WordPress

[Gadget]

I've created a few websites over the years and am now thinking of using Wordpress for a new, mainly photography/art, site. I've used Koken designs before with separate hosting.

Anyone had experience with WordPress, comments, etc., please.


Gadget

[Old Bristolian]

I use them for a family history site (articles with some illustrations) and find them ideal. Simple to use and very straightforward - and I'm a bit of a technophobe,

Steve

[Gadget]

Thanks for that, Steve 

I've had some good and some iffy reports from them in the past but wasn't sure.

Do you use the free plan or one of the others?

Gadget

[Mike Morrell (NL)]

I've used Wordpress (as an amateur) to create a couple of websites. It's good to know that Wordpress comes in 2 flavours:
- a blog/website at Wordpress.com (free and paid plans:https://wordpress.com/pricing/ )
- the free Wordpress.org package hosted somewhere independently

Personally, I'd choose the (free) Wordpress.org variant hosted somewhere rather than a blog/website at Wordpress.com. Most webhosting companies offer websites with Wordpress pre-installed (or with a 1-click installation).

Big advantages of Wordpress for me are:

• there's a wide choice of website design 'Themes' (both free and paid) which with 1-click determine 90% of the website's look and feel; with 1-click see how your content would look with a different Theme
• it's easy to adjust the default Wordpress/Theme settings to fine-tune colors, fonts, text sizes, margins, etc
• a vast number of 3rd party plugins is available for WP that add functionality, for example to create page layouts, photo/media galleries, or e-shopping; some are free but the better ones are not

A free site at Wordpress.com comes with a limited set of design Themes and plugins. They're fine as long as you don't want/need anything outside the set. Wordpress.com also has some restrictions on storage space (images/videos). At Wordpress.com, your own URL and e-mail come with the 'personal' and 'premium' plans. With these plans you also get more storage space and more Design freedom.

With Wordpress.org hosted somewhere, you'll get an 'empty' Wordpress site with a few basic plugins. But you then have complete freedom of choice to get/buy the Themes and plugins that best meet your needs. Your own URL and e-mail is usually part of the hosting package. Unless you stay with a free (basic) Wordpress.com plan, there's  not much price difference between a paid plan at Wordpress.com or for hosting Wordpress somewhere else.

You might want to create a free 'test site' at Wordpress.com to learn what you can do with it and how easy/difficult it is.  If your happy using Wordpress, I would create an indepently hosted Wordpress site.

Mike

[Gadget]

Thanks Mike.

I've beeen looking at the themes and websites using WP for a while. They do look very smooth. As I said, Koken was good before it was taken over by 1&1 - a hosting site that I used for ages but moved to a smaller hosting site a few years ago.

[Gadget]

Thought that there was something nagging me about WP

Just found

https://thehackernews.com/2017/02/wordpress-hack-seo.html

Has this been sorted?


(and https://www.hallaminternet.com/wordpress-website-hacked/  )

[Old Bristolian]

I use the free Wordpress.com blog site. I'm not aware of any problems with it and it does have a good degree of flexibility as Mike says; however, as I said before, I'm not really au fait with technical matters

Steve

[Mike Morrell (NL)]

It's true that independently hosted websites that use 'open source' software like Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal can be more vulnerable to hacking than those developed using 'proprietary software' packages. But to keep things in perspective, more than 75 million websites (25% of the web) are built with Wordpress and its popularity continues to grow. Half of these use Wordpress.com and the other half are independently hosted. Just in terms of the numbers, a percentage of Wordpress sites are bound to be targeted - there's just so many of them!

In any software (even Windows, Android and IOS) new 'vulnerabilities' come to light from time to time and are usually fixed quickly and quietly with the fix automatically installed so that most users never even notice it. Like any software, Wordpress also gets updated with new features. At Wordpress.com, Wordpress is a 'service' and its users need never worry about keeping software up to date. People like me who have independently hosted Wordpress sites may need to, depending on the update and their hosting provider/plan.

I got an e-mail from my hosting provider a few days back mentioning that my website (which I haven't looked at in a year) had been automatically updated to Wordpress version 4.7.10 and that the newer version WordPress 4.9.5 was also available, if I wanted this. Both versions were released on April 3 and are equally up-to-date in terms of security, bug-fixes, etc. But Wordpress 4.9.x is a later development (with new/different features) than 4.7.x and it was up to me to choose whether and when to upgrade. My hosting provider can't and shouldn't make this choice for me. In fact, I upgraded to 4.9.5 with 1 click.
Screenshots provided.

Mike

[Ian999]

Wordpress.com is a hosting site which charges you for the privilege.
Wordpress.org is the site on which thousands of volunteers develop WP and give enormous assistance.

I do not know of any commercial link between the two.

I have built several sites using the free downloadable .org product and purchased templates. You can fiddle with everything on your own PC until you have it right then upload to your chosen hosting company. They all support WP other than those sites which force you to use their own proprietary software.

I currently have a number of urls hosted by one  company, but one of the addresses gets automatically redirected to Zenfolio, who tout themselves as a place for photographers.

I have been with them for about 8 years but am now in the process of moving away from them for a variety of business reasons.

I am building my new site on my PC using the .org product with templates from Photocrati. It looks good so far and is not difficult.

Doing it yourself is one way, the other is to buy a service from Zenfolio, Smugmug, Squarespace, 500px etc.