BOFH: Oh no! The CMS ate 500 pages of corporate documentation

The new Boss was eager to learn about the company's content management system (CMS), so he requested a quick overview. The narrator, bracing himself for an extensive session, warned that the CMS was where documents "go to die." Shockingly, no one wanted to admit to being on the selection committee that chose this IT system to store all the electronic data. The committee members were chosen for their lack of concern for reliability, safe data management, and backup capabilities.

The narrator explained that the CMS uses AI to create tags and keywords dynamically, generating new tags every night based on keyword frequency and theme frequency matching. This resulted in unexpected tags and associations, such as linking Manila to stationery. Deleting a document could lead to it being associated with seemingly unrelated items.

The system lacked a proper index and made it challenging to locate specific documents. Staff members appreciated its ease of use, as they could simply upload reports without worrying about retrieval. The narrator likened the CMS to a shredder that dispenses paper in confetti-like form. Despite the system's shortcomings, senior management had insisted on using it, leading to a costly and difficult-to-manage solution.