Hi Chellycat,
It's tough to recommend XOOPS to someone without getting very deep into their actual needs. In my experience, XOOPS has made it very easy to get websites up and running, with the best and most helpful support community. I would suggest looking through the module repository to get an idea of some of the functionality you can add to the base XOOPS package.
However, I will comment on the following:
- Permissions: You can create any number of "groups" of users and assign certain content to only those groups. For instance, you can have pages that are only viewable by registered users, or anonymous users, etc.
You can send "private messages" to your users as well, to communicate individually. You may want to see if there's a communication based module to do more of what you need in this area...again, check the module repository. I don't use the messaging features much...
Though I don't use the modules, you may be able to use the wf-channels or wf-sections modules to create sections of your website content only for specific groups of users.
- To add content: You can add custom "blocks" of any content you wish that can be positioned in any of 5 places (left column, right column, center-left, center-center, center-right).
Additionally, you can add a content module to display content as an actual module would display it, instead of in a block (more versatile..). There are a variety of content modules: Content, TinyD, FreeContent, etc.
- Custom templates: In my experience, being able to modify template files in XOOPS has been a lifesaver. You can create your own "Theme" for the overall look of your site and paste in the XOOPS code to create your personal Theme files. For most of the modules, if not all, you can modify the individual module templates to create the look you want.
Check out the recent site I did here:
http://www.aisforantiques.com. I used a totally custom designed theme, along with a ton of other little modifications. The only content that's being managed on this site is the "news" section, and the "inventory" gallery. Additionally, XOOPS makes it very easy to make changes. If I want to add a newsletter, or a custom block for "recent advertisements" or anything else, it's a simple task.
Anyway, sorry to be long-winded...hope the above helps...
JC