I’m amazed that .net magazine is still going at all, never mind that it’s reached its 177th issue. The focus moved from consumer magazine to industry journal a long time ago, and it’s well put together. But the six quid cover price still came as quite a shock.
To their credit, they made the right choice when producing an article on how to ‘choose the best free CMS’ this month. Quite rightly, they drew no distinction between ‘blog’ and ‘proper CMS’ solutions; and quite rightly, they ranked WordPress top of the list, with a five-star review – although the feature’s conclusion was ultimately ‘horses for courses’.
In the last couple of years, the WordPress platform has surged in popularity, partly due to a mistake by Six Apart in how it licensed Movable Type. It has great community support and is frequently updated. Recently there have been some concerns about how secure it is, but the recent release of WordPress 2.5 has seen significant improvements. *****
Whilst I remember the fuss about Movable Type’s licensing, I’d personally suggest WordPress’s popularity is more down to the fact that it’s such a great tool in its own right. If that had been such an issue, you’d have expected a resurgence for Movable Type after they went open source with v4 – but I’ve yet to notice it.
A few years ago, I’d probably have seen this as a fantastic endorsement by a high-credibility source. But since I no longer see print as having any greater credibility than online, it barely registers a blip. Mind you, I can imagine myself using the words ‘five-star review’ in my next few pitches.
Response
great!