server.  Adding new modules was also easy.  Just add the ascx files and vb files for the module to your local copy of DNN, change some code in about half a dozen different DNN files and then recompile your new DNN system.  Of course upgrading your site from that point forward was pretty difficult but you had your fancy module and it was worth the pain of the upgrade process.

When evaluating a system like DotNetNuke it is misleading to say it is hard or easy.  Compared to what?  Compared to coding your own system from scratch?  Compared to writing a bunch of static HTML?  Compared to using SharePoint?  Having looked at a number of different Web Frameworks and Content Management Systems I have to say that DNN provides more power for for less effort than any other system I have seen.  Over the last 4 years DotNetNuke has been extended to handle more use cases.  These changes were not done just to give coders something to do, but rather to solve specific problems that many people had encountered.  Each change brings a little more complexity, but each change also makes DotNetNuke able to handle more and more real world problems.  Having a system that is easy to use, but that doesn't have enough power or flexibility to actually create a real world website is pointless.

Unlike what Nina states, people on the core team and in the community have no problem helping new users.  We answer hundreds of posts every day, and have for over 4 years.  What no one appreciates, whether they are on the core team or just a member of the community is to have someone come into the forums and have their first post be completely negative.  Had the tgpsillias asked for help when he first encountered problems then there are many people in the forums who would have gladly answered his questions - including Nina and John.

Tgpsillas,  if you want help figuring out what went wrong with your installation, then it should not be too difficult to get you up and running and resolve your issues.  If you are having performance issues then there are lots of people who can and will also help you with that issue.  Having built sites in ASP, ASP.Net and DotNetNuke, I know for a fact that the level of effort and complexity is much greater in ASP and ASP.Net than it is with DNN.

Joe thank you for that vote of confidence in my comment but perhaps I should clarify - for the non developer - it's sometimes hard to get answers because this forum and dnn in general is more centred around the developer environment, not the end user. The interpretation of questions between those who code and those who do not, lead to different answers. That's been my experience. 

But I do agree - coming in and challenging developers on the very first instance, doesn't exactly inspire people to bother helping, and often the forum is used only as a last resort after frustration of not getting something to work.

I don't think DNN is particuarly prone to this  - I think it's just the uptake of any new application.

But I did also think that as a core team member (who replied to the post), to talk like this to people, no matter how frustrating it is to hear comments like this, isn't really the right way to present core team behaviour towards the public, particularly when you read the post in more detail.  There is a problem. And we've seen posts like this before and found that in many situations it doesn't hurt to give some support to those who are really annoyed, as I'm sure it's only because they've reached the end of their patience.  And some of the biggest complainers are in fact really strong supporters of dnn. They just complain alot. 

 have found that when you make an effort to understand and learn more about people, makes a big difference.

But this is only my opinion and I know what's thats worth.

Nina Meiers
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