[development] Early Drupal 6 review from Chris Messina

[Ivan Sergio Borgonovo]

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 11:04:33 +0100
"Chris Johnson" <cxjohnson at gmail.com> wrote:

> > >>> 'Cause if someone just wants a blog, we tell them to use
> > >>> WordPress. No
> > >>> one benefits from making Drupal into "Super WordPress."

> As long as core is not architected to be specialized for being a
> Super WordPress, what's the harm?

flexibility, specialisation, fast development

Pick 2 ;)

Surely you don't actually have to "pick 2", you've to decide where to
put your efforts and understand what are the trade-offs.

BTW I'm absolutely not neglecting the value of Chris usability
suggestions. Making drupal more usable is good... but more usable to
whom?
Once that is clear you can find the right compromises.

> And how can you say there are no benefits?  I can name 2 benefits:
> (1) super-blog user eventually becomes a contributing member of the
> Drupal community and (2) super-blog user eventually wants more than

What do you mean by "drupal community"? It seems that most of the dev
community doesn't really need Chris proposed usability changes... or
at least most don't think they are a priority or can be traded for
flexibility.[1]

Anyway devs have bills to pay and helping people understand that
drupal can be a powerful blogging platform can help devs to pay their
bills. Showing people that drupal is "easy" for them will help too.

Now citing myself:
"
Drupal is a CMS framework... more than a framework and less than a
"prepackaged" CMS.

This makes it a tool for developers. And I'm happy with it because
there is no other product filling that marketplace.
Drupal pays the bills of web designers and developers too, not just
the former as other CMS.

...

Writing commodity software is OK if your business model is based on
providing the infrastructure, selling ads etc...
"[2]

Now I'll take the risk to comment far from my knowledge boundaries (I
don't have scientific statistics, I don't have a MBA and I'm not a
sociologist, but if you pay me well I can be <g>).
As to my knowledge WP is used for personal blogs mainly.
The communities built around WP blogs have few to share with the
communities built around drupal and we are in a different market place
(market place is a matter of money, demand and offer).
Currently I see no competition in drupal market place. It has some
overlap with Joomla market place but it is not the same, it has some
overlap with WP too but it is not the same.
I would keep trying to be the leader in this market place rather than
trying to erode other market places that in my point of view are less
interesting from a programmer point of view, less lucrative and
destined to be doomed.

But as Balazs Dianiska wrote: Whom do we want to make Drupal for?
*My* answer is: for devs so I would put more weight on flexibility
and fast development rather than specialisation.
Again... I understand this *may* have an impact on the "marketing"
side of the equation that will help to pay my bills.

Furthermore... blogs are hot now. By the time we make drupal a
super-blog, respecting its architecture something else may be hot or
we may miss to understand what a super-blog is/will be.

Again... that's not diminishing Liza suggestion that we shouldn't
underestimating blog importance. Drupal without a prime class
*platform* for blogging would be a pariah.

[1] that doesn't mean they can't be followed, adapted etc... without
substantial loss to flexibility or fast development... again I refer
to Larry Garfield's post and the proposal of profiles.

[2] eg. if I were a journalist I'd push to have wonderful blogging
support now... no matter if in 1 year that won't be enough or will
have nefarious impact on the architecture... I'll have my tool now...
and tomorrow I'll still be a journalist.
If they want a super-duper-blogging platform now, let them share the
risk/cost and ask for paid customisation.
And OK... I know this sounds rude, not "communitarian" bla bla... I
got out of sugar and time devoted to philosophy ;)

-- 
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
http://www.webthatworks.it