In: Random
27 Dec 2007I was looking at my site today and I ran across an advertisement that said, "Tired of Wordpress?" Well, of course I am not tired of Wordpress, but curiosity being what it is, I had to go check out the site. The ad was from Telligent’ systems, the makers of Community Server, and it seems that they have a new IIS/.Net based blogging software out called Graffiti CMS. The site is fantastic and the product looks pretty good. That being said, here is why it’s got very little hope…
Sound familiar? If you equate Wordpress to Windows, Users to Blogs and Themes to Software…you have exactly why Windows maintains it’s strangle hold on the marketplace. You also have the same reason I wouldn’t consider switching to another platform, let alone a new one.
Add to that the fact that you would have to convince a largely Linux friendly community to switch to Microsoft Windows IIS servers and ditch PHP (Not going to happen) and you have a losing battle on your hands.
This isn’t to say that it’s not possible with a knock your socks off product, but if someone with a small low traffic blog looked into switching it would be rough, imagine someone like me or worse yet one of the huge blogs that run on Wordpress.
Sorry Telligent’ I think you are in for a hard fight, especially when you calculate in that they want you to pay $100 for it.

Jason Burns is a technology enthusiast, Microsoft guy, photographer, musician and all around geek. This blog is the general rambling one, check out the links for the specific ones!
4 Responses to What does Wordpress have in common with Microsoft Windows? Marketshare…
Scott Watermasysk
December 27th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Hi Jason,
[Disclaimer - I manage the product teams for Telligent including the Graffiti team]
I posted a quick response: http://simpable.com/business/graffiti-v-wordpress/
Thanks,
Scott
Jeff Putz
December 28th, 2007 at 8:27 am
That’s like saying there was no point in developing Community Server, especially the forum part, because phpBB and vBulletin are dominant. Well, they’re the forum of choice on Xbox.com and MySpace.
I think you’re wrong. Dominance doesn’t mean anything in software if you have a better product or one that targets some other portion of the market.
Jason Burns
December 28th, 2007 at 8:32 am
I think you might have missed my point Jeff. It’s not that there is no point, just like Scott’s article says about Mac. I use a Mac. The point is that the advertising campaign “Tired of Wordpress?” is probably not the best way to get users. If I was starting a site from scratch I would totally check out this CMS. But as an entrenched Wordpress user, with the support and community surrounding Wordpress, it would make it nearly impossible for me and many people I know to consider a switch.
Aaronontheweb
January 10th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Hi Jason,
I also think you’re wrong. Telligent could care less about what the average “Joe Blogger” thinks; they’re not targeting you or me for Graffiti. I wrote about it in detail on my own blog: Telligent Launches Brilliant Marketing Campaign for .NET-Based CMS “Graffiti”
Also, cool blog. I’ll check out some of your WOW articles.