I’m a big believer in the notion of expanding a simple software package rather than using a mega-complex one that has everything and the sink right there in the box.
I was doing a quickie site recently where I used Mambo as the basis, and plugged in phpBB as the forum. In the redesign, I ended up scrapping Mambo, using phpBB as the basis, and building a few scripts to pull stuff out of ‘hidden’ forums for a front page, an FAQ, and… whatever else we’ll need.
Yeah, I definitely agree. I’ve pretty much begun to switch everything over to WP as a CMS. Works very well, especially if you have the ability to think outside the box and get a little creative with plugins (including writing some), and function calls.
“get a little creative with plugins (including writing some)”
It’s quite impressive how much functionality is actually available out of the box in WP 1.5. A lot of what used to be handled by plugins can now be handled by built-in functionality.
I agree, I am planning on using WP to display products on a customer’s websites. It should make the management and categorization of the products very simple and also allow the customer to easily update their information.
I noticed this with version 1.2. Some minimal hacking, and I could allow my client to manage her own site. I’ve barely popped the hood on 1.5. I’m sure it’s even more flexible as a CMS.
What a coicidence, I was playing around with WordPress last night to see if I could use it as a CMS for my site. This morning I came to the realisation that WordPress is an incredible CMS, espcially since you guys added the ability to have pages. I’m currently trying to convert my site to use WordPress and replace my Movable Type installation.
Well, he’s definitely not the only one. I just did the tech back-end part of a re-design of the website for a nonprofit. I decided to use WordPress as a CMS for Bahia Street.
Just the same, I hadn’t really realized how perfect WordPress really was for the job–I just thought I had a personal case of that syndrome “If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”. I picked WP just because I knew it well enough to get the job done, and now I’m figuring out that it really does work well that way.
Maybe somebody should release a WordPress/CMS Theme to make it easier for other folks starting out? Once I get the code cleaned up I’ll try to release mine.
Yeah, I just figured that out over the last few weeks. I finally had time to upgrade a site to WP 1.5 and when I saw all the extras….OMg! “This isn’t only a blogging app anymore, it’s a full blown CMS!” I can’t wait to take my Company Site off of blogger (ugh), then maybe we can start posting when we want to!
I got some intimidated last year investigating Nucleus CMS… it all seemed so complicated. And I believe it was a similar case of a product going from blog tool to CMS. But a blog is so much easier to grapple with… it’s just a bunch of posts and topics and stuff, right? (Bowman’s galleries are excellent example of doing a better job bending a blog tool into shape than a tool already meant for galleries would have done…)
I think keeping the standard WordPress functionality, and supplementing that with plugins for people who want to use it for specific things, is probably the best way to go about it. The best example of this is Firefox- it comes with web browsing, a downloader, rss reading and little else, but a huge amount of extra functions can be added as extensions. This way the software is kept small and is not intimidating to new users, but can be expanded to be all-singing-all-dancing for those who want it. WordPress is, so far, much the same, and so far all the better for it.
Cripes.. I didn’t expect that to crop up here. 🙂
I’m a big believer in the notion of expanding a simple software package rather than using a mega-complex one that has everything and the sink right there in the box.
I was doing a quickie site recently where I used Mambo as the basis, and plugged in phpBB as the forum. In the redesign, I ended up scrapping Mambo, using phpBB as the basis, and building a few scripts to pull stuff out of ‘hidden’ forums for a front page, an FAQ, and… whatever else we’ll need.
Yeah, I definitely agree. I’ve pretty much begun to switch everything over to WP as a CMS. Works very well, especially if you have the ability to think outside the box and get a little creative with plugins (including writing some), and function calls.
“get a little creative with plugins (including writing some)”
It’s quite impressive how much functionality is actually available out of the box in WP 1.5. A lot of what used to be handled by plugins can now be handled by built-in functionality.
I agree, I am planning on using WP to display products on a customer’s websites. It should make the management and categorization of the products very simple and also allow the customer to easily update their information.
I noticed this with version 1.2. Some minimal hacking, and I could allow my client to manage her own site. I’ve barely popped the hood on 1.5. I’m sure it’s even more flexible as a CMS.
What a coicidence, I was playing around with WordPress last night to see if I could use it as a CMS for my site. This morning I came to the realisation that WordPress is an incredible CMS, espcially since you guys added the ability to have pages. I’m currently trying to convert my site to use WordPress and replace my Movable Type installation.
Well, he’s definitely not the only one. I just did the tech back-end part of a re-design of the website for a nonprofit. I decided to use WordPress as a CMS for Bahia Street.
Just the same, I hadn’t really realized how perfect WordPress really was for the job–I just thought I had a personal case of that syndrome “If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”. I picked WP just because I knew it well enough to get the job done, and now I’m figuring out that it really does work well that way.
Maybe somebody should release a WordPress/CMS Theme to make it easier for other folks starting out? Once I get the code cleaned up I’ll try to release mine.
Yeah, I just figured that out over the last few weeks. I finally had time to upgrade a site to WP 1.5 and when I saw all the extras….OMg! “This isn’t only a blogging app anymore, it’s a full blown CMS!” I can’t wait to take my Company Site off of blogger (ugh), then maybe we can start posting when we want to!
Don’t stop calling it a blog tool, though.
I got some intimidated last year investigating Nucleus CMS… it all seemed so complicated. And I believe it was a similar case of a product going from blog tool to CMS. But a blog is so much easier to grapple with… it’s just a bunch of posts and topics and stuff, right? (Bowman’s galleries are excellent example of doing a better job bending a blog tool into shape than a tool already meant for galleries would have done…)
I think keeping the standard WordPress functionality, and supplementing that with plugins for people who want to use it for specific things, is probably the best way to go about it. The best example of this is Firefox- it comes with web browsing, a downloader, rss reading and little else, but a huge amount of extra functions can be added as extensions. This way the software is kept small and is not intimidating to new users, but can be expanded to be all-singing-all-dancing for those who want it. WordPress is, so far, much the same, and so far all the better for it.