I think my biggest problem with Joomla! is how complicated it makes everything. I've created a couple of sites in Joomla! and started making another one last night; it didn't really warrant the complications and hassles of Joomla!, so I'm knocking something together with other components.
And the more I wrestled with Joomla!, the more I reminded myself how much I disliked it, and why I hardly ever use it. I don't like how insecure it is by default, I don't like how it tries to make things easier for me (and for the site admin) and ends up making things five times more complicated, I don't like the lack of attention paid to search engine optimisation and I don't like the templating engine. Grah, rant rant rant.
Most specifically, what got me onto my little rant was trying to alter the side menus. In GeekLog, I would log in as an Admin, go to the Block menu, select the block I wanted to edit, edit the block and press Save. In Joomla!, I log in to the admin interface, go to "Menu," then "Main Menu," and can I edit it? Can I hell. Instead, Joomla! says "No, just tell me what you want and I'll write the code for you!" Which would be lovely, except that for each and every entry I want to add to the menu, I have to go through
three menu screens of needless complexity, and then re-order the menu to put the new entry in the right place. Grr.
It seems like it's just going to extraordinary lengths to prevent me from ever having to write a single HTML tag - but the hoops it makes me jump through in the name of simplicity are far more complex, bewildering and unnecessary than writing the code in the first place.
Oh, and with GeekLog sites, potential new users can log in via their LiveJournal or Blogger.com account.
I know I've trumpeted that feature a lot, but it really does help get your numbers up.