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WordPress rant, additional web rants, and an exclusive!

Along with a few friends, I run a local networking organization. We have a blog, and it fell unto me to give that blog a facelift.
Written by Alan Graham, Contributor
Along with a few friends, I run a local networking organization.

We have a blog, and it fell unto me to give that blog a facelift. So after doing some Photoshop/Illustrator work to make a new "theme" for the blog, I went into WordPress to do just a few tiny changes. Now I'm relatively new to WordPress. I use it on ZDNet to write each day, but I don't have to manage it or handle the templates. But it can't be that hard to work with, can it? I mean lots of people have customized WordPress blogs and they aren't all CSS/php wizards...

Or are they? 

Two hours later I'm frustrated and mad as hell!

I've done countless support searches, and been told multiple times from the WordPress support site...

"We couldn't find anything!"

Well I'm not really searching for the meaning to life...let's just start with the basics...

firefoxscreensnapz006.jpg

 

 You can't find anything?!?! For either of those words? How about just "upload?"

 

firefoxscreensnapz007.jpg

No upload huh? Well you gotta have something for "image?"

 

firefoxscreensnapz008.jpg

 

So no "image upload," no "image," no "upload?"

What do you have?

Here's a novel idea...I'll go OUTSIDE your support site and give Google a shot....and yes...Google found the documents I needed...on your site. Twenty minutes later, thirty printed pages of text...and yet I can't seem to make even the simplest changes without destroying the entire WordPress template.

ARRGGHHHH! 

No one...and I mean no one should have to edit a single line of code to make the changes I'm trying to do...and no one should have to deal with anything that looks like this:

 

 
firefoxscreensnapz005.jpg

 

Seriously...who's got the time for this? 

What good is all this Web 2.0 Ajax eye-candy garbage if doing even the simple things are so very complicated? And this isn't about prowess...this is about time. I simply don't have time to mess around with this stuff.

And while applications like Apple's iWeb are lacking in countless ways, it is miles ahead of most online blogging tools who ensure design is only done by experts, and writers are subjected to four inches of space in a web browser. We've spent years and years developing WYSIWYG and drag and drop tools because they work. They work well. If online tools worked like offline tools, I'd have been done in five minutes.

And that's part of the problem.

Many developers today believe that everything can be a web app. Word processing...web app. Spreadsheets...web app. Photo editing...web app. Movie editing...web app. DVD player...sure why not? 

In fact...I'm tired of waiting for innovation to occur, tired of complaining, and I want to be part of the solution. That's why I'm announcing my newest venture right here on ZDNet...this is an exclusive people:

 

Browser Within A Browser

 

browserinbrowser.jpg

Yes that's right folks...no longer will you have to be satisfied with just browsing the web within that silly old browser of yours. At BrowserWithinaBrowser.com you can browse the web from any location, just as if you were using your own web browser. Not only that, we've taken great care to ensure that Browser Within A Browser has all the features you'd expect from a web browser...only better...because it has 70% more Ajax than the next leading web app! Plus it almost works and feels just like a web browser.

And we have a gradient! All good Web 2.0 companies have a gradient!

Look out for our next product this spring...

Browser Within A Browser Within A Browser 

[Note: Not compatible with most websites]


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For goodness sake...how about we take a break from converting every single application known to man into a web application...and just make our current desktop applications work better with the world of Web 2.0?

I'm sorry...but the browser is not the answer to everything!

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Recently Anil Dash blogged about MovableType Enterprise working with Microsoft Word to allow people to write in Word and post to a blog. I applaud this general idea...but their reason? 

"You see, we’re not gonna be happy until every company can have a blog. To get everybody using blogs at work, we have to connect with the tools people are already using."

 

Oh yeah baby...what's what I'm talking about...well...mostly... 

I'm not sure the idea that everyone in a company can have a blog is that useful. Access to blogging isn't the problem. The problem you hit on the head is that you have to connect people to the tools they already use. Everyday people, like me...and that guy over there...and that lady in the coffee shop who's monopolizing the electrical outlet. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

That means instead of just making a better tool inside the browser, make a better connection between my desktop apps and your platform..and the world will be a better place.

Whew...I feel better.

Now does someone at Wordpress want to help me with this freakin template?

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