So unsurprisingly I’ve had a few people question why I’m not using Umbraco for the latest version of Aaron-Powell.com.
First off let’s just have a look back on my blogging and the blog engines I’ve used.
Back before I was the world-famous blogger that I am today I used Windows Live Spaces for blogging, yeah, I was just that awesome. But when I decided to buy my own domain I thought it was only appropriate that I started using some actual software.
I chose Umbraco, which was in version 3 at the time (this was somewhere around August 2008) which wasn’t too bad at the time.
I installed Warren Buckley’s Creative Web Starter kit which was available at the time. Last year when I met him and he had a look I think he was shocked at just how old a version of it I was running! I had a pretty basic skin on it, which err, was ok (ha!).
Next I installed the Blog 4 Umbraco package (version 1) which I then rewrote the front end controls for it.
By now I was not really using OOTB other than the document types (which I’d also hacked a bit) and it was starting to become a bit of a mess. But I kept with it, I did a major overhaul of it when I produced the LINQ to Umbraco training videos.
And this brings us to the present day. Although my Umbraco site did do what I needed it to do, but I’m never content, so I was looking for the next round of improvements. Since MVC is completely the sex I decided that I wanted to use that as a blogging platform. Now it is true that I could have used Umbraco still, but I don’t really have the time to re-write the front end yet again! :P
This is why I chose PaulPad, that and I really liked the OOTB style of the site. Essentially it brought all of what I was looking for in a code base to me with very little work needed.
Something else really appealing about PaulPad is that this is actually much less of a blogging platform than it is a wiki platform. Something I had noticed on my Umbraco blogging engine was that it wasn’t great if I wanted to go back and revise a post and have it very obvious. With more of a wiki feel it’s easier to do that. Also, there’s a lot more transparency over the revision history, which will be handy with some upcoming topics.
Lastly, I believe that if you are going to be able to truly evangalise a platform (ie - Umbraco) you can’t just use it. You need to be familiar with your competitors (although PaulPad is hardly a competitor :P), so this is a good way to really just play with something that’s not Umbraco.
Hopefully that sheds some light on my madness regarding my dismissal of Umbraco as my choice of blogging platform.