FAQ's

This FAQ page contains my responses to frequently asked questions. I get a very large number of emails every day and as I identify more questions these have in common I will add them to this list. Please check this page before you send me a message through the contact form. Thanks!

About Mambo Tutorials

What application do you use? Mambo Tutorials uses WordPress, which is a free, open source blogging platform. WordPress also offers a hosted solution at wordpress.com which is ideal for people who want to get online quickly without needing to find web hosting or learn a new application.

Why don't you use Mambo here? Mambo is one of the best content management systems around but a content management system is not the right choice for every type of web site. I wanted to present Mambo Tutorials in a blog style and encourage participation from both visitors and guest writers. While Mambo can certainly be designed in a blog style, its not a blog and I am a believer of using the best tool for the job.

Who designed your theme? I did. This theme is a port of an old template I created back in the 1990's for use with a CMS that no longer exists. It was designed back then using NetObjects Fusion and was restructed for XHTML using Dreamweaver CS3.

Can I use your theme? Feel free to use it for inspiration but please don't copy it. HTML/XHTML puts limits on what can be done with page layouts and, with dynamic sites, the application the templates run on also imposes limitations, so it is not uncommon for people to use other sites for inspiration. Over the years a very large number of my themes and templates have been ripped off by others. This acts as a disincentive for creating new designs and it also dilutes the branding of the site I created the design for. Your site design should be uniquely yours. If its not, then your branding is also affected.

Can I request a tutorial? Yes, you may. Please note, though, that Mambo Tutorials is not a substitute for the official Mambo documentation. My focus here is on maximising Mambo, in other words, giving information that will help you make the most out of using Mambo. While I do include some tutorials for beginners this site is aimed at intermediate to advanced users.

Will you look at my site and tell me what's wrong? I get hundreds of requests for this, both here and through the Mambo forums. I cannot do this for you free of charge (there's just not enough hours in the day unfortunately) but if you would like a professional review please contact me for a quote.

Can you provide pdf's of these tutorials? Keep checking back. Some tutorials will be provided in pdf format.

Can we exchange links? No. However, if you wish to advertise on this site and your site is Mambo or SEO related, then please contact me.

Can I include a link to my site in my comments? If your comments are relevant to the post and add to the discussion I will allow a link in the signature of your comment. If your comment is simply something like, "nice post" with a link then it will be treated as comment spam and deleted.

Can I republish your content on my site? Not unless you have written permission from me. Please see the Terms of Use.

About Me

Are you an SEO expert? Now, that's a tricky question. I don't claim to be an "expert" but I do have expertise. In the early days, I was developing "web sites" that were being included in the databases of Archie and, later, Gopher. Sites back then were more like online documents and indexing was nothing at all like the indexing done by today's search engines. Working with the internet every day, I soon saw the opportunities that search engines provided and as each one was released I made a point of learning how it worked and what was needed for getting pages indexed. I was an early adopter of HTML and have been getting sites to top 5 rankings (with many reaching #1) for many years. I don't claim to be able to take a site to #1 and have no respect for anyone that does make such claims. But I do know the variables that increase a site's chances for getting there.

How did you get into web development? I dropped out of university near the beginning of my second year, when I was just 17, and almost immediately I fell into a career in IT. From systems administration of huge mainframes I moved into programming, then later into training and support. I was contracted by a large multinational to create a network site for sharing information across divisions, using ARPANET. This was before there was really an internet as we know it and before anything had the names we now know so well ("web" "site" etc). This sparked my enthusiasm and the rest, as they say, is history. While I took up my studies again later, I have remained within the IT industry ever since.

How long have you been using Mambo? I've been using Mambo since 2003.

Weren't you with Joomla? Why did you go back to Mambo? I'm answering these two questions together because they are closely related.
I left Mambo in August 2005 at the time of the Joomla! fork. Like many others, I thought the fork was about the community taking control over the project whereas Mambo, so we were led to believe, was being taken over by corporate interests. I put a lot of time into building up the Joomla! community but after several months the situation became clearer. I am passionate about open source software development but I strongly believe that community-based projects need to be developed with the community. The defining moment for my decision to return to Mambo was a really simple one - I asked the Mambo developers if they would consider removing the generator tag. While "security by obscurity" is not very effective, for both security reasons and for SEO I always hacked the core and removed the generator tag from both Mambo and Joomla! I had asked the same question of the Joomla! core team and the question was ignored. When I asked the Mambo team, the very next release came out without the generator tag. It wasn't the removal of the tag that made me go back to Mambo, it was the fact that the team listened to users, responded to my question, then clearly considered it. I was impressed with their willingness to consider ideas from the community so when I was invited to join the Mambo core development team in 2006 I accepted.

How much time do you spend working on Mambo? I am essentially an unpaid, full-time worker. Between working on the software itself, contributing on the forums, updating documentation, and my work as President of the Mambo Foundation, Mambo takes all of my working time, my free time, and then some.

How can you afford to work without pay? I can't. I made a decision to work full-time for Mambo for 6 months and felt my bank balance could manage that. Well, the demands of the work have kept me going longer than 6 months so where you see the coffee cup on my posts and the request to buy me a coffee, please do consider donating towards my coffee expenses. I love a good Starbucks caramel macchiato and can't afford them now unless someone else shouts me a coffee!