dedge

WP will never be for everyone. Take your pick. Experiment. Change your mind. Examine your expectations. In my case open source was a priority, so I didn’t expect terrific user support â€â€? that’s the nature of the OS beast. Still, I’ve seen some very thoughtful and patient support on this forum.

There’s only a “blog tool race” if you want there to be one. Mine lasted about as long as it took stumble upon Asymptomatic’s blog comparison.

WordPress is just a way of using a scripting language with a database. CSS and (X)HTML are the structure of the long-preexisting web. If WordPress can do what you want (and there are lots of themes and plugins to tweak that), sweet! If WP can’t do what you want, it’s open to modification, but that will take some technical knowledge. If it can’t do what you want and you don’t want to learn how to change it, well there are lots of blogging platforms and hopefully you can find one that’s better for you.

For some of us, the appeal of WP is the hackability. I spent a few late-nights struggling with WP, or more accurately struggling with my own skills, to get my blog exactly how I wanted. Much of that struggle was just a part of publishing on the web and in no way specific to WordPress: CSS, browser issues, validation. It was hard work! The money I saved by not buying/subscribing to a blog platform went into a couple O’Reilly books and a lot of coffee. It sucked. It was a blast.

@ rohitkumar: Sorry not to spare the “wonderful thoughts,” but that’s kind of what posting on a forum entails. I hope you can find another tool and make a killer blog. Good luck in your studies.

And for any WP noobs reading this far, a few tips:

• Hosting is important, choose wisely
• Have realistic expectations â€â€? about your own abilities and about what you want
• If you’re going to tinker (good for you!), be prepared for the struggle of learning
• It’s not about the hammer, it’s about the house you build with it

And you can’t fight the tears that ain’t coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything seems like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know your alive
� Goo Goo Dolls, Iris