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Building custom forms - whats the best extension?
05.01.10
For some reason Joomla core has never natively been able to create custom forms - I'm not sure if this is due to it originally (pre-1.5 releases) allowing non-article content types to sit in the usual database tables that comprise your site, or something else... However, for years there have been multiple extensions floating around that could let you create forms out of basic elements, like text, email and file fields.
The most basic use of such extensions would be to get rid of Joomla's too-simple contact form system.  To do just that it seems that today there are a good 4 or 5 extensions sitting in the extensions directory that could help you out, though the more digging you do the more you'll find discrepancies between them.  Choosing the right form extension should be done with a balance of features to look for, such as:
- A highly active and focused extension developer,
- A multitude of fields already supported,
- A large user base,
- Development of the extension with long-term focus; if the extension has been created to allow the developer to just create 1 or 2 forms on his/her website, it may not be able to do more in the future (given that their initial need for it was satisfied).
Back in 2007 I mentioned the release of a new extension called Fabrik - after spending some time comparing notes between a bunch of form components just now I am back in love with it!  You see, Fabrik takes the approach of forms being essential things for application-building - meaning that with Fabrik, you can create forms to not only email somewhere but store in your database which in turn can be displayed as lists through your site - you you can, for example, use it to build things like a custom library listing of books.
Fabrik was around before last year's CCK-in-joomla copycating began and is interesting in not replacing Joomla's core article content-type but side-stepping it with a flexible system for handling custom content that supports custom theming and additional plug-in support (yes, you can make your own field types).
Already available fields for forms created with Fabrik include; user details, captcha (with recaptcha!), text areas/fields, file uploads, images, database joins and more (including text displays to annotate fields - for 'help' purpose)...
I highly recommend popping over to http://fabrikar.com and checking Fabrik out... Be sure to also pour through their forums to answer any queries you may have before installing/getting started.  If you think there's a simpler, more powerful, or otherwise better form extension out there drop a comment below!
A question for the Joomla community - Why Joomla?
09.05.09
I've been posting sporadically to this blog for some time now, and we've been lucky to attract a few thousand people per month. I generally advocate that a site's success doesn't solely reside in Google Analytics but instead, mainly in the feel of community participation it relays to people when they spend time on it. In that respect, things are going well here - you guys post comments here and there fairly regularly and old threads are always being picked up for debate.
When I launched the blog I sought to answer its title question through the anecdotes and ponderings I was going to post to it. Though, in the past few months - with Joomla 1.5 being released and a whole stack of new extensions being released for it, I'm still curious to hear why you - the Joomla community at large, choose to use it as your platform of choice for building websites.
So - please feel free to be as candid as you'd like, post a comment below to answer the simple question...
... Why Joomla ?
OSM Nomination and Election Process
19.11.10
The following draft text has been drawn up in order to clarify and further define the nomination and election process to OSM board positions. We invite you to submit your feedback via the Joomla! People site link at the bottom. Thank you! 
Elections: Two calendar periods are generally planned for elections each year: April and October. Exceptions can be made if the board vitally needs specific skills (for example, if the Treasurer leaves).
Number of Board members: The recommended number of board members to carry out the responsibilities of OSM is 13. This number may fluctuate up to 15 or down to 11.
Term Limits: All future board appointments will be for one 2-year period with exceptions possible if the board vitally needs specific skills (Treasurer, Legal Council).
Selection Criteria:
- Community: nominees should have a strong track record of successfully collaborating with, enabling others, and earning the respect of the Joomla! community.
- Character: nominees should have demonstrated integrity, with a history of acting honestly, fairly and openly when in leadership roles.
- Experience and Expertise: nominees being proposed for specific roles should have strong experience and expertise in those areas.
- Success: nominees should be able to point to a history of success and leaving previous roles in a better state than when they arrived.
- Diversity: our goal is to work toward, and honor gender and cultural diversity. We are committed to seeking nominations from all talented and dedicated members of our international Joomla! community.
Election Procedure:
- Public nominations open on the 1st of the month and close on the 14th. Nominations must be made with the agreement of the nominee.
- The OSM board examines the candidates and suggests names to the Community Oversight Committee (COC) before the end of the month.
- The COC approval takes 10 business days to approve or reject the names.
- OSM contacts the successful and unsuccessful nominees. 
Click here for discussion and feedback on the Joomla! People site.
Six Years of Joomla
15.09.11
On September 1, we celebrated Joomla's 6th birthday. In September 2005, Joomla's 20-odd founders forked the Mambo project and established Joomla. Six years later, Joomla is one of the three top open source content management systems in the world. The founders had no idea that Joomla would be so successful, but six years later, thousands of people all over the world make their living with Joomla, and millions more update a Joomla website every day.
SourceThe Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra uses Joomla
09.05.09
I just came across a site running Joomla thats been setup for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra to publish news and general information about the orchestra etc.
The site's fairly simple and, like many other quick'n'dirty Joomla sites out there, uses a Joomlashack template. Though its been put together a little spottily (menu item assignments don't seem to be uniform through the site so some pages don't feature the full navigation etc...), this site really reminded me how pervasive Joomla is for people who want just a tad more than say, a Wordpress blog.
For the '08 Beijing Olympic Orchestra that 'tad more' simply translates to multiple blog views of different content. In fact, they have even implemented a really simple gallery by just embedding images into content items and linking them together using a lightbox extension - which is quite clever when you don't have a gajillion images that need tags and complex photo information etc...