Thoughts 13 Jan 2008 12:10 pm
Why I use Wordpress
I’m the admin for 11 blogs counting my own. While they all run Wordpress, everyone wants something a little different. Which is precisely why I chose Wordpress.
If you Google for “wordpress plugins” you get wordpress.org/extend/plugins, wp-plugins.net, along with personal sites like alexking.org.
If you Google for “wordpress themes” you get a nearly infinite number of sites featuring free themes. Or a mix of free and “premium”(pay-to-use) themes. I use the free ones.
Although the authors of many of the premium themes will customize them for you, unless you want something very special, I see no need to pay for one if all it is to be used for is a personal blog.
The overall color scheme and some layout can usually be modified using css. The rest of the theme will generally be written in PHP, making it relatively simple to modify.
—–Always keep a complete copy of the original theme, somewhere safe. This saves you having to download a fresh copy when you screw up.
There are always details that will drive you nuts until you figure them out.
The one than springs to mind is using “./****/***.jpg” to retrieve an image. This works fine on the main page, but it does not always work for permalinks or comments. You need to drop the leading dot and then things smooth out.
One other quirk / security feature is the capitalization of the user name. If the name is capitalized and you enter it in all lowercase Wordpress returns an Incorrect password error instead of an Invalid username.
All in all. For the average person it’s simple to set up and easy to use.
For the average volunteer admin these same features are a godsend, because sooner or later, these otherwise intelligent people will find a way to break either Wordpress, or more likely, the database, beyond repair and a full reinstall will be required.
Now, if I can only get some of these people who wanted a blog so badly, to write with some sort of regularity.