I find it incredible that
- People think that content management systems manage content
- People think that web based systems remove any requirement that authors understand any html
- Everyone wants to edit content, but no one wants to learn how to administer a CMS
Point 1. Content management systems don’t manage content, people manage content. People may use a content management system to help them, but the system does not manage the content. The CMS is a tool that people wield. Content can be managed without a CMS. Content can be edited without a CMS. Does a CMS make it easier? Well it depends. You can learn to manage/edit content using a filesystem and a text editor. Basic HTML is not difficult to learn. Using an ftp client is not difficult. If you are managing a small site and making all edits yourself, this can be a very simple solution.
Or you can use a content management system. But if you are working by yourself, you have to learn the CMS. Including how to install it, install additional modules you might need, administer it, use it’s editor, create templates, etc.
Point 2. Editing in a WYSIWYG editor in a CMS looks easy. I have heard people describe it as "just like editing in MS Word". Well, yes, if you are doing simple text editing. But if you are uploading images, building tables, inserting flash and other useful things that people want to do on the web, then understanding HTML and other web technology is important.
Point 3. When I’m talking with clients about what they want to do, invariable the response is "I just want to make simple updates to some pages". Content management systems do so much more than that. So if that is all you want to do, what are you going to do will all of the baggage that comes with a CMS? Are you going to apply security updates when they are released? Are you going to learn how to efficiently upload images? Are you going to learn the administrative interface?
Content management systems are powerful tools. In fact, a useful analogy might be to carpentry power tools. They can be very powerful and make your life easier. But to use them you have to first be trained as a carpenter. You have to understand which tool is used for which task. To many users think that if the just have a CMS installed they can build and maintain web sites. I would not want to live in a house someone built if all they did was buy some power tools.