For some time now, I've been considering switching the platform used for YWS Blogs to Wordpress. For those who don't know what Wordpress is, it's a popular blogging platform that is widely used across the web, including on YWS' own Writing Gooder.
First, I should say that I'm not sure if it's entirely possible. There are still some challenges to work out before doing so. One is conversion of the current blogs to Wordpress so that no current blog posts are lost, but this I think should be the "easiest" part. The hardest part will be single-sign-on (SSO), meaning that once you log into YWS, you'll also be automatically signed into the Wordpress side of things as well. With the current blogs system, SSO isn't an issue since it's built directly into YWS.
But assuming these challenges can be overcome, would you all be interested in switching to Wordpress for YWS Blogs? Below is a list of advantages and disadvantages to be considered.
Advantages
- Tons of plugins and themes to work with
- Many people are already familiar with Wordpress
- Simple to export your data to another platform
- Possibility of creating full-fledged sites on your blog
- Allow other YWSers to be an author on your blog
- Possible to cross-post between your blog and another blog
Disadvantages
- All current customizations would be lost.
To be clear, this would still be very similar to the current blogs setup. Your blog would be available at blog/yourusernamehere as it is now, and you'd be limited to one blog per user. If YWS begins using Wordpress, all your current blog posts will be converted over. What will be lost are any customizations you've made to the colors, the backgrounds, and images. You'd have to recreate these.
Personally, I think losing current customizations is a big negative, but the advantages are much greater. Wordpress simply offers a lot more than the current blogs system. There's also the added benefit that Wordpress is under active development. The developer who created the phpBB blog mod (which is what YWS uses) stopped development for it a few years back, which raises questions about its security.
Let me know what you think.
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