Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Today is the Unofficial International WordPress Day, Where WP Candy is asking everyone to blog about WordPress in order to show their appreciation. For me, I think this blog says enough, so I want to talk about loyaly, or lack thereof.
Are you a WordPress fan boy? Do you own the t-shirt, pen and mug? Do you answer every blog post that relates to a blogging problem with the words: ‘If you used WordPress you wouldn’t be having that problem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’?
If so you probably don’t need to answer the question I am going to ask; we already have the answer. For everyone else though I think it is a reasonable question.
My question to you is: Where do your loyalties lie? or to put it another way: what would make you switch away from WordPress?
For me the answer is simple: If something better came along.
I’ve been blogging about WordPress for 9 months. In that time (and the few weeks prior) I have learned how to write plugins, how to produce themes, how to write patches for the core (and submitted a new feature which may one day see the light of day), it really isn’t a big problem to do that again with something else.
Whether I would get up the enthusiasm for it that I have, and have had, for WordPress is doubtful, but of course a new project brings the chance to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond and there are advantages to that. How many blogs are dedicated to Habari? How many podcasts?
The WordPress community is fantastic, but as it becomes more and more ‘premium’ it also gets less and less interesting. I love the idea of a tavern full of WordPressers quaffing ale together after a hard days work but I’m not so keen on a square full of stall holders who are more concerned with getting the best spot to sell their wares.
The fact of the matter is that WordPress holds my interest because I believe it is the best platform with the best community, but for all the plugins I have written, the blog posts I have commented on, and the podcasts I have occasionally managed to stay up for, it is self-interest, or rather that I am interested in doing these things at the moment, that keeps me coming back and when these are gone, then so am I.
So what is it about WordPress that keeps me here now? Simplicity and ease of use.
What would turn me away? If WordPress becomes the Flock of the blogging world, if it becomes a tool for technicians, if it becomes to bulky, if it uses new technology for the sake of it, or fails to keep up with new technology that can be a benefit. and of course if it changes its name to WrdPrss to be all 2.0.
What about you? Are you loyal or would you switch away without looking back? And if so what would make you walk away?
There has been a debate running at Weblog Tools Collection for a little while about the ownership of comments that are made on a blog. I have done a (very) little research into the state of affairs in the UK and this is what I have found.
Note that my research focuses on the UK.
Copyright protection applies, independently of the medium used to record it, to material that is the result of independent intellectual effort, as soon as it is recorded in writing. In the case of literary works the author is the copyright owner until ownership is transferred or expires (generally after 70 years following the death of the author).
You could argue about the extent to which a comment is the result of independent intelectual effort. I found notes that suggest a work might not be considered original if there hadn’t been sufficient skill or labour expended in its creation. Ultimately it would be up to a court to decide.
As important as the existence of copyright is the license to use the content. Even if licensing is never discussed there is a strong argument that an implied license exists where the circumstances suggest that the copyright holder expected the work to be used in the way it was.
This is very likely to apply to comments as the commenter is providing their content for the express purpose of the blogger publishing it. Whether the commenter expects that the comment might be re-used elsewhere on the site is another matter but the principle of fair dealing ( I think this is similar in result to fair use in the US ) allows the work to be used without a license for criticism or review and so this may apply.
The following is taken from the UK Intellectual Property Office Website:
Fair dealing has been interpreted by the courts on a number of occasions by looking at the economic impact on the copyright owner of the use; where the economic impact is not significant, the use may count as fair dealing. So, it is probably within the scope of the above fair dealing exception to make single photocopies of short extracts of a copyright work for certain purposes, that is, non-commercial research or private study, criticism or review, reporting current events, and so on.
I think, for the UK at least, this makes the ownership of comments clear. It is with the commenter. But, in most cases, the commenter should be able to argue implied license to use it within the bounderies of normal comment usage, or Fair Dealing if they want to use it as the subject of a discussion.
I’m not sure how the cross-border nature of blogs affects the laws that apply. I think that since I am publishing this blog from within the UK, the comment is also published within the UK, and so the UK copyright laws can be used, but not to the exclusion of others since it can also be downloaded outside the UK.
Finally, note that I have made an addition to my previously non-existent comment policy. I don’t think it really changes anything but it is useful to notice it.
Have you noticed the slowdown of the WordPress blog scene?
When I started this blog it was as an outlet for my plugin generator. I wasn’t really big into WordPress then and created it because I was looking for the next project to use my time for. Like so many others I found the calling and launched headlong into tutorials, plugins and even a theme.
As I started subscribing to more and more WordPress blogs I began to notice that they all seemed to have started up around about a certain time; within 6 months of mine, more or less. I think that explained the mass of posts.
At the time every blog had a WordPress tip, tutorial, or bit of news every other day. It was overwhelming.
Now thought I’m noticing that the few blogs out there still catering to beginners and doing tutorials are repeating content I have seen at least once, if not more, times on other blogs.
I am finding that I don’t want to post more tutorials. There isn’t much to write them about that hasn’t already been done, and even then most of them should be on the codex really anyway.
So, has everything that needs to be written, except for news and gossip about new features, been done now? Is there anything of WordPress left to blog about?
Louis Gray has written an interesting post reminding us that developers are people too, and I think there some good messages in it that relate well to WordPress.
We talk all the time about appreciating readers and developing in a way that makes it easy for people to pick up and use, but it is also very useful to think about the people behind the plugins and themes.
Louis makes the point that many of the startups are individuals who are coding as a hobby. For these people it will be nice if they make some money but in many cases they don’t make much more than their hosting costs, if that. This sums up the majority of WordPress developers.
My guess is that most WordPress developers spend maybe an hour an evening, maybe even two, at most, and possibly a few hours at the weekend, and work a normal job during the day.
What that means is that one e-mail asking for help or one comment asking why a plugin doesn’t work can remove any hope of getting done what they wanted that evening.
The other side, of course, is when authors are criticised for a new release.
I have noticed that WordPress users, no more than anyone else I’m sure but it is here my experience lies, are quick to rush to judgement about changes. WordPress 2.5 showed us that people will make their minds up from screenshots alone. When it comes to a plugin or theme that an individual has spent a lot of time on, especially if she has asked for input along the way, responses like these could be very demoralising.
The community behind WordPress is what makes it great and that shouldn’t stop, but everytime you download a new plugin or theme, or consider writing about one, give a thought to the person behind that work.
In the spirit I want to give thanks to the following individuals:
Ronald Huereca for Ajax Edit Comments.
Kaspars Dambis for Baltic Amber Admin Themes.
Kates Gasis for Sideblog.