Well, some time ago I bought Sparkle, and have since spent a LOT of time getting to know it’s foibles and conversing with the developers, who are very nice guys and quick to respond.
I give it 9 out of 10 for ease of use and a very nice ui. It’s missing some key features (which I can mainly work around) and it’s badly flaky around page size and the Menu feature, but I’ve eventually managed to build two small sites, and they mostly look ok. (I made a few improvements while I was at it).
Freeway: http://www.turnstone.tv/parksforum1-home.html
Sparkle: Home and News
and
Freeway: http://www.turnstone.tv/lechome.html
Sparkle: http://leedsediblecampus.co.uk/
I’ve got a list of strangenesses that I think they need urgently to address if they’re to continue selling Sparkle for actual money (especially the lack of a searchable Help which is a major drawback because some elements, such as Sections, are totally incomprehensible), plus an even longer list of things that I think they need to add soon if the program is going to be successful, and they tell me they are working on these.
But my problem is this:
I now have to start building my bigger sites - which will many many many hours of work. Do I risk running with a small company who are naturally going to take a long time to get round the the fixes that I badly need to see, and who - if they don’t make the progress both they and I hope for - could wind up like Freeway leaving me back at square one, or do I try to find something else that’s similar to Freeway and Sparkle - because none of the many other programs mentioned in this long thread came close?
And if so, where do I go?
It’s decision time.
Has anyone found anything else along the same lines?
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