Comments on: What blog software reigns supreme?

By: Mike Johnston

Mike Johnston — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:24:18 +0000

No, I chose to go with what I feel is a better platform for what I need to do. Serendipity is an excellent system and I would highly recommend it to anyone. I'm not saying WordPress is a bad choice but that it didn't suit my needs.

I am far more satisfied with this system then I was with WordPress and it does what I want it to do perfectly.

I'm very pleased with it. I will point out that WP is definitely powerful software and developing with it is quite easy, there's no doubt about that. I just found myself needing/using too many plugins to accomplish my tasks. I know they dont need to be updated constantly, but I always felt I had to anyway.

Regardless, To each his/her own right?

By: Scott Kingsley Clark

Scott Kingsley Clark — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:06:19 +0000

Speaking as a Developer specializing in WordPress, I can see how things may seem bloated, but there are a number of ways to fix any signs of bloat.

Regarding the updates.. you don't have to update your plugins all the time. You can leave them as is, and then once every few months choose a good time to update them all at once. It's not like Inbox Zero, there's no huge rush to upgrade and it shouldn't be a daily priority. It can even be automated, as well as hidden. Using that as a primary reason doesn't really seem all that valid.

The big question is, did you reach out to any prominent WordPress developers with your concerns?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:40:51 +0000

WordPress is certainly the most mature and the most user friendly system out there but it does, whether by intent or not, tend to focus on the novice a little more than some other systems. That can mean it starts getting in the way of some people's needs.

For developers I would rate Habari above WordPress because of its architecture. It is really easy to develop for, but it isn't as friendly as WordPress.

My next blog, which will appear shortly, will be running on a home rolled system which has hints of both WordPress and Habari, but which is designed to do things in the way I want them. For me, right now, it is the right solution.

By: Bryan Lewis

Bryan Lewis — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:10:39 +0000

I'm interested now in trying Serendipity. But I can't let go of WordPress. Its almost like its a industry standard now. easy, nice, elegant… who could ask for more.

I understand the frustration with the updates. But, as a developer I appreciate the updates because without those the system would get hacked.

my two cents.

By: Mike Johnston

Mike Johnston — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:38:16 +0000

There's no question that WordPress is a powerful platform. It definitely is solid or it wouldn't have the user base it has today.

It just didn't suit our needs for what we wanted to do, but that's not the fault of the product.

It can certainly be very flexible but in comparison to EE and Drupal I wouldn't place it in the same category as those two offer far more flexibility.

Thanks for contributing!

By: Bede

Bede — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:26:15 +0000

We've worked with a number of different CMS systems, from Joomla, to Expression Engine, to Drupal to power sites and blogs for clients.

I found all of them substantially more difficult to use than WordPress.

In terms of blogs, WordPress still seems to be offering more flexibility than anything out there. In fact purely on a CMS basis, I'd argue that with the use of Page Templates, it offers more flexibility than those I mentioned above. Though, this could be a bias on my part as I'm more familiar with WordPress than the others.

I can't say that I've experienced any issues with having to update plugins too often. But, I can see that it would be a weakness if you're using a large number of them