                                Geeklog Readme
                                September 27, 2022

Table of Contents
================
    1) What is Geeklog?
    2) Features
        2.1) Blog/CMS Features
        2.2) Administration Features
        2.3) Security Features
        2.4) Developer Features
    3) Support
        3.1) Website
        3.2) Online Chat
        3.3) Mailing Lists
        3.4) Known Issues
    4) System Requirements and Installation
    5) Security Issues
    6) License
    7) Special Thanks
    8) Further Documentation


1) What is Geeklog?
================
Geeklog is a PHP/MySQL based application for managing dynamic web content.

"Out of the box", it is a blog engine, or a CMS with support for comments,
trackbacks, multiple syndication formats, spam protection, and all the other
vital features of such a system.

The core Geeklog distribution can easily be extended by the many community
developed plugins to radically alter its functionality. Available plugins
include forums, image galleries, and many more.

Geeklog was originally used to run SecurityGeeks and NewsGeeks, and has since
been released under the GNU General Public License. It is a bona fide Open
Source / Free Software project. The original template code Geeklog uses is
from PHPLib, however, which was under the LGPL.

Geeklog was originally created by Jason Whittenburg in 2001, but like all
good open source projects, depends on the community. After Jason, others have
stepped up like Tony Bibbs and Dirk Haun, in the role of project
leader for Geeklog.

For Geeklog's current list of contributers please see:

https://www.geeklog.net/staticpages/index.php/developers

and

https://github.com/Geeklog-Core/geeklog/graphs/contributors

Thanks for your continued support, and let us know what we can do to make
Geeklog better.

For the installation instructions (including PHP and database requirements) please see

    public_html/docs/english/install.html

To get the latest Geeklog source, read the latest Geeklog news, and
participate in Geeklog discussions, visit the Geeklog site:

https://www.geeklog.net


2) Features
===========
Geeklog is an extremely extensible system, however a summary of Geeklog's
features are as follows:

2.1) Blog/CMS Features
======================
    - Create, Schedule, Post and Edit articles in multiple topics.
    - Articles can belong to one or more topics.
    - Save article drafts until they are ready for publishing.
    - Control over formatting used in articles (HTML whitelists).
    - Control over acceptable content (filtering of offensive language).
    - Embed images or other content in articles.
    - Multiple Authors can post.
    - Submissions from users.
    - The ability to like and dislike items including articles and comments.
    - Support for comments, trackbacks and pingbacks.
    - Export and import in all common syndication formats (RSS/RDF/Atom etc).
    - Spam detection and rejection.
    - Robust calendar feature with support for personalized calendars.
    - Advance Poll plugin included which allows you to poll your visitors
    - Support for OAuth, OpenID and other remote authentication methods.
    - Extendible via numerous Open Source plugins.
    - Includes advance WYSIWYG editor which can be used for submitting
      different types of content.

2.2) Administration Features
============================
    - Easy to install, upgrade, migrate with an automated installer.
    - Fully support for internationalization and localization.
    - Easy to use admin interface.
    - Admin interface has complete configurability for all Geeklog Functions.
    - User-specified theming engine for custom look and feel.
    - File Manager

2.3) Security Features
======================
    - User accounts and access controls.
    - Robust *nix-like security model for all objects which can be extended for
      use in plugins.
    - Access can be defined for each article, topic etc.
    - All passwords are stored encrypted.
    - All admin access is logged.
    - All errors are logged.
    - Complete error logging on all forms and SQL calls.

2.4) Developer Features
=======================
    - Plugin support with API for developers.
    - A fully configurable block system, with php-in-block support.
    - Well organized codebase, use of PHP's Object-Oriented features.
    - Thin database abstraction layer allowing Geeklog to be ported to DBMS's
      other than the defaults (MySQL and PostgreSQL supported directly).


3) Support
==========

3.1) Website
==================
The Geeklog website is a good source of information at:

https://www.geeklog.net

Where you can find the Geeklog FAQ, Wiki, and the Forums.

Here you can ask questions of the developers and other people interested in
Geeklog.

3.2) Mailing Lists
==================
Another good support channel is the mailing list located at:

http://lists.geeklog.net/mailman/listinfo/geeklog-users


3.3) Known Issues
=================
All known issues are tracked in our bug tracker. If you identify a bug please
let us know by filling out a bug report at:

https://github.com/Geeklog-Core/geeklog/issues


4) System Requirements and Installation
=======================================
See public_html/docs/english/install.html or the Geeklog.net site:

https://www.geeklog.net/docs/english/install.html


5) Security Issues
==================
Geeklog is a security focused CMS. We have focused on making the code secure
and the application secure, and have been rewarded with a comparatively low
level of exploits having been identified and published by third parties.

We have provided a set of API's and coding guidelines to ensure third party
plugin developers do not compromise the security of a Geeklog installation,
however, we can not guarantee that our work or theirs is secure.

It is up to you to properly secure your database, web server and host
settings.  If you are looking for information in securing your system
some starting points we can recommend are:

https://www.php.net
https://www.mysql.com
https://www.apache.org
https://www.devshed.com
http://www.securityfocus.com
https://www.linux.com


6) License
==========
Geeklog is licensed under the GPL. There should be an included LICENSE file - if
it really interests you (or you having trouble sleeping) go ahead and read it.

In a nice gesture you could provide a link back to us:

https://www.geeklog.net

There is also a button that is in the release that we would appreciate you use
(in public_html/images/buttons).


7) Special Thanks
=================
I want to send out thanks to:

Jason Whittenburg - He is the original Geeklog developer!
PHPWebLog Project - Some of the functions in Geeklog came from them!
PHPSlash Project - Some of the functions in Geeklog came from them!
thatphpware Project - Some of the functions in Geeklog came from them!
PHPBB Project - Some of the functions in Geeklog came from them!
PHPLib Project - Thanks for the great template engine!

And of course, all the members of the Geeklog community.

Further Documentation
=====================
Read the documents in the public_html/docs directory for more information, etc.

See also:
    - FAQ: https://www.geeklog.net/faqman/
    - Support Forum: https://www.geeklog.net/forum/
    - Wiki: https://wiki.geeklog.net/
    - Plugin Developers Guide: http://gplugs.sourceforge.net/pluginman/


Appendix A - readme history
===========================
2022-09-27 - Minor updates [Tom]
2020-02-26 - Minor updates [Tom]
2017-01-25 - Updated links [Tom]
2016-10-24 - Added Gitter information. Formatting [Tom]
2016-01-11 - URL changes, minor updates [Tom]
2009-04-18 - docs URL changed [DHaun]
2007-09-15 - readme re-write [MJervis]
2007-09-09 - Fixed mailing list URL [DHaun]
2007-08-05 - GeekLog to Geeklog [DHaun]
2004-08-13 - Documentation path updates [DHaun]
2003-12-22 - Minor updates [DHaun]
2002-12-28 - URL updates [DHaun]
2002-08-14 - IRC Channel updates [DHaun]
2002-08-11 - Minor updates [DHaun]
[various]
2001-08-18 - First readme file.
