Best CMS to handle file uploading by users?

September 29, 2009 10:34 AM

What CMS should I use for a community podcast site where users can upload, tag, rate and review each others' podcasts?

I run Role Playing Public Radio and we regularly record game sessions and then post them as podcasts. They're very popular and some of our fans have started recording their own games. I'd like to set up a community site where people can upload their own MP3s, have them verified by a moderator then made available to the members. The files can then be tagged, categorized, reviewed and rated by other members. In terms of structure, I imagine something like a video game mod community site.

I'm most familiar with wordpresss but that obviously won't work. What kind of CMS would work best and how would I go about setting it up?

Drupal looks like a possible candidate but I'm not familiar with it.

posted by clockworkjoe to computers & internet (7 answers total)

I think Pligg might have some of the features you're looking for. It's goal is to be more of a user generated news sight (like digg) then a CMS such as Drupal.

Drupal likely has the features you need via plugins as well.
posted by bitdamaged at 11:06 AM on September 29, 2009

Full-disclosure: I'm a Drupal developer.

Drupal's bread and butter is community-oriented sites where anybody can add content. It's great, but expect to spend some time learning Drupal terminology and which modules do what. O'Reilly's Using Drupal is a good place to start.

Be sure to check out the Filefield Podcaster module.

Feel free to send me a message if you choose to go with Drupal and have any questions.
posted by scottatdrake at 1:58 PM on September 29, 2009

Why do you think WordPress would not work? It will.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:03 PM on September 29, 2009

I haven't seen anything in wordpress that would let users upload large files. I imagine an interface a little like this site.
posted by clockworkjoe at 3:40 PM on September 29, 2009

I also think that Drupal is a good fit for this, though there is a significant learning curve.

Acquia Drupal is an distribution that has pretty much all of the features that you're looking for so you won't have to search through loads of contrib modules to find what you need.
posted by camcgee at 9:42 PM on September 29, 2009

The 2MB upload limit is just a code change in WP. That's easy. So, you can allow people to sign up as members on your site, and default them to... I think it's author? - the setting the makes all posts require approval by default. They can create posts with their podcasts embedded and there you go.

There are also ready-made plugins that will allow for community tagging, reviews and ratings. I'm pretty sure allowing members to categorise other people's posts does not exist, but all posts would have to go into a category by default anyway. I think you could get 80% of your wish list for 10% of the pain.

I mention this because we just did a site where we thought Drupal would be the best fit and it was really, really horrendous. I'd rather hack WP to pieces than every go through that again. I'd encourage you to sandbox a Drupal install before you commit. Do not just read module descriptions and assume they'll work, or work as you expect them to, or that they'll work together. In our experience, they did not. YMMV of course.
posted by DarlingBri at 10:29 PM on September 29, 2009

See also: PodPress. (No experience with this, just came across it in another Ask post.)
posted by DarlingBri at 10:36 PM on September 29, 2009