What is wordpress

S I'm starting to look elsewhere for a template and I keep coming across something called wordpress what is it? GeekGirl?

Go to wordpress.org. It'll explain everything.

I dumped wordpress in favor of Dolphin. Converted 4 websites. Haven't looked back. What a headache it was for me personally.

I don't understand why nearly everyone is using WP for their websites.

Here in Belgium it's become wildly popular. Nearly every starting business makes their website in WP.

Even WP trainings are popping up everywhere now.

Is that because it's cheap and easy (with the numerous plugins) ?

For me ... I hate the layout.

Wordpress was a fork of the blogging platform b2; there is another fork, b2evoloution and there are probably others.  Quam Plures is a fork of b2evolution.  A lot of blogging platforms have moved toward being a CMS (Content Management Software).  Therefore, some use Wordpress for a CMS and it can be used for that purpose.  There is also a plugin for Wordpress to make it a social platform; Buddypress.  b2evolution has been moving towards being a social networking platform and now includes a forum as well as the usual blog features.  For a CMS, there are better platforms than Wordpress and b2evolution.

Thanks everyone now I know to stay away, I love dolphin and would never switch to anything else.

Vashan,

Here's the scoop on WP.  It's a solid platform and by far the most popular.  If you're looking at a small company or individual sites, it's a good bet - many themes to choose from.  If you're looking for a solid CMS with a modest learning curve, Joomla will probably serve you best.  There's plenty of documentation and support on the web and elsewhere for it.  If you're looking at an in-depth CMS and don't mind a bit of a [or extended] learning curve, you'll want to try Drupal.  They've also got an extensive community and support system.  Of course if your primary objective is a community or social site, from everything I've seen so far Dolphin is the way to go.

Dolphin excels at community and social sites.  It seems to stand up to its claims (which is saying quite a bit when it comes to web-platforms because many make claims that they can't quite backup), and is continually enhancing its already robust and yet simplistic model to achieve an even more streamlined approach.  I'd recommend Dolphin for most folks starting a social or community website.  The biggest hurdle you'll face is customizing some of the pre-designed functions to fit your specific needs - but not to worry, there's a very good support community full of experts and advanced members that gladly offer their help.

It's true, I'm not a Dolphin expert and have limited experience with it.  But like I said, from everything I can determine so far - between a product that stands up to its billing, and support that makes the product worthwhile - Dolphin shines!

DivineArc

I was looking for a template and during my search I kept running into wordpress. One webhost told me that it would be better because of the plugins but I love dolphin it easy to use and you are right the community is great. Boonex has been my family since 07 and I would never go anywhere else.

I have built sites with both and Drupal is not better than Joomla, just the opposite, it is worst.

There are better CMSes than Joomla but Joomla is a decent CMS with plenty of features.

 Hi, You have unlimited layouts too :-)

 True, but as soon as you open a website, you can tell it's made by WP. They all look the same.

but as soon as you open a WP website: well.. so does Dolphin it all looks the same too.
to be honest, I love dolphin but it's templates could be much better.

responsive theme templates hardly there and block design is a bit old and lots of dolphin is still page refresh

so when you're halfway a page and you click on it goes back to top... great for large screen but crappie on tablet or phone.

looking forward what PlayBox (Vote on a template to build) brings

 It's coming close to 2 years since the last comment and updates. Don't hold your breath.

Wordpress is very stable, updates security patches quickly, has a miriad of plugins and themes, is one of the easiest CMS systems I've ever used.

I've used Joomla and Drupal in the past and there's a reason why Wordpress is the most widely used CMS in the world - by far...

http://trends.builtwith.com/cms

and:

http://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management/all

Ive built dozens of sites using WP and used D over the last few years alongside.

WP has hundreds, if not thousands of plugins and templates, most with free version, or very cheap paid ones and you 'can' make a WP site that does most things... it's gone way beyond a blogging platform these days.

For example, I built a charity site years ago that was a collection of platforms, all linked into one.

Main site for info, then a secure area with separate db for charity supporters, another section for full e-commerce, then another that works exactly the same as fundraising sites such as kickstarter etc...

All using basic WP stuff.

Where D excells over WP is in membership and social networking features.

I didnt find anything on WP that allowed members to sign up and post their own content in a simple way that D allows.

WP does have buddypress plugin which is advertised as a social network extension, however it still falls short of D in that area.

D can also be used for all of the above, but falls short currently with e-commerce (although thats apparently on track for dev this year I believe).

So, in short both are actually quite similar depending on what you're looking for.

My pref as a site admin is to use D over WP, especially as the majority of my projects are community based.

That's where D excells.