In chatting with a colleague recently, I mentioned that I have changed my position over time when it comes to web Content Management Systems (CMSes). Or rather, I have landed back where I started. 

In short, I don’t like them. Here’s what I told him when he asked me why.

Do you remember what Legos were like when we were young? They came in pieces. Lots of tiny pieces. And you could make anything out of them! I had (still have, actually) the wonderful Yellow Castle set. Of course, there are detailed instructions on how to make the castle. And the set has a few pieces that are very specific to castles – flags and the like. But most of the pieces are such that I could have made anything I wanted out of that set. 

At some point in time, I noticed that many of the boxed set pieces were now molded to specific shapes (sections of spaceship hulls, smooth surfaces of sand dunes, etc.). Those pieces are really only good for making one thing. Sure, there are still some 1x2s, 1x4s, etc. But in all likelihood, if you have a Star Wars set and you want to make a simple house, you probably don’t have the right pieces to do so. It’s hard to make a section of spaceship hull into a roof.

I am sure you see where I am headed.

My experiences with CMSes have been like having the modern Lego sets. I feel waaaay too locked in to the one thing that the set is designed to be. That one thing may have been just what I wanted when I went to buy Legos, but if I ever change my mind - well, I have to buy a whole new set. 

If I just had the plain old bricks in the first place, I could build anything I wanted.

So does the analogy hold, or are there CMSes that truly offer you the flexibility to make anything you like?