19% of the web on wordpress

[retired_member32]

http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/27/19-percent-of-the-web-runs-on-wordpress/

my question is, do you think this is killing the art of web design, everyone and there dog can build a website using Wordpress, web designers used to go to art college and learn an art, now a page is designed by a few clicks and people call themselves a web designer, it will always have security flaws because the basic downloaded files remain the same.

what do other people feel about Wordpress ?

 

[tifosi]

As a php developer I look at the WP core code and cringe. It's bloody awful. I've said this before. Loads the kitchen sink. Is a mashup of procedural & classes. No generic caching.

As a plugin developer It has opportunities so long as you realise your work has to be GPL to be recognised so anyone can copy all or chunks of it. Support licences help.

Yes anyone can build a site but it generates work when they realise they can't do much with it. As a freelancer I have mixed feelings. People though think that because they can install it and load a theme that they can offer peanuts for jobs to fix / mod it.

There is opportunity for providing WP optimised hosting.

As a user I have to admit I admire their track record.

Pros and cons.

Still not suitable for a lot of things such as complex web apps where a custom build on top of an MVC such as codeigniter is better.

 

[Blossom]

I love it, despite its flaws.

Never heard of web designers "going to art college and learning an art" - do you mean graphic designers? Web design courses are a million years behind, it's shocking what passes for an acceptable one. Most of them are just how to use Dreamweaver.

 

[tifosi]

Most of them are just how to use Dreamweaver.

Agreed, learning dreamweaver is the last thing I'd recommend to a web designer. wysiwyg has had it's day. A decent code editor such as gvim or notepad++ or one of those with language specific syntax highlighting and autocomplete options couples with a decent local webserver install such as wamp are FAR better.

Wordpress for its failings can be useful for learning the html/css craft.

 

[PaulGregory]

There's still an art to a good theme design, and for crafting the content of pages, but it can lead to some boring sites.

WP is bloated for sites that don't change often, and you're always battling against the inherent blog nature. I'd love to know the percentage of WP installs that have no blog section.

The main problem with it for websites is that it doesn't have out-of-the-box an agreed convention for editable "blocks". A lot of themes end up using a number of posts to put nice chunks of content on the home page - so you have one place to choose which block is in which slot and another to change the content. Equally, allowing a lower level user to change the content of a widget usually means pulling content from a post. It's just messy around the edges for this sort of stuff.

There are definitely some nice parts to WP, which I miss when working with other systems. In particular it has to be the easiest thing to update. Core and plugins/theme are very well separated - I've never needed or wanted to change a core file (unlike almost every other system out there).

I do prefer to give people very specific control to change specific things within a custom CMS, but not everything has the budget for that.

One thing to note is that although WordPress set-ups can vary, a site running WordPress does seem easier to sell to people than a site with custom code.

 

[mbignell]

I can't stand WP, Thumbs up for Notepad++ and Wamp or Xampp, Much more rewarding for me even though i'm pants at building websites, but i am learning.

A decent code editor such as gvim or notepad++ or one of those with language specific syntax highlighting and autocomplete options couples with a decent local webserver install such as wamp are FAR better.

Wordpress for its failings can be useful for learning the html/css craft.

 

[FWSJay]

Im a big fan, been using nothing else for years.

I think it could be seen as killing webdesign, as it empowers business owners to get a site up but this is a good thing surely?

But really, if you want something above the basics, you need a proper site built so you'll have to either learn a significant amount more, or hire a web designer....

As a CMS (non blog) its perfect imo, unless you want to be editing html files and ftp'ing (I wouldn't want to teach any clients that, but WP I simply tell them 'Its as easy as sending an email')...

and the blog bit comes in very handy if some one want a 'news' section

As for security, touch wood I have only had one hacked site in the last 3 or 4 years, out of literally thousands of sites, the basic vulnerabilities are very simple to plug.

Jay

 

[Jamie101]

I really like Wordpress. Sure, there are times when I get annoyed with it (especially when something which should be simple ends up in messing around with loads of code!) but it's still great.

Not long ago I actually wanted to get involved with web development in college but then I realised there's not much point. What they teach is so far behind that it's just not worth it. Also, I was afraid of most people learning Wordpress themselves which could mean it'll be hard for web developers to get work in the future.

Don't get me wrong though, there's definitely a need for web developers and always will be, but I just think that they'll be used less in the future.

 

[Skinner]

One of the things that annoys me is as exactly as Jamie said, colleges are sooooo far behind, I like going back to college to neaten up my skills or enhance them, or just add something to my CV but last time I went back I felt like I knew more than the teacher and corrected his sloppy code numerous times.

They must be at least 6-7 yrs behind, still focusing on VB6 and ASP, minimal focus on C, no focus on PHP or even .NET, photoshop course was soooo basic it didn't cover paths or layers, didn't cover creation only editing, I gave up in the end.

I wanted to do the relational database design course but it was MSMSQL only (easy fix really) but was degree level, nothing lower, same when I asked about Website Design mostly inline CSS 1, nothing really from CSS and they looked like my fly was open when I asked about CSS selectors, nothing about JQuery, I was expecting chalk and slate next.

 

[Blossom]

There're also boundary issues about what constitutes a developer and what a designer...

 

[tifosi]

There are. I'm a web developer with web design skills. Basics in photoshop. Good html/css. Web designers I'd say are skewed to the other end. Bit of a sliding scale per project which hat I wear! Today has been total webdev!

<not trying to get work! Though offers appreciated! >

jQuery is an acid test. Web designers will add it to manipulate DOM & css. Web devs will turn that code into a plugin!

 

[murph]

I never use it or any other off-the-shelf stuff. Too vulnerable to exploits... Maybe not now, but one day soon. Too many updates and potential conflicts. Custom all the way!

 

[fish]

http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/27/19-percent-of-the-web-runs-on-wordpress/

my question is, do you think this is killing the art of web design, everyone and there dog can build a website using Wordpress, web designers used to go to art college and learn an art, now a page is designed by a few clicks and people call themselves a web designer, it will always have security flaws because the basic downloaded files remain the same.

what do other people feel about Wordpress ?

It's free, it's accessible, it's relatively simple to use, it has untold capabilities and equally, like every other platform (by design) it will always have security flaws.

Ford Focus or ..... ?

 

[murph]

like every other platform (by design) it will always have security flaws.

Ford Focus or ..... ?

True, but scripts like WP often leaves a footprint, something that should a vulnerability be discovered, allows hackers to target a site by a search engine. Becomes a race against time to upgrade before you become the next victim.

Don't get me wrong, fantastic script, unbelievable that it's free!

 

[denchomsky]

Web design and web development are completely different things, it wont kill web design because most of the free themes are pretty poor, and 80% of the sites that I have seen that are built on wordpress look awful.

You can get good premium themes for relatively little money, which will have an impact on lower end freelance designers demand, but a majority of the people that buy premium themes lack the little coding knowledge you need to really utilise them.

It obviously will have an impact on freelance developers (of which I am one) because it is a cheap way of getting a site up and running, but without getting a developer involved at some stage of the build, most of the time the site will be pretty poor, probably neglected and have no unique qualities.

There is a lot more to web design/development than making a website appear on the internet, but because of the punk (anyone can do it) attitude towards web design/development a large majority of people believe they can do it themselves and begrudge paying an expert to do it.

I could probably do my own plumbing and electrics, but my house would probably catch fire and then be extinguished by the leaking pipes.

 

[namealot]

"19% of the web on wordpress"

What % is the same old crap?

 

[Aegean]

As a php developer I look at the WP core code and cringe. It's bloody awful. I've said this before. Loads the kitchen sink. Is a mashup of procedural & classes. No generic caching.

As a plugin developer It has opportunities so long as you realise your work has to be GPL to be recognised so anyone can copy all or chunks of it. Support licences help.

Yes anyone can build a site but it generates work when they realise they can't do much with it. As a freelancer I have mixed feelings. People though think that because they can install it and load a theme that they can offer peanuts for jobs to fix / mod it.

There is opportunity for providing WP optimised hosting.

As a user I have to admit I admire their track record.

Pros and cons.

Still not suitable for a lot of things such as complex web apps where a custom build on top of an MVC such as codeigniter is better.

I agree with everything you have said here. What I'd add is, if you are publishing content its probably fine, if you need to deal with data or transactions, go elsewhere.

 

[tifosi]

True. As a blog site and latterly (3.3+) as a CMS it serves the purpose well. As a platform for a simple shop through plugins it's ok.

As a platform for major e-commerce, CRM, ERP, or significant custom functionality lit's not fit. Thing is that 19% (at least) of the internet is just that, blogs and basic cms's.

Looking for anything transaction based - especially innoDB & acid, then look elsewhere!