I've played with a variety of the oss cms packages. XOOPS is probably the best so far but I really need to have users able to upload files. I'll be building a "digital commons" site, so people need to be able to download and also upload their own stuff (mostly music at first).

I can't seem to find any upload modules (other than talk about a full-blown mp3.com-ish module trying to get built). Is there such a beast? And if not, any other CMS suggestions? I'm presently using pMachine for blog content, and have ExpressionEngine up too, and while they both allow uploads, you have to give users access to the control panel, and that will confuse people. Having it built into a "download" section seems much clearer.

Check www.wf-projects.com for WF-Downloads 2.0.5

Brilliant! Looks like exactly what I need. A bit more background on the project. We're trying to set up a remix portal for a university environment. So I will end up spiking the site with initial tracks and loops, but then students/staff will (hopefully) download the loops, create remixes, then upload them to the site where people can listen, rate, rank, etc.

So far the other contenders were TikiWiki (as I'm partial to wikis, but TikiWiki doesn't seem very stable, and for this site we really don't need wiki-esque behavior), Plone (although again not a fit), or use a canned php script(s) with a traditional static site. I looked at phpnuke but have been scared by the security (or lack thereof). Seems like XOOPS has a big enough community to keep things going, and a nice clean design. The admin menus don't work right with Safari though (have to use Camino).