to wordpress? or not?

ianternet · 05-15-2007, 11:58 AM

I have been reading around the internet about wordpress

and there have been great suggestions for improvement on my blog, and I would like to do so

now my main issue is what is a good blog cms - as I use a standard cms app to create my blog

or should I just use my cms since I am using it now and just fix the layout?

I understand a lot of people are using wordpress and the only reason why I didnt divert to wordpress when I have created my blog 1.5 months ago is because I love my cms program and use it on 2 other sites.

is wordpress easy to use and manipulate? have anyone had so many issues with wordpress? spam comments are they now controlled? can I add and customize my own layout with css? etc etc

Owen · 05-15-2007, 12:39 PM

WordPress just rocks, there's no other way to describe it.

With respect to your questions here are some answers:

Easy to manipulate: WordPress has an extensible API that has allows 3rd party developers to write plugins for it. There's a wealth of plugins out there doing everything you can imagine. And if you can code in PHP you can write your own plugins for it too. I needed a plugin that sends an email to a commentor on my blog when I reply to their comment, so I just wrote one.
Spam: For me, spam has become a thing of the past. WordPress comes with a magnificent plugin called Askimet which catches 99.9% of the spam that hits my website. If that's not good enough for you, you can also implement another plugin called Bad Behaviour which makes it practically impossible for automated spam to get through. That's unless you want to implement any captcha or another other anti-spam plugins that exists out there.
Customising layouts: There's a wealth of themes for WordPress out there and I mean literally thousands of them. Creating your own is also very easy if you know a bit of CSS/HTML. It's always much easier though to find one similar to what you want and customise it.

If you still don't feel confident about it, one option would be to set up a temporary blog in a separate folder on your website and just use it to familiarise yourself with the product and it's capabilities. If you need any help/instructions, just ask on this forum.

ianternet · 05-15-2007, 12:47 PM

thanks! that is what I am goin to do. I will be creating a separate folder and testing it and see how it goes, the thing with me is if I cant figure it out in 5 mins I not goin to go a head with it - I just hope its easy as wordpress says it is

Owen · 05-15-2007, 01:07 PM

Believe me .. you're going to be surprised at how easy it is.

I used to use dasBlog as my blogging engine and stuck with it through a misguided sense of loyalty to the Microsoft platform it was running on. I struggled for a couple of years and finally switched to WordPress out of sheer desperation: my blog was full of spam comments and it was so hard to change anything.

Since then I've been so impressed with WordPress that I now use it for everything I build, even non-blog sites like this one (still unfinished)

Good luck .. and don't hesitate to ask if you need anything

ianternet · 05-16-2007, 06:27 AM

wow owen you are gith it was pretty simple, I will be testing this for about a week

one more question is there a chance I can import all my prev post from my old CMS to wordpress?

because most of my post are very popular by search engines and I would like to keep those articles

if migration is not possible I might have to do it manually and let it saturate with one website while the other slowly dissappers?

if there is another way let me know

thanks!!

Owen · 05-16-2007, 09:41 AM

There's a number of ways to import content to WordPress. It comes out of the box with a number of connectors to well-known bloggin engines (http://codex.wordpress.org/Importing_Content), but if yours isn't in the list, you can always import your posts through your RSS feed. The downside here is that you can't import comments this way, but from what I see you don't actually have comments on your blog. Is this right ?

ianternet · 05-16-2007, 01:49 PM

does that include all the post? my blog has been live for only about 1.5 months and is doing very well - so I would like the content to be sync with the new blog platform

also the link provide "(There is currently no text in this page)"

owen thanks again

Owen · 05-16-2007, 03:32 PM

Link should read: http://codex.wordpress.org/Importing_Content (there's no bracket at the end)

Yeah, the import functionality should import everything. Again, set up a test blog and try it out

flora · 05-17-2007, 11:29 AM

I am really a wordpress newbie but I agree with all you have said about it. I found some good themes and I am now migrating all my existing blogs to use wordpress. I am really interested in the way you have used wordpress for the proactive site, it looks really clean and professional.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Owen

Believe me .. you're going to be surprised at how easy it is.

Since then I've been so impressed with WordPress that I now use it for everything I build, even non-blog sites like this one (still unfinished)

Good luck .. and don't hesitate to ask if you need anything

ianternet · 05-17-2007, 12:39 PM

yea same here wordpress newbie - I just need to get my old content onto wordpress and everything will be good

owen the link you provided was helpful - but wordpress does not have a php file called import-rss just import - and the coding looks like its for the import page.

I was searching forums and google and found rss imports but most seemed complicated and or it didnt do what I thought it would do

roadies · 05-17-2007, 01:23 PM

I've been using WordPress for a few years now. Eventually, every site I work on gets a WP install. It's the gold standard. I'm not saying that as a loyalist, but as a realist. With being the standard, you get the great plugin programmers, theme designers, and server monkeys to support it. It's always easy to find someone to help out with any WP problem you may have, and almost every web design company is able to design for/around their template engine.

On top of it all, it's stable as a rock. I've never had a wordpress install crash one me (I've had servers or databases, but neither were WordPress fault). The dev team is extremely active, releasing a new version every 4 to 6 months now. And yes, the spam combat is ridiculously accurate.

I use wordpress because it works.

Ravs · 05-17-2007, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadies

I've been using WordPress for a few years now. Eventually, every site I work on gets a WP install. It's the gold standard. I'm not saying that as a loyalist, but as a realist. With being the standard, you get the great plugin programmers, theme designers, and server monkeys to support it. It's always easy to find someone to help out with any WP problem you may have, and almost every web design company is able to design for/around their template engine.

On top of it all, it's stable as a rock. I've never had a wordpress install crash one me (I've had servers or databases, but neither were WordPress fault). The dev team is extremely active, releasing a new version every 4 to 6 months now. And yes, the spam combat is ridiculously accurate.

I use wordpress because it works.

I agree i just upgraded to wordpress 2.2 and it was simple. Wordpress is the way to go, they are continually pushing updates and patching holes.

ianternet · 05-18-2007, 07:32 AM

yea I love it so far - small issues, but I think I can fix most of them - I just cant find a simple way to import all my post from my old blog to wordpress

owen I have tried the links you have provided but it seems to complicated, upload an rss? well can I ask this, is there an RSS exporter to text? currently I can not find or google a good one

thanks

EBORG9 · 05-18-2007, 12:13 PM

Just wanted to agree. I don't really have anything to add except that Wordpress is the "shiznit", and I am very happy with it on my newest blog.
so to answer:
"Yes, thou shalt Wordpress, and bask in it's bounty of riches!"

Owen · 05-18-2007, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ianternet

owen I have tried the links you have provided but it seems to complicated, upload an rss? well can I ask this, is there an RSS exporter to text? currently I can not find or google a good one

thanks

Hi Ian,

At the moment, the RSS feed that's advertised on your website is this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/failurestosuccess, but presumably you can also get a feed generated from your website. Do you have any settings on this? Can you set it up so that your feed incorporates all your past posts?

If so, you can use that to import your posts into WordPress.

sheena · 05-19-2007, 12:17 AM

WordPress Blog CMS . WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.
Click this link for more details.
http://www.scriptdungeon.com/script.php?ScriptID=1257
http://turbochargedcms.com/2006/11/b...ordpress-blog/

gariben · 05-19-2007, 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ianternet

because I love my cms program and use it on 2 other sites.

What is the CMS program? Wanna check it out.

Thanks,
Mike

bested · 05-19-2007, 09:17 PM

wordpress definitely owns...

ianternet · 05-23-2007, 06:34 AM

yea I think it does - since I mean everything is simple and easy - which is a good thing - I like it so far and I am now fully switched over to WP, I just need to fix a couple things and set a couple structures that I want - and its great cause they have plugins!!

redranting · 05-27-2007, 08:46 AM

wordpress is really cool. they just upgraded to version 2.2 though so you might want to wait for everything to come out for it