I Don’t Use WordPress

I posted a comment aimed at the owner of pixelfx.org on the latest update at CodeGrrl earlier, effectively pointing out that she was still distributing insecure scripts. Shortly after I got a response from an obviously blind butthead making assumptions about my choice of blogging software (apparently using WordPress automatically makes you a lazy or inexperienced coder). The thing is.. I don’t use WordPress.

It’s nothing to do with having a superiority complex, wanting to reinvent the wheel (I still hate that phrase), trying to get one over on the next blogger, etc. It was my choice. I needed the experience this time last year, I didn’t like or use 80-90% of the WordPress functionality and didn’t see the point in leaving a complicated, unused mess on my server. Writing my own script meant I learnt a holy-shit-load amount of PHP that I didn’t know before, and that I could troubleshoot and customise my site exactly the way I wanted.

However, ask me what you should use for your own website and I’ll say WordPress. Tell me you’re trying the CodeGrrl build-a-blog tutorial and I’ll laugh at you until you choose WordPress. Using Greymatter, b2, CuteNews or MoveableType? Damnit, try WordPress!

My point is ..well, I’m not really sure. I suppose: don’t look down on those who use WordPress but at the same time, don’t assume someone is using it just because they have blog entries on their front page. Look around before you open your big mouth and make an arse of yourself in front of everyone.

31 comments so far

  1. Gemma said:
    On 13 Jul at 4:25 pm

    At least they were accurate in their guess of what scripting language you were using :)

  2. Carina said:
    On 13 Jul at 4:28 pm

    I used wordpress! But now I use lj. I thought about replying to the comments but didn’t. Meh.

  3. Aithnea said:
    On 13 Jul at 5:05 pm

    Some people are just ignorent and want to mouth off at people and cause this massive amout of drama on the internet. Personally I’ve never understood that mentality.

  4. Donnie said:
    On 13 Jul at 6:07 pm

    I didn’t mean or want to imply that there’s something wrong with writing your own CMS; many people do it as a learning process, or because they don’t need all the bells and whistle. I just took her comment as saying that “people who don’t write their own CMS are inexperienced, lazy and/or inferior.”

  5. Lynn said:
    On 13 Jul at 6:29 pm

    *rolls eyes*

  6. Jem said:
    On 13 Jul at 6:33 pm

    @Donnie: no worries, my post isn’t aimed at you :)

  7. Vera said:
    On 13 Jul at 7:40 pm

    This is just one of those idiotic impressions people get when seeing someone code their own “stuff”. Unless you’ve actually spent eons on making something of yours work just the way you want, you won’t get what it means to code yourself. Come on! You of all people should know that less than 90% of the webmasters (we will NOT get into the surfer category) understand the coding they make use of. I’d say there are two things you could do: 1)”Hate to disappoint you but I’m not using WordPress, but thanks for the compliments” … after all the person did compare your skills to that of a highly popular blogging script ;) 2)”As stranage as it seems, I code my own CMS for myself”. In the end a script you’ve made that works is so much more rewarding than a couple of “WOW COOL”-s from others. I don’t mean to sound patronising or anything (hey! I’m the first to disregard the following advice – -.- Vera’s a hypocrite), but stop arguing with every single 13-year-old that doesn’t even look at your site, yet takes the liberty to criticise it. It’s really not worth (note to self: one of these days I WILL take said advice to heart; until then be smarter than me :P – I love internet drama too much – *is guilty*).

  8. Jem said:
    On 13 Jul at 7:43 pm

    That’s just it Vera, the guy is not 13, but 38. A 38 year old *developer* (of all people) who also left comments calling me a whore and a moron. I hope I’m that mature when I reach 38! Not.

  9. Stephanie said:
    On 13 Jul at 7:53 pm

    I love how people don’t read before making asses out of themselves. It’s not like you hide the fact you use your own CMS. I think it’s very effective, especially in the way you’re talking, because I don’t use 80% of the crap WP offers me, and I’m using version Ancient. Post, comments, block spam. That’s all I need. No reason why I need all the bells and whistles that WP offers me. As for the 38yo developer, somebody needs to get a life. There are more important things to do in life than bitch at people for nonsensical reasons.

  10. Allison said:
    On 13 Jul at 7:55 pm

    This makes me feel proud of myself for paying attention to the fact that you were amazing & talented & ingenious enough to code your own CMS. :D I agree fullheartedly with your recommendation of WP as well!

  11. Amelie said:
    On 13 Jul at 7:56 pm

    And to top it all off, all that happened on an update about MY script! Stop stealing my limelight!

  12. Adastra said:
    On 13 Jul at 9:18 pm

    You’ll probably laugh, but my blog was once built with that codegrrl tutorial. The emphasis is on “was” ;) There’s really not much left of it, because after a while I realized how damn messed up that code was. As time went by, I added a lot of stuff every normal blog has, and had some small and some big achievements in improving my PHP skills. But still, thanks to that tutorial I more or less learned PHP, and I’m still learning new stuff every other day. Funny enough, someone actually asked me if I could send them my script, after I posted on some forum that I use a self-coded blogging script…

  13. Amelie said:
    On 13 Jul at 9:23 pm

    The CG build-a-blog has vastly improved though (thanks to yours truly)… So… um, yeah, don’t laugh at people who use it now, laugh at them when they used it before. :P

  14. Anne said:
    On 13 Jul at 9:42 pm

    *whew* I’m safe…I use WP, and I love it. :P Someday, emphasis on “some”, I’m going to learn PHP and maybe make my own. I would feel very accomplished if I did. Good grief…38?? What rock was HE hiding under?

  15. Julie said:
    On 13 Jul at 9:58 pm

    I’ve sent a U2U a while ago about pixelfx and still nothing seems to have been done… Besides, it’s quite obvious that you don’t use WordPress. Your posts would be accessed from index.php?p=anumber, while they’re on post.php?title=date_title_of_post. Your search leads to search.php rather than index.php?s=search_text, etc.

  16. Julie said:
    On 13 Jul at 10:00 pm

    Not really sorry for double posting, but I would also laugh at the irony of you actually using WordPress without crediting them.

  17. Chans said:
    On 13 Jul at 10:22 pm

    A 38 year old behaving like that? Someone needs to slap him around. It doesn’t even matter anymore what he said about your CSM (although I can understand you, I mean after all you wrote your own script.) It matters that at 38 he has to act like a freaking 6 year old. If he wants to argue with someone, he should do it with some style and class.

  18. Mike Haddad said:
    On 13 Jul at 11:10 pm

    What’s wrong with MT? I lurves my MT.

  19. Cheri said:
    On 14 Jul at 3:29 am

    I think it’s cool how you made your own blogging script. :) I wish I could do that. Maybe someday I will learn how. Who knows?

  20. Becky said:
    On 14 Jul at 3:53 am

    So it’s cool to knock together your own blogging script? Well gee I wrote my own news script (never used it though) that I could have made into a full fledged blog/CMS script. Does that count? I hope that counts, I want to be uber-kewliez like Jem and all the other people who write their own blogging system (or those who just use WordPress and lie about it and say they wrote their own CMS). Does it still count if I lie and say I’m not using EE that I coded my own system? So Emily is alive, I never received an answer to my query as to what she would do with Pixelfx. Perhaps I should e-mail her again? Who knows, perhaps if I whine and nag enough I might get a response :)

  21. Jordie said:
    On 14 Jul at 4:31 am

    How stupid. This person is 38, you say? I use WordPress, but only because I’m not interested enough in programming to learn how to knock my own blog script together. I don’t care if that doesn’t suit Mr. PixelFX… I’m not a bit interested in getting the approval of someone who demonstrates that level of maturity.

  22. Maggie said:
    On 14 Jul at 4:53 am

    omg. I just read your comment about him being 38. Thats insane. I figured it was some little 13 year old that got their panties in a twist because they heard something they didn’t like and wanted drama. A 38 year old developer doing that is crazy. Does anyone employ this man? Obviously they need to do some personality investiagions :D Anyways everyone has their interests and things they are good at. You are good at and interested in programming for the web. I think it is nice of you to point out that there is something wrong before someone gets their stuff hacked into because nobody had the guts to say something. He needs to get his head out of his ass and try doing something worth while with his life instead of picking on others that are just trying to help.

  23. Malin said:
    On 14 Jul at 6:11 am

    I wouldn’t use WordPress either if I could make my own bloggingscript! The thing that you don’t use WordPress only proves that you got some mad skillz! ;)

  24. Kenneth said:
    On 14 Jul at 7:21 am

    That guy is just ignorant and is jealous of people who *can* make secure scripts :P Personally, I’m too lazy to reinvent the wheel (although I did do that many times in the early days) so I just modify what I can in my WordPress installation :)

  25. Jenny said:
    On 14 Jul at 11:27 am

    I think MT kind of owns WP in some ways, but I’m not for MT’s way of caching or templating (and I’m much more used to WP) so I use WP. I thought it was kind of funny, though. (“(apparently using WordPress automatically makes you a lazy or inexperienced coder). “)

  26. Tish said:
    On 14 Jul at 3:17 pm

    I love WP. Some of it’s functions are pretty pointless but I don’t care. But for that person to say people who use WordPress are inexperienced is ridiculous! Do they have any idea how long I have spent making my own themes and tweaking plugins?

  27. Xeronia said:
    On 14 Jul at 6:40 pm

    I use WordPress and like it a lot. It’s a lot better than all the other systems I’ve run into so far. Why does using WordPress make you lazy or inexperienced? I guess they’re assuming that you’re using a premade theme. It took me forever to make my own theme, let alone reading through lines in plugins to get everything right! You’ve done a great job programming your site yourself. It’s amazing!

  28. Shawna said:
    On 14 Jul at 6:49 pm

    Wow, that is stupid. Kudos kudos kudos if you are skilled enough to write your own blogging script (*showers brownie points*) but if you are not skilled enough to do so that does not mean you are an inexperienced coder. You have to be pretty experienced to make full use of WordPress. Other blogging scripts have simple template tags such a {posttitle} whereas WordPress requires that you know something about PHP. I’m sure coding a CMS as powerful as WordPress is pretty time consuming and can be quite frustrating. No wonder we don’t all use our very own original scripts. I mean, just imagine the huge mess it would make if all of the teen bloggers using tiny fonts, tables and proprietary code suddenly decided to create their own CMS’s. Oh, the humanity!

  29. Mandoline said:
    On 16 Jul at 2:45 am

    I find it ridiculously impressive that you took the staggering task of coding your own weblogger… I don’t even know what else to say!

  30. Dee said:
    On 16 Jul at 1:44 pm

    I hate to point out the obvious, but… b2 -is- WordPress (or, more accuratley, WordPress was b2). >_O

  31. Jem said:
    On 16 Jul at 2:15 pm

    @Dee – I know what it was, but they’re not even close to similar now. Thus why I recommend people make the ‘switch’ (or upgrade, depending on how you see it.)