Getting back into web design after more than five years absent

My family and I recently suffered some devastating losses but I am trying to get back into a position where I can earn a living ... primarily through my writing and maybe some web design. 

My original intent, at the request of some friends from an old site that is now closed, was to build another community article site where individuals could post their own, original writing. However, the previous site was extremely limited and they have requested more ability to interact with one another in addition to posting their own content. 

My original plan was to build the site with Joomla and K2 but documentation and support are extremely lacking there. I then thought to go with Wordpress and while the front end is impressive, I really hate the admin panel and the backend in its new form. Many of the social CMS platforms are too busy trying to copy facebook or other sites and I really feel like they are almost build to entertain children more than to allow grownups to interact. However, I have to say that I really like the feel of COMPOSR, even if I have not gotten the look down yet, or the formatting I want to use. 

I strongly suspect that there will be something of a steep learning curve, but this definitely has all of the features I am looking for. I have yet to get into the documentation, but I will be downloading all I can find shortly, and then going through that first. 

On that note, the documentation does look very comprehensive, however if there are people who would like assistance with documentation, I have over forty years experience as a technical writer and author in other forms as well. I am more than happy to cowboy up and throw in with you if you do require any documentation. 

That being said, and my post being far too verbose already, I do have a lot of reading to do ... but I look forward to addressing any issues I can here and ... more likely than not, asking some stupid questions along the way. 

Thank you.

Welcome. I think you will find Composr quite straightforward and any issues you may discover in your journey will be remedied or explained. With v11 on the horizon you arrived at an interesting time

Well, best I can do is offer my writing services if any documentation is needed, but given how little I know, it may be more trouble than it is worth … or it may not. I am available either way.

I am very pleased so far, but have not opened it up to my old friends from the site we are replacing yet. I am anxious to hear their reviews also.