Not Everything is WordPress

I touched on this when I talked about a project that forked, and I’ve said it before. I don’t use WordPress for everything, and I don’t think I should.

A lot of you will probably disagree with me, especially since it’s well known much of what I love about WordPress is the fact that I don’t have to remove features. The problem is where WordPress started from has determined what kind of product it will be. But let me step back.

When I spoke at WordCamp Miami, I said that the kind of WordPress user you are defines the future you will have with WordPress. What we are before WordPress is what makes us use it the ways we do, and the way we use it makes us who we are today. That makes sense, I hope. What we are is what makes us do what we do.

So WordPress started as a blog. This means that no matter how many times we say “It’s a CMS and you can use it for anything!” it still shows blog at it’s heart. I use it for a store, it’s great at it, but there are aspects that remain bloggy. Similarly, MediaWiki was an ‘encyclopedia’ first, so while I know people who blog on it, it’s made for that cross-referencing. Certainly plugins can make these products fit the bill but at their base, you’re talking about the fundamental core of a product.

Step back again.

This is something I think is totally okay.

I don’t buy a scooter and get upset it’s not a motorcycle. I don’t buy a tank and get upset that the Fiat has better gas mileage. I understand that each tool has its place, and while I certainly can tow a trailer with the Mini Coop, I’d rather use the truck. And that’s what I mean when I say WordPress shouldn’t be everything.

If I was to use WP as a wiki, and I have, I end up disliking the edit/comment relationship. Regressions are easier with revisions, but prelinking pages and moving them is easier with MediaWiki. Image uploads? Easier on WordPress, as are updates (and don’t get me started on extensions), and html editing in a Wiki can make me drink. At the same time, I have a more flexible template situation, where I can have one that formats a whole page or just bits of one in easy, repeatable ways.

Both projects have a lot to learn from each other. Both should steal bits from each other. But I think both should be separate because I will always have places were WordPress is a better fit than plain HTML or a wiki or a gallery. Oh, yes, I still use plain HTML in some places. I use Reveal.js for slides. I experiment and find the right tool for the right job.

Step back again. I got new furniture on my birthday, and it was flatpacked. That means it came with a couple allen wrenches. You know the crappy Ikea L-shaped thing?

Right. After I put together one chair I announced “Fuck this” to myself and got my ratcheting screwdriver with swappable bits. There was one for this size, I switched to it, and finished three more chairs in the time it had taken me to do one. The tools were similar, but clearly different, and one was better than the other. One was easier, though, in that the chairs came with the less perfect one.

It seems clear cut, doesn’t it? The one I bought was better than the one they gave me. Duh! That’s how I feel about software. Sometimes what I have isn’t right and I have to go get that other one. But I’m willing to experiment, to try, and to be wrong in order to get to what’s right. And ‘right’ means right for me and how I want to use it, not you, which is why WordPress has a bajillion plugins that do similar things.

There is not one right way to skin a cat. So why do you think there should be one right CMS?

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

I’m Mika (aka Ipstenu) and I’m complicated. I’ve been on the net since the days of dedicated terminals and Novation CAT modems and solved Missionaries and Cannibals (or Goats and Cabbages) before I was six, and blog about WordPress and technical/computer things at Half Elf on Tech.

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