After much discussion about what it means to be business-focused, I was still not completely feeling it. After all, a blog might be one person’s hobby and another person’s bread-and-butter. So, I’ve been continuing to think on it. I think business-focused (to me) means that it allows me to get down to business – that is, it allows me to get right to the things that are important to running my site (whatever its goal) without a lot of hoops to jump through to get there. Here’s a few of the things that allow me to get right down to business with ClassicPress.
I don’t have to mess around with an unproven, unwanted, unfriendly paradigm shift in content creation. When I want to write, I can jump in and just write.
I don’t have to change much about my longstanding workflow, which gives me increased productivity. ClassicPress is everything that I’ve known and loved about WordPress, meaning the learning curve was essentially nil.
I’m not having to scrap advances in accessibility, or scrambling to figure out workarounds for problems that shouldn’t exist.
When I have a question, I don’t have to wonder if it will be removed, censored, questioned, or dismissed.
I don’t have extraneous code bloating my page source for the purpose of incorrectly structuring content with HTML comment tags.
I don’t have to wonder if some slick (looking) block will open my site to security issues because the developer didn’t have a solid understanding of what they were doing.
I’m sure there are other things, but, I wanted to jot these down while it’s fresh in mind. While there may be differing opinions about what it means for ClassicPress to be business-focused, to me, it boils down simply to the idea that it lets me get down to business (whatever that might be) and enjoy the same tools/productivity I’ve enjoyed through many years of working with WordPress. ClassicPress lets you get right down to business and hit the ground running. And that’s exactly what I need.
I have NO qualms with “business focused” - BUT, I DO think that the phrase might be changed to something like “Business (and FUN) focused”… whattya’all think?
Just in case some clarity is needed, I don’t have any issue with ClassicPress being called business-focused other than the fact that others have mentioned that it sounds exclusive to business and not inclusive to others.
Regarding @Dick_Metcalf’s suggestion, I’d not include parenthetic text in this context. I think it reads better as “ClassicPress – the CMS that gets down to business” …to not make it feel business-only. However, I’m not necessarily suggesting a text change…just trying to communicate how I’m personally interpreting the terminology (which is simply that ClassicPress isn’t going to get in my way,) when someone inevitably follows up with in conversation with, “What do you mean by ‘business-focused’?”
I’d actually kind of forgotten about this, but, yesterday I did a 20-minute ClassicPress-related spot on the WP Plugins AtoZ podcast and it got me thinking about it again.
I have to admit that the phrase Business-focused CMS really has put me off of ClassicPress. I have several personal websites and none of them are a business. I would venture to say that the vast majority of WordPress sites are mom-and-pop blogs. While I have no statistical facts to back that up is just my own user experience. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever gotten anything from a WordPress back business.
I tried Gutenberg don’t care for it, never use it.
I’d tend to agree about “business-focused” not being that inviting, and a friend who develops a few sites thought that ClassicPress wasn’t for him because of this.
Most of the sites I run are for small community groups rather than businesses, however most of my clients have been happy to trust my judgement on this and support my switching to ClassicPress, and, crucially, the fact that editing content won’t require them (eventually) to use the dysfunctional Gutenberg editor.
Also, switching to CP isn’t an irrevocable decision. I’ve switched a test site back to WP, and then back to CP again with no problems.
I don’t think 1700 is too bad at this stage. A live graph updated weekly would be great.
But I agree that “business-focussed” could be putting people off. ClassicPress should be considered by everyone considering WordPress(.org) for a new project, and the message perhaps needs to reflect that more.
Personally I’m contributing 20 live sites and 24 localhost installs to the current total, and I’m hoping to increase that number soon.
Re tommy’s point and the number of installs. I would not be worried particularly I have a two of my own sites on CP and no problems so far regarding plugins. I have around 100 client sites, almost all on WP4.9 with classic editor, and that is probably where they will stay until problems arise or it is time for a website makeover. So most likely all will be on CP before the end of 2020.
Re the “business focused” tagline, it does nothing for me. I understand what is meant, (hopefully) having read all the posts both here and on slack.
Listing what it is and what it is not and picking one of the items “business focused” does not create a tag line that will attract new people wanting to create a website nor get someone to change an existing site from WP or any other platform.
Words like versatile that were talked about would not work either.
CP - versatile as anything can be done with a plugin.
WP - versatile as everything that can be built in is.
I think that, to “grab” the passing visitor, the tag line and some of the marketing needs to be re-thought.
I’ll start by saying that the business focused tagline didn’t phase me in the slightest and none of my websites are “business” ones. That said, for the number of times that business focused has come up as a road block for people, I’d agree that it could do with a rethink.
We all seem to be more concerned with attracting more users in order to grow and are totally overlooking the “glove for the other hand”!
WordPress’ popularity didn’t come from the user base but came from the user’s access to 3rd party developers. It was the innovation of those developers that built WP. CP needs to work harder to find and attract developers in order to grow.
When users know they have access to an array of themes and plugins to build a site upon they will adopt in high numbers. At the moment the default answer of “If it works with WP 4.9.x then it will work with CP” is just not good enough.
The “business focused” tag/catch phrase is not the problem but as a business owner I still have to go over to WPORG in order to build my business site with CP and that, is the problem!
ClassicPress needs to start with it’s own default theme and commission or build some plugins to get the ball rolling. The theme will need to be a business centric theme rather than a general blog type one and once you throw in a couple or so of business focused plugins then the game is on.
Understand your reasons. I have dozen of WP sites with 1-5k custom posts (tours, products, goods etc.) and support terms are 5+ years. Switching to ClassicPress is a bit risky for me too. So I plan to wait and watch the project’s evolution for about a year before make any global steps.
But there is an important notice. Popularity among mass users is not the most trustfull and appropriate indicator for a business-oriented fork. I don’t expect CP to get millions of downloads anyway, as it target audience is narrow (comparing to WP). But. Each business-client can be more profitable for a plugin maker or theme developer than 100 or even 1000 bloggers sometimes. So download numbers might not be the primary KPI at all. It depends on project positioning and strategy.
I think, the main taks for CP is to survive for 1-2 years without loosing enthusiasm. If it shows stable and obvious evolution by regular commits and releases, devs would like it. Regularity is much more important in this case than counters etc. The date of the last commit tells me more than formal community size. CP could really be a nice «pro» fork.
This is really encouraging. Thanks for sharing this perspective. Personally, I think Scott’s original desire for a million installs is possible, but more toward the end of 2021 when the Classic Editor clock runs out. I don’t particularly mind that we’re starting small, as it gives us a chance to get a firm foundation under us before we scale. Too much + Too fast = Failure. I’m not willing to accept failure, so I am happy to have slower growth to create a greater chance for success.
I must say I’m a little concerned when I read so many comments about people being put off using CP because of that “business focussed” tagline.
It might be wise to change «business» positioning to a bit more common and not associated with money and payments. But still ambicious. I’d try “CP is a professional WP” or something similar. Advanced, expert, clean… Keep the straight connection to WP: a fork + %for chosen ones% :). Mentioning it would encourage people to try and migrate. Later, after 2.0, WP associations should be removed.
Unfortunately, can’t offer an exact slogan. English is my third language, I don’t feel it. But the advice bases on my ex-copywriter skills. The principle should be good enougth to work properly)
Thanks everyone for your input. I am happy to revisit this – we’re continuing to evolve and define ourselves in the marketplace.
As Wade mentioned in the other post, please share your discussion and suggestions here and we’ll come up with a more fitting focus and tagline.
In my own discussions with people, when I talk about ClassicPress I find myself sharing more about the stability of the platform, and how when people make the switch, they are grateful that there is this “safe haven” to come to. I think that over time, that will become one of the most attractive features of ClassicPress – that here you will find a welcoming community and a stable platform that you can bring your website to. (cue clichéd images of a lighthouse against a stormy sea )
All kidding aside, I do think our stability is one of the biggest selling points for anyone looking to get out of WP.
However… we want to think bigger picture as well. This is about more than just being a WP alternative, this is about being a best choice as a CMS. Period. The comparisons to WP are unavoidable right now because we are so close to the fork, but with V2, that will start to change and we’ll be moving out of WP’s shadow. Absolutely, let’s provide a new home for every ex-WP site we can! But… keeping the long game in mind, is it possible to also position ourselves well for V2 and beyond?
Something like “the user friendly CMS” would sound infinitely more inviting. Or if you are seriously intent on having the word ‘business’ in there “the user friendly business CMS”.
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