[wp-hackers] WordPress as CMS (was: wordpress security)

[Otto]

On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 3:57 PM, Joost de Valk <joost at yoast.com> wrote:
> Otto,
> I think there are now dozens of people on this list who are NOT agreeing
> with you.

Joost,

I'm totally uninterested in whether people agree with me or not. I'm
giving my opinion because I'm trying to get feedback and understand
why anybody in their right mind would want this sort of thing.

Seriously.

> Me and my company are rapidly using WordPress to replace large
> corporate CMS'es, usually without using the blog functionality or by calling
> it the "news section". We do so for a couple of reasons:
> - because it's easy to develop for, and thus easy to hire people for,
> - there's a slew of plugins available making a lot of the work that's
> otherwise custom work as easy as flipping a switch,
> - the interface is user friendly
>
> And, more importantly: a lot of people KNOW WordPress from their blogs. It's
> much like why most of the world uses Microsoft Word, even when they're
> writing a book. Yes there are probably tools that, architecturally, are
> better suited for the job, but because everyone knows how to use WordPress,
> it's actually easier to implement. (this analogy is poorly written but hey,
> i'm jotting it down quickly)

So, to break down your reasons:

- Easy to work with (I assure you that MediaWiki is dead simple, you
might want to have a look)

- Existence of large base of plugins (most of which are useless since
you're wanting to castrate the rest of the system anyway... BTW, did
you know MediaWiki has plugins too?)

- User friendly interface (Can't fault you there, MediaWiki's
interface is a pile of dogshit to start with. Fortunately, there's
half a dozen plugins that spice up the editor and make it "Visual"
just like WordPress'...)

- User knows how to use it (I'm pretty sure every human being who's
ever used the internet has used Wikipedia at one point or another, and
will grasp the general concepts right away.)

I realize your reasoning is sound to you, and that you're in a hurry,
but I'd encourage you to give some things a rethink here, and take a
look at other software packages as well.

Again, I like WP. I contribute to WP with help and code. But
seriously, these misguided attempts to make WP do anything and
everything hurt the project more than they help it, IMO. There is room
in this world for more than one piece of software for a generalized
task.

-Otto