Wordpress vs DIY

[kev woodman]

I'm going to have to re-write my shabby personal site over the next couple of weeks because it is at least a year out of date and fairly half-arsed. I'm going to want something which can be easily updated so a blogging engine is essential, but I don't want it to look like a blog.

So far I've narrowed it down to two options:

1. DIY - I can write my own engine. This offers me lots of scope for customisation and means I'm not trying to play with someone else's code. But it means I'll be spending more time on coding than content and knowing me I'll probably end up spending more and more time tweaking my 'simple' blogging engine; or

2. Wordpress. I could take the WP engine and use it to create something that doesn't particularly look like a blog. This means I get to spend more time on the content and the skin but it does mean I have less control over the code.

So what does everyone think? WP or DIY? Does anyone have any experience of heavily customising WP? Is there another alternative? Can you have too many questions in a paragraph?

[jon123]

DIY for me Kev. I know it is a time issue, but you know only too well the benefits of creating your own without me mentioning them here. Bespoke design to name but one.

I must admit that I really don't know anything about blogs or blogging, I have never used one (I probably should). But unless I am wrong, isn't it just basically a guestbook script ??

I think we discussed this before but the fckeditor for me will take the 'blog' look out of it because you can add images and the rest.

Although reading your post again, I think i am on the wrong path here, is wordpress like a whole site ? a cms? If so I'm now not sure. I created a cms for the submariners site so the guy could update everything easily. If you view the site you would never know it is a cms, but the work involved!! if i knew then what i know now, i would have simply taught him how to edit static pages and upload. Yep in this context, time spent creating it is not worth it imo

[Administrator]

well, I know many expert coders who have tried DIY option and then they left it half done out of frustration. There's absolutely no harm in using back end of wordpress.

I've personally managed to make many good looking websites using wordpress though I have never used frontpage or dreamweaver so someone like you can bring much much better results with wordpress back end.

I can disclose some of my previous work in a PM for you to know what you can achieve using wordpress.

[kev woodman]

Hmm one vote each then.

I could knock a basic blog interface up using Cake in a couple of hours but I know that once I start fiddling with code I'm going to want to keep adding stuff to it.

I'd love to see your stuff Admin. I know that some people have created really good sites using Wordpress.

WP isn't quite a full-blown CMS Jon although the distinction has gotten pretty blurry recently. It's really just a blogging interface i.e. it allows you to write articles in a text editor which it then manages for you. However WP is really flexible so you can use it to make sites that are easy to update but which don't look too 'bloggy'.

[paul]

I will try out to use WP as CMS as it is greatly flexible and you can easily push it into next level.

[byteme]

The rules of thumb for products is:

1)Don't reinvent the wheel.
2)If the wheel you want to use is less than 80% round, DIY
3)Otherwise adapt how you work

[kev woodman]

WP is very flexible and you can hack the templates pretty easily.

I've been playing with AMFPHP and with Flex as a front-end with CakePHP at the back but to be honest I haven't really had much time to do anything at all. I'm probably going to end up writing my own back-end stuff and just using (X)HTML, CSS and JS for the client-side.