Totally agree that seemingly small tweaks can be huge differences and differentiators. When we were launching, many compared us to HuffPo, TechCrunch or one of

Totally agree that seemingly small tweaks can be huge differences and differentiators. When we were launching, many compared us to HuffPo, TechCrunch or one of a handful of other blog networks. It can be annoying, but it can also be a bit of - as Marcellus Wallace put it - "pride fucking with you." What you're building will be its own thing because it's a different vision and set of experience building it. True/Slant's been public for a year, and I don't think I've heard those comparisons in awhile. > And we're not gussi-ing anything up in wordpress. > You don't take the core of your product off the shelf > like that, at least, not as a technology company. But then, you will be reïmplementing major chunks of a CMS from the ground-up? Editorial and publishing workflows? Access controls? Tagging systems and info hierarchies? I am admittedly biased here, as we made a very conscious decision to build trueslant.com atop Wordpress MU. I've built CMSes from the ground-up. I've created them from general-purpose tools and content management-specific frameworks. Building atop Mu has allowed us to spend significantly more time and energy on the overall experience and less on the nuts and bolts. I'd like to think we've done more than some gussying up; the Automattic folks, among others, seem to agree http://2009.newyork.wordcamp.org/program/saturday-sessions/#cms http://www.slideshare.net/rogertheriault/technology-of-the-new-news-workflow Bless you, too, for launching with Fb Connect. We implemented it after being live for several months and had tens of thousands of existing Members to contend with "linking" existing with Fb accounts (or specifically NOT linking, as the case was). Doing it from the get-go should be simpler for everyone. I look forward to your official launch.