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Thanks Nic for inviting me to blog on Techleader — appreciate it. I’ve been considering what a good enough first post would be (there are a couple of ideas that didn’t make it saved elsewhere), and when I was sent the log-in details to Techleader, I realised I’ve actually never used Wordpress, not personally and not for a client.

Aside: I have a tendency to do that, skip bits of technology; the first web-based email client I had was in fact Gmail, and I still don’t have DSTV. I haven’t missed much it would seem.

Clearly I’ve heard all about Wordpress and I’ve visited tons of sites built on it, checked out the theme sites, commented on Wordpress sites and commented about the Wordpress theme sites; but I’ve never installed it on a server and more importantly I’ve never written a post with it.

Why not? No real reason except that I’ve never had to go down this particular road before. I’ve played around with Textpattern, ExpressionEngine and Six Apart’s products and left Wordpress on the list of things to check out when I get around to it. That timing has always been delayed by a couple of factors, inasmuch I’ve been too busy building fairly similar apps — or apps with similar aspects at least — in work-related environments.

First impression: big fonts, big forms, a calming blue and a singular ‘write’ prompt. Second impression: where’s the rest of it? I know, I know; it’s a blank slate and it will pad out as I add content and I’m sure the super-users see a couple of more screens than me.

These two impressions form a third: thank goodness. Who needs bells and whistles when all I’m here to do is write. They’ve managed to get the interface right and the let’s-get-started thing down pat. They’ve managed to turn intention into interface — one of the hardest tasks in software development. I guess it’s up to me to write something now.




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One Response to “This marks the first time I use Wordpress, ever.”

I look forward to your future blog posts. I find it difficult to grasp that you’ve never touched Wordpress. You are a CMS developer.. maybe it’s just me.

You would not believe this, but a good number of Wordpress themes look like the very first e-vent site. Even Africasgateway and Vibe.com reminds me of that first e-vent interface.

(Report abuse)

arthurficial on August 21st, 2008 at 9:07 am

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Alan is co-founder and creator of micro-site builder Tank: a simple content-management app geared towards making the internet a better place, one site at a time.

He kicked off his internet career at Armadillo Interactive, and was one of the original members of Ogilvy Interactive in Cape Town. He spent time at Radarboy Studios 'doing cool stuff', and joined Tinderbox and type01 just before the crash. Together with a couple of fellow re-trenchees he formed Six Million Dollar where they developed many sites and apps in the years following. After a stint at Generator Communications he paid his dues by building social investment platforms and marketplaces for the greater good.

He is now involved with Tank full time: he reckons he has executed enough ideas for other people; it's time to execute a couple of his own. Tank is the first web-app from 'thisarmy': a development house that builds stuff that builds stuff.
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