4 ms·

Drupal's been on the heavy decline over the past 10 years. Drupal 8/9/10 might turn it around now that Drupal 7 is set to officially retire eventually but it's

Drupal's been on the heavy decline over the past 10 years. Drupal 8/9/10 might turn it around now that Drupal 7 is set to officially retire eventually but it's not had the staying power in the way Wordpress has. Drupal doesn't really seem to have an ecosystem left anymore.

thejosh 4y ago
It had some decent developers and ecosystem around it a few years ago, but honestly a lot of bureaucracy and drama killed a lot of the enthusiasm in the project and contributed modules for many.
- chx 4y ago
  ...
  - geerlingguy 4y ago
    Always good to see you here chx! I hope you are doing well these days.
muglug 4y ago
Sites like Wix and Squarespace really undermined Drupal and other similar OSS offerings. There are still things you can only do with a custom sytem, but for most use-cases commercial site-design tools can get you up and running with much less upfront cost. I designed & built about 20 websites from 2007 to 2014 or so, all with custom designs and backed by an off-the-shelf CMS. Except for the few I maintain for close friends & family, everyone has moved to Squarespace. While I'm incredibly happy with that arrangement — nobody's pestering me about code I wrote a lifetime ago — it means a whole bunch of sites look much more generic. For example I wrote some custom JS to dynamically tile pictures on this site: http://web.archive.org/web/20130722050828/https://www.firstchairpromo.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20130722050828/https://www.firstc.... Now it displays photos in a generic fashion: https://www.firstchairpromo.com https://www.firstchairpromo.com
- 1123581321 4y ago
  I think Drupal had largely retreated to being a tool for larger sites before Squarespace’s ascent. That end of the market has increasingly been eaten up by moderately author- and marketer-friendly commercial enterpriseware from providers like Adobe and Progress. It’s a shame, because they are expensive and inhibiting tools, but security and integration demands and the relative prestige of buying blue chip, expensive software have been faster growing primary considerations.
- pancrufty 4y ago
  As someone with similar history as yours but with WordPress, while I appreciate a well-designed website, I think custom websites are a gigantic waste of human resources. Very few need a custom Magento, WooCommerce, or even just a generic WordPress.org install. Every website is much safer with a PaaS, and I believe prices for these will eventually come down. Just think that before WordPress people were coding a whole website from scratch for the local photographer or news agency, with often sub-optimal and/or overpriced results. > a whole bunch of sites look much more generic. True, but that's just a consequence of letting the customer deal with it directly rather than a professional. Most PaaS still allow custom designs, nobody is stopping you from adding a Flash intro page.
geerlingguy 4y ago
Drupal went really high end, and targeted the enterprise use case a lot more. It competes with Sitecore and Sharepoint more than Wordpress these days. It's terrible for a simple blog or small community or nonprofit site these days. I know because I still run my blog on it, only due to inertia at this point (golden hammer).

thejosh 4y ago

It had some decent developers and ecosystem around it a few years ago, but honestly a lot of bureaucracy and drama killed a lot of the enthusiasm in the project and contributed modules for many.

chx 4y ago
...
- geerlingguy 4y ago
  Always good to see you here chx! I hope you are doing well these days.

muglug 4y ago

Sites like Wix and Squarespace really undermined Drupal and other similar OSS offerings. There are still things you can only do with a custom sytem, but for most use-cases commercial site-design tools can get you up and running with much less upfront cost. I designed & built about 20 websites from 2007 to 2014 or so, all with custom designs and backed by an off-the-shelf CMS. Except for the few I maintain for close friends & family, everyone has moved to Squarespace. While I'm incredibly happy with that arrangement — nobody's pestering me about code I wrote a lifetime ago — it means a whole bunch of sites look much more generic. For example I wrote some custom JS to dynamically tile pictures on this site: http://web.archive.org/web/20130722050828/https://www.firstchairpromo.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20130722050828/https://www.firstc.... Now it displays photos in a generic fashion: https://www.firstchairpromo.com https://www.firstchairpromo.com

1123581321 4y ago
I think Drupal had largely retreated to being a tool for larger sites before Squarespace’s ascent. That end of the market has increasingly been eaten up by moderately author- and marketer-friendly commercial enterpriseware from providers like Adobe and Progress. It’s a shame, because they are expensive and inhibiting tools, but security and integration demands and the relative prestige of buying blue chip, expensive software have been faster growing primary considerations.
pancrufty 4y ago
As someone with similar history as yours but with WordPress, while I appreciate a well-designed website, I think custom websites are a gigantic waste of human resources. Very few need a custom Magento, WooCommerce, or even just a generic WordPress.org install. Every website is much safer with a PaaS, and I believe prices for these will eventually come down. Just think that before WordPress people were coding a whole website from scratch for the local photographer or news agency, with often sub-optimal and/or overpriced results. > a whole bunch of sites look much more generic. True, but that's just a consequence of letting the customer deal with it directly rather than a professional. Most PaaS still allow custom designs, nobody is stopping you from adding a Flash intro page.

geerlingguy 4y ago

Drupal went really high end, and targeted the enterprise use case a lot more. It competes with Sitecore and Sharepoint more than Wordpress these days. It's terrible for a simple blog or small community or nonprofit site these days. I know because I still run my blog on it, only due to inertia at this point (golden hammer).