A blog about ClassicPress?

Nothing definite yet. Certainly, this will mean a deep commitment for me. And I do have other things to worry about. But I’m thinking of starting a blog to chronicle my journey of using ClassicPress. And later, when I am more skilled and knowledgeable, maybe offer some tutorials.

I’ve searched “ClassicPress” in Google, and there isn’t much material out there. Much of what came up are still the controversies from a few years ago when this project was started. I’m no developer, but maybe this is the way I can help the community.

In case you’re all wondering, I do need for ClassicPress to succeed. I’m a Christian blogger, and I’m building my writing ministry on it.

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We will definitely welcome it and help promote it as a community. More visibility for ClassicPress is always great. Many people simply don’t know ClassicPress exists. And when they do find out, some do switch in my experience.

We always look for blog posts for the ClassicPress blog. If you don’t want to start a separate blog yet, you’re welcome to contribute a blog post to the official blog. It would be great to hear why you chose ClassicPress over WordPress for your project. That would make a great blog post.

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@viktor Actually, I chose ClassicPress from among many other CMSs, not just WordPress. The whole story is recorded in my series of announcements for one of my blogs:

https://network.swordsmanoftheword.com/category/migration/

As a side note, I’ve never made any real effort to build my audience in WordPress/com, because I’ve always known that someday I will have to move on (go self-hosted).

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If you create content that your visitors want, they’re not going to care what your site is built with or where it’s hosted. :wink:

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Well, I’m talking more about networking… that is a requirement to succeed in that place. Maybe it’s because ordinary blogs don’t have access to plugins to boost their SEO?

Also, I do struggle to write consistently… one reason for that is the feeling I don’t really own my blogs there, that I’m just leasing some space… Now that I’m going self-hosted, the feeling is much different… I’m more excited about blogging…

I certainly hope you will do this… MORE folks need to know that WP isn’t their only alternative… here’s a post I wrote right when Classic Press was starting up…

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And one more… https://contemporaryfusionreviews.com/rebel-right-now-a-few-thoughts-for-wordpress-theme-and-plugin-developers/

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More of my thoughts about starting a blog about ClassicPress:

  1. If I do this, it’ll be from a personal and user point of view. What it means to use ClassicPress — both pros and cons — for one’s personal and business blogs/sites. I’ll probably mention something about my Christian faith (that’s unavoidable, since I’m using CP for my writing ministry), but I will keep that to a minimum.

  2. The blog will be about (a) my own experiences in using ClassicPress, and later, (b) tutorials for beginners, and maybe also for intermediate users.

  3. The target audience will not just be self-hosted WordPress users, but bloggers and website owners in general. A special focus will be given to those who use ready-made hosted solutions like WP/com, Blogger, Tumblr, etc. I came from those places, and going self-hosted can be a daunting prospect to someone who use such services.

  4. When I try to convince people to switch to CP from WP, I’ll do it without antagonizing Automattic, even though I do disagree with their decisions to push the block editor and their plans for WP to the reluctant user base. After all, I’m still grateful to them for giving me a good start on blogging. I’ve read somewhere in this forum that it’s time for CP to make its own way as a standalone CMS, not just a WP fork. Well, a good start in doing just that is to finally make peace with the past :slight_smile:

  5. When I reach the point of offering tutorials, I will need to sign up to a more mainline webhosting company in addition to my current one (I’m in a DIY webhost), so that I can personally experience what most users will undergo. I will also need a new computer, preferably two — Windows and Linux. All these will take resources, which I presently don’t have.

  6. I thought of maintaining a minor WP blog so that I can maintain my connection to WordPress/com thru Jetpack. If I start this blog promoting CP, I cannot do that anymore. I will need to commit myself 100% to ClassicPress. Or else, I will be seen as a hypocrite :slight_smile:

  7. If I do decide to start this blog, it’ll be after building my own CP site and completing my migration from WP/com, and that won’t happen yet for some months.

  8. I’ll probably monetize this blog using ads.

  9. And because I’ll be doing this for the sake of the CP community, I’m willing for a few of you to act as my blog posts reviewers :slight_smile:

That’s all. Remember, I’m still just thinking about it…

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In the past I’ve jumped in and also did some early testing work for CP. Still like it a lot and run several sites on it. However haven’t been active here a lot because of busy work and study-schedule.

However, recently I’ve done a blog post + video on my business website for my clients (it’s in Dutch…) and others that are interested on how to convert from WP 5.8 to CP. And also included the installation of ClassicSEO. Very nice SEO tool!! Impressed!

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True, as long as it’s easy to navigate, well written and … the site doesn’t take ages to load (so it is important where you’re hosted and what you use but yeah, your visitors couldn’t care less).

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Yes, we need more of these… :slight_smile:

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I hit all those points you mentioned with my blog … easy to navigate, thorough and well-written, 1 second page loads. Just, very few actually wanted the content I was writing. Ah well; maybe next time. :smiley:

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I’m sad that this had happened :frowning:

And it shows what I noticed when I first joined this community a few weeks ago, and that is, CP still lacks “literature” that are geared towards beginners and non-techies. Like a wpbeginner blog, but for CP.

Being a non-developer myself, and having just jumped to self-hosting from WordPress/com (and still struggling building my website), I can sympathize with this guy. (Maybe his lack of tact was because of his fear that he won’t be able to restore his blog?)

Anyway, I just want to say that I’m still determined to start a blog that promotes ClassicPress and presents beginner-friendly tutorials, though the more I think about it, the more I want to include two more non-competing web publishing platforms: Hugo and Tiki Wiki. The first is a static-site generator, and the second is an all-in-one CMS — one that has a different design and philosophy than ClassicPress. I am/will personally use these two platforms for my own websites, in addition to CP.

But the sad note is that, even if I may want to start this blog ASAP, I can’t. This is a big commitment (and the proposed content very different from what I usually blog about), and it requires resources, preparations, and studies: It will take time.

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That’s what’s stopping us from providing more training resources. We’re working on creating content for documentation site and the blog, but it just takes time and we have limited people and time to do it. But we’re always moving forward.

The best way to learn is to teach it. So you can learn ClassicPress while teaching it to others :wink:

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If you want to try your hand at writing (an) article(s) for the CP blog, then let us know. Could be an easier way to get this moving, without requiring you to set up a full blog yourself.

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Yes, that’s why I’m thinking of a personal approach. Not exactly like the tutorials found in wpbeginner, but how I did it and the challenges I encountered.

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I’ll think about it. At least, I need to have some plan. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Hi guys. I’ve made some decisions about this blog I’m going to create, and I just want to share.

Its name and tagline will be:

Domain removed (inactive) – Publishing on the Web using Hugo, TikiWiki, and ClassicPress

And it will reside in this address: Domain removed (inactive).

Yes, as I’ve already been thinking about, the blog won’t be focused on ClassicPress alone, but it will be about these three non-competing web publishing platforms that I am/will personally use. (Hugo is a static site generator, and Tiki is a different kind of CMS.) And I’ve chosen the .XYZ domain because, besides the big promo (I’ve registered it for only $1.98!), each letter in the TLD can represent each of this platform.

By making the blog more than just about ClassicPress, I am freed from the responsibility of digging into the history and culture of WP and CP. Instead, I can start from where the CMS is right now, and with only brief references to the past. Furthermore, I am also freed from the expectation that my blog should be using the CMS itself. Because I only aim to present information with the blog (I don’t expect to build a community around it), I thought that it would be best if I keep it as simple as possible (and as low cost as possible) as a static website, not a dynamic one. Yes, for its platform the blog won’t be using ClassicPress, but Hugo.

Anyway, registering the domain and creating an empty site for it in my webhost are only the first steps. There’s still a lot of planning and studying to do, and I still have to create the blog itself, and so it would still be a while (perhaps several weeks) before I write my first blog post.

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