[Joff]

I'm investigating the suitability of Wordpress as a CMS for an upcoming project. This was going to be an email or PM to Brian as I know he's a fan of WP but I thought it would make sense and benefit from input from the Internet Business forums.

Background info:
The project is a social-network style review website, with the general public reviewing Blue Widgets.
Each user will create an account and once authorised, will be able to add their review.

Sounds simple, but I'm just concerned that the general "Wordpressiness" of it all will put people off. I want them to know they're still on my BlueWidgetReviews website, with a branded backend to their profile details, create new review page, etc.

Obviously Wordpress is superbly geared up to the publishing of content from a journalistic point of view, where people are given access by the powers that be, but my site won't really have any input from me other than occasionally screening content to make sure they're not discussing rival products (nasty Red Widgets) so I want them to feel at home.

I've looked into Drupal and it feels like a step back from the suitability of Wordpress. DotNetNuke was a non starter as it doesn't like MySQL much. The other option is to go bespoke but I don't know if I can put that much effort into it at the moment.