This site is beginning to grow and grow, and forward compatibility has lately been in my mind more. Several days ago this site passed twenty thousand unique visitors, and more than seventy thousand hits, since late August. I recently converted everything (except the photolog) to XHTML 1.1, which was nice, but it’s not the markup I’m worried about. My logging software hasn’t been updated for months, and the main developer has disappeared, and I can only hope that he’s okay.
What to do? Well, Textpattern looks like everything I could ever want, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be licensed under something politically I could agree with. Fortunately, b2/cafelog is GPL, which means that I could use the existing codebase to create a fork, integrating all the cool stuff that Michel would be working on right now if only he was around. The work would never be lost, as if I fell of the face of the planet a year from now, whatever code I made would be free to the world, and if someone else wanted to pick it up they could. I’ve decided that this the course of action I’d like to go in, now all I need is a name. What should it do? Well, it would be nice to have the flexibility of MovableType, the parsing of TextPattern, the hackability of b2, and the ease of setup of Blogger. Someday, right?
Update, 2003-12-26: This became WordPress.
117 replies on “The Blogging Software Dilemma”
Matt,
If you’re serious about forking b2 I would be interested in contributing. I’m sure there are one or two others in the community who would be too. Perhaps a post to the B2 forum, suggesting a fork would be a good starting point.
Happy Belated Birthday, WordPress!
It’s funny how things get started sometimes, but WordPress is now a few days past it’s first birthday.
From humble beginnings to 1.0.1 in exactly a year. Congratulations to the dev team. 😀
The day has arrived!
oh yea!
me de publication personnelle qui monte, qui monte… Matt y parle, entre autres, des origines de WordPress, des raisons de son succès après la “débâcle” […]
[…] In the interview that I linked in my last post, I found (again) the classic post from Matt about his dillema with the blogging software on 24th January 2003. […]
[…] Talk about inspiration, I’m asking you. Is there anybody out there who’s creating something really from the scratch without any inspiration by others? In the term of blog engine. Do you know that, even the WordPress was inspired by the flexibility of MovableType, the parsing of TextPattern, the hackability of b2, and the ease of setup of Blogger. The Movable Type itself probably was inspired by the classic blogging tool called Dollarshot, etc. and etc. […]
That disappearing developer added a good deal of truly hitchcockian suspense to the whole history of WordPress. Is he alive, at least?
[…] WordPress is celebrating its third birthday today, as posted by Mike Little on his blog. This post from one of the founders – Matt Mullenweg – shows how he first got the inkling to create such a platform. The future looks bright for WP as more and more people make the change. The development team behind the creation appear to work tirelessly to forever improve and update the software, and I am pleased to have found and created my weblog via it. […]
[…] 這篇說明了 WordPress 的由來, 原來 WordPress 三æ²å›‰ ! […]
[…] Hard to believe how far it’s come “” I remember the old days of b2, the first WordPress releases, the frustration, the classic theme, and the sleek little darling WordPress is today. […]
[…] Who would’ve thought that for such a powerful web communications software WordPress is, it’s merely three years old! Here’s Matt’s original post that started the ball rolling. […]
[…] Es wird berichtet, dass dieser Tage WordPress seinen dritten Geburtstag feiert. Dieser Artikel wird als der Beginn betrachtet. Wie auch immer, drei Jahre programmieren fleißige Hände für alle WordPresser und WordPresserinnen Plugins. All die kleinen und großen Helferlein, die das tägliche Blogger Leben so angenehm machen. In den Supportforen werden Hilfesuchende gut beraten und wer weiß wohin die Reise der Software noch geht. Happy Birthday WordPress und Danke an all die Programmierer . 🙂 […]
[…] From Photo Matt: Fortunately, b2/cafelog is GPL, which means that I could use the existing codebase to create a fork, integrating all the cool stuff that Michel would be working on right now if only he was around. The work would never be lost, as if I fell of the face of the planet a year from now, whatever code I made would be free to the world, and if someone else wanted to pick it up they could. I’ve decided that this the course of action I’d like to go in, now all I need is a name. […]
[…] […]
[…] Photo Matt » The Blogging Software Dilemma The thoughts behind birth of WP.Well, it would be nice to have the flexibility of MovableType, the parsing of TextPattern, the hackability of b2, and the ease of setup of Blogger. Someday, right? (tags: WordPress) […]
What a different blogging world it might have been if TextPattern adopted the GPL license earlier.
[…] Thanks to the wonders of permalinks you can actually read the comment where WordPress was born, from a swell fellow named Mike Little. We started by integrating his links code and some of my texturize/autop stuff and then worked a lot of creating the options system (moving stuff out of config files) and simplifying the install. Add in a new default template, XHTML compliance, and remove all color from the admin interface and you have WordPress 0.70, which was used by approximately 5 people including myself and my cat. […]
[…] The day WordPress was born 30. Oktober 2006 – 20:32 Uhr Es ist wohl der 24.01.2003. Fortunately, b2/cafelog is GPL, which means that I could use the existing codebase to create a fork, integrating all the cool stuff that Michel would be working on right now if only he was around. The work would never be lost, as if I fell of the face of the planet a year from now, whatever code I made would be free to the world, and if someone else wanted to pick it up they could. I’ve decided that this the course of action I’d like to go in, now all I need is a name. What should it do? Well, it would be nice to have the flexibility of MovableType, the parsing of TextPattern, the hackability of b2, and the ease of setup of Blogger. Someday, right? […]
[…] Here’s the post on Matt Mullenweg’s blog where the fork of the b2 engine was first mooted… […]
[…] There is also a very interesting link to the moment when WordPress was created. Very two powerful notions are projected from these: […]
[…] by Mike Abundo How appropriate that the world’s leading blog software started out as a blog post four years ago yesterday. What to do? Well, Textpattern looks like everything I could ever want, […]
[…] A melhor ferramenta de publicação de textos completa 4 anos de existência! Na verdade o WordPress.org foi lançado em dezembro de 2003, mas segundo o próprio Matt Mullenweg em entrevista ao BloggingPro tudo começou entre os dias 24 e 25 de janeiro daquele ano com este comentário de Mike Little. […]
[…] Jan 25, 2007 @ 11:54 am by Chris WordPress is four years old today! Lorelle has even found the post that led to the creation of WordPress, and as Matt said at the time: ‘….now all I need […]
[…] WordPress, the biggest name in blogging, turned four yesterday. I’m not sure what wordpress got for its birthday, other than a little upgrade to WordPress 2.1. Here is the first post mentioning WordPress. […]
[…] blogging platform that so many of us use is now 4 years old. And to think it started with Matt looking for a blogging solution of his own. Thanks to Lorelle, the expert on WordPress, and Mike for the […]
[…] The Blogging Software Dilemma […]
Time will bring it.
Happy Birthday Matt!
[…] de Wordpress Published 25/01/07 wordpress Ayer hace 4 años Matt Mullenweng hizo el primer post expresando su intensión de crear un fork a partir del código de b2/cafelog, de donde nació […]
[…] So fing alles an – Matt veröffentlicht seinen ersten Beitrag zum Thema. Vier Jahre WordPress und die Community um die kleine Software ist riesig. Eben kam kam noch die neue Version 2.1 und schon sind vier Jahre vergangen. […]
[…] wordpress, aniversário, blog, ferramenta, blogging Feliz aniversário WordPress! Hoje o WordPress faz exatos 4 anos desde que nasceu como uma derivação do B2/Cafelog. O tempo realmente passa […]
[…] primer post registrado se realizó un 24 de enero 2003 por su creador Matthew Mullenweg en donde hablaba sobre […]
[…] Havens Lorelle on WordPress noted that the celebrations had begun and pointed to […] the first post and comment by Matt Mullenweg that led to WordPress in the very beginning of this famous blogging […]
[…] Anyway, take a look at this article: http://photomatt.net/2003/01/24/the-blogging-software-dilemma/ […]
[…] January 25 was the 4th birthday of WordPress. Mike Little remembered the first beginnings that led to the development of WordPress. […]
[…] Linki: Evolution of WordPress, The blogging software dilemma […]
[…] Â http://photomatt.net/2003/01/24/the-blogging-software-dilemma/ Filed under Uncategorized by John […]
[…] 24 de Enero de 2003, Matthew Mullenweg anunciaba en su blog su intención de crear una derivación (fork) del programa para creación de blogs b2/cafelog. Ese […]
[…] hace 5 años que Matthew Mullenweg anunciaba su intención de crear una derivación del software para creación de blogs b2/cafelog. Esta derivación ser convertiría en WordPress y 5 años más […]
[…] Tal día como hoy, un 24 de enero de hace 5 años, Matt Mullenweg anunciaba en su blog (espectacular diseño de cabecera) la idea inicial de crear una derivación del programa para […]
[…] 24 de enero de 2003 un muy joven Matt Mullenweg explicaba en su blog que tenía un dilema, el sistema que usaba para publicar su blog no había sido actualizado en meses y el autor había […]
[…] El 24 de Enero del 2003 Matt anunciaba que iba a crear un fork del entonces b2/cafelog ya que la licencia de Textpattern no le daba la libertad que el quería. Y avisaba que cualquier modificación que hiciera iba a estar libre para que cualquier pudiera utilizarla o mejorarla. Decía que sería bueno conseguir la flexibilidad de MovableType, el parsing de TextPattern, la modificación de b2, y la facilidad de configuración de Blogger; preguntándose si algún día lo conseguiría. Obviamente, cinco años después, podemos decirlo con total seguridad. WordPress es el sistema de gestión de blogs más usado del mundo, ha superado con creces a los originarios TextPattern y MovableType. Y encima consiguiendo una inversión cercana a los 30 millones de dólares para seguir mejorando sus productos WordPress, bbPress, Akismet, etc. ¿Quién iba a decir hace 5 años a Matt que liberando el código, dando a tus competidores toda tu información, conseguiría lo que ha conseguido hasta ahora? […]
[…] él desde el 3 de julio de 2004, apenas dos meses después del nacimiento del blog y un años de la puesta en marcha del cms. Por aquel entonces reinaba Movable Type. Hoy las cosas son bien diferentes. ¿qué es […]
[…] 24 janvier 2003, Matt Mullenweg se plaignait sur son blog du manque de mise à jour pour son outil de publication, b2/cafelog. Le créateur de ce dernier, le […]
[…] WordPress, ya que no le terminaba de convencer el sistema que usaba para publicar su blog. Así que decidió crear un fork del mismo, ya que la licencia se lo permitía, y adaptarlo a sus gusto. Y esto dió […]
[…] 24 de enero de 2003 un muy joven Matt Mullenweg explicaba en su blog que tenía un dilema, el sistema que usaba para publicar su blog no había sido actualizado en meses y el autor había […]
[…] Matt Mullenweg – 24 de enero del 2003 Usuario: […]
[…] WordPress bestaat vandaag precies vijf jaar. WP is de software waar de astroblogs onder draait en waar ik erg tevreden over ben1. Toevallig werd vandaag ook de Technorati top-100 gepubliceerd, de 100 meest bezochtte weblogs en daarvan blijkt maar liefst 34% te draaien onder WP. Eén-na meest gebruikt CMS2 is Movable Type, met een gebruik van 16%. Matt, bedenker van WP, gefeliciteerd met de verjaardag! Hij heeft overigens nog een andere reden om een feestje te vieren, want gisteren bleek dat zijn computerbedrijf Auttomatic voor $29.5 miljoen aan investeerders heeft weten aan te boren. Bron: CMSwire en Zed1.com. […]
[…] 24 de enero de 2003 un muy joven Matt Mullenweg explicaba en su blog que tenía un dilema, el sistema que usaba para publicar su blog no había sido actualizado en meses y el autor había […]
[…] the archives on his website, ma.tt, from 5 years ago to the day that expresses his thoughts towards creating this wonderful thing called WordPress. That someday eventually turned into millions of blogs, thousands of design jobs, and the ability […]
[…] 24 de enero de 2003 un muy joven Matt Mullenweg explicaba en su blog que tenía un dilema, el sistema que usaba para publicar su blog no había sido actualizado en meses y el autor había […]
[…] Saiba mais (ma.tt). […]
[…] happy to discover that back in 2003, you can actually find a blog post by Matt on his blog titled The Blogging Software Dilemma, where he writes about the idea of the perfect blogging software. Here is a bit of his post: What […]
[…] 5 años, el 24 de enero del 2003 nació WordPress. […]
It’s pretty amazing to read this post and realize that it’s only been 4 years… Did I say only? That’s amazing! It feels like I’ve ALWAYS been running WordPress!
[…] successor to b2/cafelog, which goes back to June 2001. One of the reasons this is important is that WordPress inherited from b2 its use of the GPL, and hence has always been free/open source […]
Thanks Matt, WordPress is cool enough as it is but i think you can still make it better by doing it the Microsoft way like copying everything from Movable Type, Text Patten and the whole lot
Then we can have the best of everything plus this has worked for Microsoft they are still on top now and probably will be
[…] pengen banget bikin software yang sesuai keinginannya dia.. Dia nulisin itu di postingannya di https://ma.tt/2003/01/the-blogging-software-dilemma/. Karena satu komentar dari pengunjungnya (lihat komentar pertama dari Mike) yang menggugah hatinya […]
[…] something. Of course I do try to behave casually, but I couldn’t stop thinking that this is the guy who started it all. We spoke about the .bdg too (which I’m wearing the […]
Happy Birthday folks!!
[…] The Blogging Software Dilemma. On this day, 6 years ago, WordPress was conceived in the comments section of this blog. Hat tip: Mike Little! […]
Historic post! Congrats today and looking forward to the coming years and development.
It’s like WordPress is turning 42 in internet years! Happy B-Day!
[…] about a success story. WordPress began six years ago today as a result of a simple discussion at Matt Mullenweg’s web site about the need for a […]
Quite cool reading the post that started it all.
Congrats on reaching birthday number 6 🙂
Here’s to many more and keep up the incredible work!
[…] (actually yesterday) in 2003, the notion of the blogging platform that would become Word Press was conceived. Congratulations […]
Glad to be part of the WordPress history!
[…] pengen banget bikin software yang sesuai keinginannya dia.. Dia nulisin itu di postingannya di https://ma.tt/2003/01/the-blogging-software-dilemma/. Karena satu komentar dari pengunjungnya (lihat komentar pertama dari Mike) yang menggugah hatinya […]
6 years!!!, my daughter 6 th birthday was two mondays ago…
[…] Kalau kita berkunjung ke situs Wikipedia, dan sebenarnya ini sudah pengetahuan umum di penggiat WordPress, jelas informasi di atas salah. Matt tidak menciptakan software blog b2. B2 dibuat oleh programer bernama Michel Valdrighi. Matt kemudian membuat fork (istilah untuk membuat cabang program baru dari sebuah program lama) dari b2 yang kemudian dia beri nama WordPress (lihat posting Matt sendiri mengenai awal ketika ia melakukan fork atas b2). […]
[…] 24. Januar 2003 dachte Matt Mullenweg in seinem Blog laut über „The Blogging Software Dilemma“ nach. Mit der von ihm eingetzten Blog-Software b2/cafelog , dessen Wurzeln in das Jahr 2001 […]
Congrats Matt 🙂
[…] reins and carry it on. That’s how WordPress came to be in the first place; Matt and a few others picked up the reins of another GPL project that had died when its original developer […]
[…] developer had vanished and updates were non-existent. Enter Matt Mullenweg with his thoughts on forking the development, and WordPress was […]
Happy B-Day WordPress!
[…] 25, 2010 Today the widely popular blogging software (the one being used right here) WordPress is 7 years old. Matt Mullenweg is the founder of WordPress. You can read his blog on https://ma.tt and check out […]
[…] January 25, 2003, a seemingly one-off comment by Mike on Matt Mullenweg’s blog started a chain reaction that resulted in the creation of WordPress. […]
[…] Another year has passed and it is now eight years since my fateful comment on Matt’s blog that kicked off this whole WordPress […]
“Well, it would be nice to have the flexibility of MovableType, the parsing of TextPattern, the hackability of b2, and the ease of setup of Blogger. Someday, right?”
What happened to ‘the parsing of TextPattern’? I have been dreaming of using WordPress with Textile or some kind of wikitext.
There are lots of plugins for it, here’s one: https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/text-control-2/
[…] D reminded me that it is now nine years since my fateful comment on Matt’s blog that kicked off this whole WordPress thing! […]
[…] back in 2003 (feels like a century in internet terms), Matt Mullenweg expressed his frustration with b2/cafelog and wondered if it was time to fork it. Mike Little commented about this, and WordPress was […]
[…] January 25, 2003, a seemingly one-off comment by Mike on Matt Mullenweg’s blog started a chain reaction that resulted in the creation of WordPress. […]
[…] began with a humble question from Matt Mullenweg to the world in January of […]
[…] courses, I teach about the history of WordPress, showcasing the birth of WordPress. It began with a humble question from Matt to the world, an open question ten years ago this […]
[…] To think that it all started here in a post titled The Blogging Software Dilemma: […]
[…] today. This year also marks the 10th anniversary of WordPress. What started out as a simple open-source GPL project has had a massive impact on the Internet and all of us that live, work, and create with […]
[…] decisions, then all it needs is a new opinionated leader to drive a fork. That’s what Matt did after all. And just because the original project is already huge is no reason that a fork might not […]
[…] find it hard to believe but it has now been ten years since my fateful comment on Matt’s blog that kicked off what became the WordPress project! From those humble beginnings of a simple […]
[…] Mullenweg, M. (2003, 01 24). THE BLOGGING SOFTWARE DILEMMA. Retrieved 02 05, 2013, from ma.tt: https://ma.tt/2003/01/the-blogging-software-dilemma/ […]
[…] Here’s a gem of a blog which brings home the nostalgia in shovels – it’s an early blog postwhere founder Matt Mullenweg ruminates on an appropriate name for his project and cofounder Mike […]
[…] Bu arada, WordPress’in miladı sayılan Matt Mullenweg tarafından yazılan blog yazısı ve Mike Little tarafından yazılan yorumu okumak isterseniz buraya bakabilirsiniz. […]
[…] fact, in good internet fashion, you can see some of the very first stirrings of WordPress in a post where Matt laments that b2 hasn’t been updated in a while, and he’s thinking of splitting off […]
[…] fact, in good internet fashion, you can see some of the very first stirrings of WordPress in a post where Matt laments that b2 hasn’t been updated in a while, and he’s thinking of splitting off […]
[…] fact, in good internet fashion, you can see some of the very first stirrings of WordPress in a post where Matt laments that b2 hasn’t been updated in a while, and he’s thinking of splitting off […]
[…] fact, in good internet fashion, you can see some of the very first stirrings of WordPress in a post where Matt laments that b2 hasn’t been updated in a while, and he’s thinking of splitting off […]
[…] pueden ver algunos indicios del comienzo de WordPress, donde en un artículo Matt se lamenta de que b2 no se actualiza desde hace tiempo y que está pensando en abandonar el proyecto. El primero que comenta en el […]
[…] all started with Matt’s concern about cafelog not being updated , and Mike’s reply ”Matt,If you’re serious about forking b2 I would be interested in […]
[…] you would like to see the birth of WordPress, you can read the post as well as the comment that started it […]
[…] δημοσίευση που άλλαξε την ζωή του mike και ίσως όλων ασχολούνται με […]
[…] bet that when Mike Little commented on Matt Mullenweg‘s B2 blog ten years ago, he didn’t realize what the both of them were […]
[…] years ago today, a young Texan and a chap from Stockport made the world even freer. They forked b2/cafelog which became WordPress. To start with a personal blogging platform which has now since become the […]
[…] Así cerraba Matt su post en el que hablaba sobre el nacimiento de WordPress (¡que ni siquiera tenía […]
[…] war es nur die Idee eines einzelnen Users: Matt Mullenweg postete am 25. Januar 2003 frustriert auf seinem Blog, dass die von ihm benutzte Blog-Software b2 (die heute kaum jemand mehr kennt) seit Monaten nicht […]
[…] years ago, Matt Mullenweg & Mike Little forked an existing blogging software to expand and improve upon, and WordPress was born. WordPress has […]
[…] más grande del mundo, WordPress. Podemos agradecer a Matt Mullenweg y Mike Little que gracias a este comentario forjaron el inicio de ese pequeño fork que nos tiene publicando contenidos, diseñando soluciones […]
[…] olmadığı bir dönemde, kurucularından Matt Mullenweg’in kişisel bloğunda paylaştığı bir yazı, bu işe nasıl başladıklarını ve nasıl bir sistem olmasını hayal ettiklerini […]
[…] war der Unmut eines einzelnen Nutzers – Matt Mullenweg, der am 25. Januar 2003 frustriert auf seinem Blog über die damals nicht weiterentwickelte Blog-Software b2 schimpfte. WordPress war damals schon […]
[…] Januar 2003 gab Matthew Mullenweg in seinem Blog bekannt, dass er eine neue Weblog-Software schreiben wolle, die einfach zu bedienen, flexibel und […]
[…] is the 10th Anniversary of that famous moment when Matt Mullenweg reached out to the world, and Mike Little replied, and WordPress was born. A blog post that changed the […]
[…] and the presence of major bugs as well as the domain coming up for renewal, Matt published his Software Dilemma post where Mike Little volunteered to help out with the forking of b2. If the lead developer […]
[…] thing, and what a long way we’ve come. From a discussion between myself and Mike Little about forking our favorite blogging software, to powering 18% of the web. It’s been a crazy, exciting, journey, and one that won’t […]
[…] thing, and what a long way we’ve come. From a discussion between myself and Mike Little about forking our favorite blogging software, to powering 18% of the web. It’s been a crazy, exciting, journey, and one that won’t stop any […]
[…] Little’s fateful comment on Matt Mullenweg’s […]
[…] 僕たちがこのプロジェクトをスタートして、10年が経ちました。ずいぶん遠くまできたものです。僕とマイク・リトルが気に入っていたブログソフトウェアをフォークすることを話し合った時から、Web 全体の18%をカバーするようになるまで、クレージーでエキサイティングな道のりでした。そしてこの旅は、まだ終わりません。 […]
[…] fact, in good internet fashion, you can see some of the very first stirrings of WordPress in a post where Matt laments that b2 hasn’t been updated in a while, and he’s thinking of splitting off […]
[…] Happy 10th Birthday, WordPress! […]