Chyrp Versus WordPress

I AM NOT PLUGGING HERE!
But I have to say for those of you who don’t know what Chyrp is, I suggest finding out elsewhere, because being an avid WordPress user, I don’t want to add too many users to their community through here.

Anyway the point of this post is that YES, there are some very good things about Chyrp, and this is a post about my favorite features that may and should be included in the next WordPress major release.

First, Chyrp’s administration organization:

Within the admin backend, there are simply 4 main tabs:

• Write
• Manage
• Settings
• Extend

Within the “Extend” tab there are 3 sub-tabs:

• Modules
• Feathers
• Themes

Modules are basically a mirror of WordPress plugins, and themes are the same. But as for feathers, this is the main concept I want to point out. A feather is a kind of plugin that lives in the top tier of content formatting, or in a lower tier below ShortCode. An example of a feather is the !--page-- tag, even the !--more-- tag is still considered a feather in Chyrp. This is a great way to offer control on an even lower formatting level than ShortCode, and doing it in a logical, organized, and simplistic way.

Now, what is great about WordPress, is that it already supports these kinds of tags along with ShortCode! I think it just needs to take a lesson from Chyrp to allow better control over this functionality, and advertise it a little better with plugin management. Essentially if WordPress was Chyrp then the !--page-- and !--more-- tags would be part of a feather, and ShortCode support would be… yep… you guessed it… another feather.

Another great thing in Chyrp is a priceless conflict/dependancy monitor for modules. There are two alerts that come with it, “Conflicting modules”, and “Unmet dependency”. This all has to do with how modules play and work together, which I don’t think I need to go into why this is a great feature.

Everyone raves about the fact that Chyrp is so lightweight, which is another lesson WordPress should take. It doesn’t have to be as bloated as it is because most of what’s included, along with other core functionality, could easily be turned into plugins. Administrators should have the options to turn certain functionalities off through disabling a plugin rather than some “Miscellaneous” tab in the admin settings. That is a great lesson, “If an option doesn’t have anywhere to live in the settings, it is not imperative to the core and can most likely be a plugin”. WordPress can keep all its glory intact, but also compartmentalize to make better use of the existing plugin system, and maybe in the future, change the system by having different levels/categories of plugins based on their functionality, and/or what level they hook into. Maybe they could look like this: “Core, Structure, Content, Format, Design”

So anyway, like I said, I’m not plugging here, but taking lessons from the competition are how things get better right?

I want to see the features I see in Chyrp in the next major version of WordPress, the features that are so well done that they are making Chyrp a big competitor for opensource blogging.

The more developers WordPress can get on their side, the more contributors their community will have to make each release a major improvement. Let’s not lose our best contributors to the competition… Lets just take a lesson in functionality before we go all hog-wild over user interface. WordPress, is already bigger and better, but definitely more messy, and maybe that will eventually if not already attract equally messy contributors.

I am an interface designer, and I know it is important, but I also know that it comes AFTER organization, and after functionality.

Let’s not think about what would make LESS clicks before we think about what would make MORE sense!

This is where Chyrp is winning.
The WordPress advantage is the size of the community and accessibility. There are so many different ways to blog, and connect to your blog’s content, that it’s fun just finding these new and what seem to be endless abilities while surfing the web. Even still, the sheer size and reach of the platform is no excuse for the messy admin organization.

My final tip, don’t take tips from writers, editors, print designers, or even bloggers. They are the ones that have most likely driven the WordPress admin to where it is now, which very much looks like it was trying to please everyone.

Google Gears was a nice addition, but is just a bandage over a serious wound.
WordPress moves slightly faster, but it could fly with Gears and a lean overhaul.

Too much input can sometimes be a bad thing, which is why I’m a little worried about the 2.7 release. If you need to take WordPress in reverse for a bit, and make it what it should be, based on core developer input. Then do so please! Sometimes less people putting ideas into the pot the more simplified the taste, which is what I believe WordPress needs to continue down the road.

~Jim