Does the Blogosphere Need Another Blogging Tool?
David over at BloggingPro has referenced an article by Paul Kedrosky entitled “The World Needs a New Blogging Tool”. He went on to say that he believes Wordpress is and will be the logical winner of the race, but it should offer several versions of its software. I couldn’t resist leaving a message and this was my response:
Hi David.
Although I agree that Wordpress is the way to go, I’m not certain if I would want to see several different versions floating out there. It could muddy up the waters a little and cause compatibility problems with plugins, themes etc. In other words it might have the exact opposite effect.
In my humble opinion what Wordpress.com really needs to do is offer a free hosting solution that will allow full access to editing the html and directory folders. If they do that they will blow the doors off the competition.
There will be such a stampede from Blogger et al that the after shocks from the thunderous din will be reverberating till kingdom come.
Amen.
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Filed under: Blog Tools, Miscellaneous Blog Tips
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I certainly don’t think multi versions of WordPress is the way forward. As you say, the compatibility issue comes in to play. What I like about WP is that even as the vanilla product, it is still an exceptional piece of software and you can start using it straight away. The volume of quality plugins means that you can tailor make your site to pretty much do what you want it to.
However, as David says in his article, they seem to be a little bit complacent and have to realise that their current #1 position isn’t guaranteed.
What I think would consolidate their position would be a content management plug in. Sure you can do it to a certain extent with some of the existing plugins but if they were to develop this as an official WP plugin, they’d really establish themselves as being the major player.
I’ve looked at a lot of CMS applications over the last couple of years and none of them really float my boat. I love WordPress and if they could provide me with a robust CMS plugin I would have no reason to move. Ever.
Incidentally, free hosting? C’mon, BB. Surely you can afford a couple of bucks a month for hosting
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Are you offering Mike? I have a trust company set up called the Blog Bloke Benevolent Fund. Interested?
But seriously if there is anything we can learn from Google and MySpace is that there are other ways to make money than just asking for it up front.
For example, how did Mozilla (which is also open source) make millions? (Rhetorical question). They made it from Google’s search box that’s how.
If Blogger can give it away for free why can’t Wordpress do something similar? So how about some sort of shared advertising scheme for starters?
Just a thought and I’m open for suggestions.
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haha Just yesterday I was emailing someone who’d requested me to re-do her blog shop (she wants a background image and banner and some coding, etc). Turns out that her blog is on Blogger and I must admit I am NOT fond of re-doing a Blogger blog. However, I agreed to do some graphics for her and to guide her in setting up a shopping cart for her Blogger blog in exchange for her doing other simple online favours for me as I understand she didn’t have cash on her to pay me.
Via email, I explained to her briefly why I think she should be using self-hosted Wordpress, etc.
So yeah…I agree fully with what you said - if Wordpress did what you said, all Bloggers will have NO HESITATION whatsoever to desert their Blogger blogs!! But I guess good things come with a price. to me, Wordpress RULES!
You really know how to hit a NERVE in me to write such a looooong comment…man you rock!!! Keep talking…I mean, blogging!
kellys last blog post…One Human Trait often Overlooked as a “Online Success Ingredient” (Part 2)
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Wow! In one evening you are already the most prolific commenter for this month. Thanks so much for dropping by and please do continue with the comments. I enjoy reading them.
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Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on December 19th, 2008 1:15 am: