Young Writers Society

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.

I think that if we are able to get the posts to transfer and some connection to Wordpress (I wouldn't even mind if I had to sign in every time: I do that for WFP), that it would be a really cool thing. I kind of like the idea of losing everything personalization-wise? Blank slates are always fun for me, and it gives me a chance to be creative all over again.
If it works out, I say do it!

I'm willing to try it out. Bring it on!

Seriously, this could be a really cool thing, Nate.

I'm with Fortis. I'd be fine with signing in every time, too. Blank slates could also be a good thing.

As I said before. Bring. It. On!

I agree with those above me. I like it~

I just want a big red juicy Like button.

As a WP user - YES please!

I would love to know if I can manage my YWS blog by also logging in to my WordPress account?
(Plus follows and likes and yay! Also WP (used to?) have snowfall in December on most of their pages which was cute. )

I agree with everyone too! WP would be awesome! ^_^

Lava wrote:I would love to know if I can manage my YWS blog by also logging in to my WordPress account?

I'm not entirely certain, but it should be possible to do this.

I don't have a lot of personalization on my blog at the moment, so it doesn't bother me as much that the customizations would be lost—and I second the idea that blank slates are pretty fun!

I'd be all for switching to Wordpress.

I agree with everyone above me. Wordpress is pretty cool, and signing in each time wouldn't really be a bother.

It'd be awesome!

Thanks everyone for your thoughts so far! Nothing will happen for at least a couple weeks, so if anyone has any concerns, please feel free to share them.

One concern that came up when I asked a few people about this initially was the issue of privacy. At the moment, a YWS blog is only viewable by other YWSers by default. This would not change with the switch to a Wordpress format, although you would be able to change the privacy setting to public if you so wished (or to only people you're following).

Regarding signing on every time, this will only go forward if I can make the single-sign-on work. The problem is that while having to sign on a second time is not a large obstacle, it's enough of one such that there'd be even less activity in blogs than there is now.

yes please! Wordpress is awesome.

As the person who wrote the main article on how to customize your blog, which means I spent way too much time customizing it, probably, my answer is YES PLEASE. Wordpress is like... the most amazing thing ever. I would love to have the amazing capabilities of Wordpress!

Snoink wrote:Wordpress is like... the most amazing thing ever.

Although I haven't been active for awhile, I'm all too familiar with YWS blogs and Wordpress so I think it would be awesome, Nate.