A Review of WordPress 2.5
One of the most prominent blog software platforms with one of the biggest communities in both the blog and CMS world, WordPress is a force to be reckoned with. Or is it? WordPress has been around for a long time and has/is growing like mad. It's like a weed. Except one you don't want to pull out of your garden because it keeps getting prettier, better and nicer. Today, we'll examine this popular platform in this review of WordPress 2.5.
Let's look at the ridiculously easy install. This is the first screen you see. Brings new meaning to the term “keep it simple stupid” doesn't it?
WordPress then gives you the precursor screen below that tells you basically what to expect on the next couple screens.
Now that you've been informed. You can fill in the info below:
Enter your Blog title and email below:
Bam, done. Now that's a total of 4 screens to get installed. Insanely easy, very quick and ridiculously simple.
Now log in with admin details provided on the screen above. And you can change the password after your first login. You have to love the sense of humor the lads at WordPress have.
After logging in you get to the admin screen or “dashboard”
Ok let's take a breather and review the dashboard. Here's where wordpress really shines. You want a blog that makes your life easy?
You've found it. WordPress 2.5 has auto update capable plugins.. just click on the plugin link.. wordpress will automatically tell you if
there's an update available and let you automatically download and install it. No effort required. Where do you get the plugins? Well they have 2200 as of this review. Yes, 2200. and it's a BLOG platform for crying out loud.
Need themes? There are thousands.. literally. You can't type anything in google without tripping over a wordpress theme about it.
The control center has one click theme switching (with screenshots). Installing and updating a plugin consists of clicking a button.. The dashboard provides you with the latest wordpress news and the Wysiwyg editor just works beautifully.
Where does wordpress fail? I guess the default theme could use some work:
Can you tell I'm smitten? Seriously though.. for a blog platform… You simply cannot find a better solution than WordPress. Some will
claim it's also very capable as a CMS.. while I think it would struggle in that area, mainly due to lack of forums integration and lack of CMS like themes (wordpress does LOOK like a blog after all).
Community? Massive. WordPress has a community larger than most CMS communities. Support is amazingly quick and there are tons and tons of sites with hints tips and more to get the eager blogger any info they need quickly. With the size of the community and the number of people using it, it's quite possibly the best supported blog platform that exists today.
Would you use it for a portal? Perhaps not. However, for what it claims to be able to do, it does it and more with ease.
Our ratings are below:
Community 10/10 (I said it before and I'll say it again, massive with a huge number of support sites around)
Expandability 9/10 (For a blog platform, very expandable. The only thing lacking is forums or some kind of discussion platform)
Themability 10/10 (Can't touch wordpress for themes.)
Useability 10/10 (Fabulous dashboard, easy install and simple theme switching, auto updating plugins. nuff said)