I wonder if Matt Mullenweg's behavior will lead to WordPress's downfall in the long run.

Marijke Luttekes

Ironically, this implosion could be good for websites in general.

We know the Wagtail team is passionate about web accessibility and sustainability.

From what I've gathered, the Craft people are also very open to such topics (but don't pin me on it).

Edit: Not to disregard the WP contributors who worked on the aforementioned topics.

bugbear

@bazkie @mahryekuh I would feel bad for people whose work consists of developing WordPress plugins for clients (I believe something similar happened to Drupal developers when the market switch to other things)

But I would like some more variety (and some lighter alternatives), too.

bazkie, bonkwave superstar

@bugbear @mahryekuh hmyeah but I mean, they could also switch to developing plugins for other CMSes I guess, nothing lasts forever anyway

Sindarina, Edge Case Detective

@mahryekuh I suspect we'll probably see a fork of WordPress launch, and capture a significant chunk of the market, as the main selling point of WordPress is that it is what people know, PHP support is widely available, etc.

𝖆𝖒𝖆𝖗𝖔𝖐 🇨🇿🇪🇺

@mahryekuh
I think #WordPress will split, it's already happening, new WP forks appearing every month. AlcoveCMS being a new one, but it may also strengthen ClassicPress which is in need of more programmers. So in the long run it may be a good thing. Incompatibilities among WP forks will be a thing, but I think the global market can handle that (considering the crazy amount of WP alternatives).
https://www.classicpress.net/
https://alcovecms.org/

Marijke Luttekes

@sindarina Yeah, I don't doubt more forks will appear, but most non-dev people who want a website that works won't get too excited about that.

I wonder if static generators will also gain a boost from this, although they serve more technical folks.

Marijke Luttekes

@amarok If it ends the WP monopoly, that's fine by me!

bugbear

@bazkie @mahryekuh Oh, I agree. If I were one of them, I would start looking at likely candidates to replace WordPress (of course, we can't know that for sure for now. This very much depends on what becomes the new cool thing)

I'm not too worried about them in the long run, but it must suck if you've already made your portfolio and now one (petty?) guy can completely upset your market.

bazkie, bonkwave superstar

@bugbear @mahryekuh yeah that's definitely annoying! similar feels here with gamedev @ unity when they started going all dystopian with their pricing model a few years ago..

I guess it's the nature of working with engines, frameworks, and platforms; you are somewhat dependent on the whims of a bunch of powerful people, and they usually suck lol

Marijke Luttekes

@bazkie @bugbear Yeah, I remembered that incident since I worked at school then, and it was a hot topic with my game dev teacher colleagues.

That was a dick move, NGL.

Jeff Triplett

@mahryekuh I wish there was something geared towards non-technical people using WagtailCMS and DjangoCMS who just want a hosted website. Most users don't care what they are using as long as they have theme and plugin options they can use.

Marijke Luttekes

@webology Wagtail Engine?

Cc. @thibaudcolas

Mirek Długosz 🕸️:python:🐛

@mahryekuh

Unfortunately for Python CMSes, PHP (and thus Wordpress) offer unparalleled deployment simplicity - just copy these files to remote server and off you go. There are still gazillion hosting companies that offer space on shared server with PHP set up for a monthly price of a beer.

There’s going to be growing space for things that are simple to deploy, cheap and sufficiently locked down. SaaS like Wix and Weebly are probably going to take a solid cut of that niche.

Marijke Luttekes

@mirekdlugosz Yeah, it’s such a shame that Python never got this market down.

I personally float towards Eleventy for simple content websites over Django, but I doubt SSRs will ever be that popular among non-developers who just want a website that works.

Marijke Luttekes

@mirekdlugosz It ties in with what @webology said:

Jeff Triplett (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] Whatever it takes to build something closer to no-code for someone who just wants a blog. This has been my soapbox for years, but I don't have the energy for funding to push it. Users don't use WordPress for the development community. It's been around forever; surprisingly, few companies do what they do that's aren't already bundling with your domain registration.

Mastodon (mastodon.social)

Mirek Długosz 🕸️:python:🐛

@mahryekuh @webology

I’m thinking along the same lines. If you hide SSG behind web interface with ability to add and edit posts, you have already done around 80% of why people use Wordpress.

Over here, most smaller clients also ask for form that send email from a website. Not sure if there’s a service that could provide it to static sites without exploding a budget (and ideally on one-off payment).

Dominik

@mahryekuh I don't think anything not written in php can really replace WordPress. Its biggest strength is that you can just run it anywhere by uploading a few files on a FTP server. For very close to free.

Marijke Luttekes

@chrastecky I mostly agree, except that HTML / CSS / JS-only solutions also count.

I doubt Python will ever beat PHP in web regards, though (as much as I would enjoy that.)