Starting a Path Away From WordPress

AJ Klein

Why?

I’m tired of hacking WordPress.

I’m tired of hacking WordPress.

I’m tired of hacking WordPress.

Scaling

• WordPress was created as a blog, but ends up being a bloated Content Management System

• Any optimizations require a good amount of development and knowledge

• Solution is very fragmented, hard for non-developers

Old Tech

Is it bad?

• WordPress powers 20% of the web

• Old technology that can easily get outdated should not run 20% of the web

• WordPress bundles with an old WYSIWYG editor, which tries to solve every problem but only marginally solves some

What is the solution?

1. Use new technology

2. Follow current and future standards

3. Easy to use for non-developers

1st Step (aka this project)• Most common denominator is blogging, so start

there

• Use new technology

• Build in modularity and scalability from the beginning

New Tech

Setup <yourdomain.com>/wp-admin

Setup

Setup <yournewdomain>/ws-admin

Setup

Setup

Setup

Setup

Setup

Setup

Challenges

• Not a designer

• Export files, especially those with custom post types, can be challenging to import

Next Step

• Work with a designer to create a default layout template and admin template

• Test more WordPress import scenarios to ensure an easy transition

Future concepts

• The user should not need to bother with code unless they want to

• The user should have a site that can grow past blogging

• All editing should be visual, including editing the look and feel

Inspiration• meteor.com

• webflow.com

• macaw.co

• ghost.org

• squarespace.com

• getbarley.com

Try it out!

• get a server (DigitalOcean.com - Ubuntu)

• log in as root (via SSH) (bit.ly/useSSH)

• install curl (bit.ly/installcurl)

• install the files (curl http://webspace.io | /bin/sh)

• download the test XML file (bit.ly/ajcapstonexml)

AJ Klein @feelfreetoq