So why am I using PivotX?

[Schop]

A couple days ago, I was giving a friend a tour of the PivotX backend. He was impressed by the looks and the ease-of-use, and of course I did not hesitate to brag about PivotX. Being a long time user of Pivot, and now PivotX, I've grown very accustomed to working with it, and I like it a lot.

How I ever started to use Pivot I don't really remember, I think I was talking to somebody that was already blogging, and told him I wanted to do that as well (this was back in the early years of this millenium I believe), and he pointed me to a couple alternatives, including Pivot, and it might have been the first one I tried.

Anyway, to get to the point of this post, after a while my friend asked me: 'So why do you use Pivot, and not WordPress, for example?'

To be honest, the only answer I could give, is "because I'm used to it, and I know how it works". After he left, the question kind of stuck in my mind, and later that night I went on the WordPress website , and I must say I am very impressed with what's available there (am I allowed to say that here?). There is a vast amount of plug-ins, extensions, themes and what not. And overall, I think PivotX and WordPress are very much alike anyway (but I must admit I've never worked with WordPress).

So, I actually have two questions now:

1. Why should anyone choose PivotX over WordPress? Is there maybe a technical advantage that I don't know about? I don't have experience with WordPress, could it be it's not that easy to use?
2. To other users: why did you choose to use PivotX?

Anyway, I don't think I'll ever change my personal blog to another script, as I said earlier, I like Pivot, and I'm used to it.

[Bob]

I'm obviously biased, so i won't comment on why i use it, but about the technical differences.

Well, the goal with PivotX is that we have a clean, easy to understand template language, that is at the same time very powerful. What we have right now is already much more legible than what Wordpress does (in my opinion of course), and will only improve in the time to come. At the same time, extensions will be much simpler to write (once I finish the work on adding hooks, and writing docs), because of this.
Of course we also support flat files, for people who have no access to MySQL, and we're going to add SQLite as well, which makes it easier to run pivot on a variety of platforms.
And, it's much easier to have multiple weblogs with Pivot, than with WP.

[lijn]

First of all: because I'm used to it, and I know how it works is as good a reason as any

Having switched from Pivot to WP some 2 years back because I needed a DB and couldn't wait for Pivot to have support for one, my main objection to it was the templating system. There is NO clean way to distinguish between template tags and plain php. Also, to change the behavior of some template tags, you have to insert php into the templates. In Pivot and PivotX you can write templates without a single instance of php in them.

You can understand how happy I am that PivotX now supports a mySQL. I'm in the process of changing everything back to it (slowly... slowly...), and it feels like coming home

As for extensions etc. in the "new" PivotX; I haven't tried to write any yet, so I cannot say anything sensible about it. In the "old" Pivot, I used to happily modify lots of stuff and writing my own snippets. Knowing Bob, he'll not have made things any more difficult that they were, rather easier.

[Khevor]

Similar to the poster above, I too switched over to WP for a time as I wanted to use mySQL. Installing it was fairly straightforward but there was quite a bit about it that bothered me. The front page of the backend was like one huge advertisement (read: self-aggrandizement). Most of the page was filled with box after box of news pieces, theme news, community news, etc.
Templates... they are convoluted enough to drive any sane web-designer to drink. I ended up using pre-made themes (which I hated with a passion as I tend to design my own themes for my site and forum). Of those themes, most didn't appeal to me and the ones that did all seemed to have something wrong with them - usually some niggly little quirk that I desperately wanted to remove but couldn't be bothered sifting through hordes of template files to track down.

One thing I did like about WP was the way plug-ins were handled as well as the widget-style columns. They were nice but again, there were 'insignificant' details that irked me about them (usually in regards to certain customization).

When I discovered PivotX was being developed and that it supported a database, I dumped WP like a bad habit. I've been a Pivot user for a long time (I honestly couldn't tell you how long so we'll suffice it to say, many years). I got started originally because, back in those days, I didn't have access to a database and wanted a flat-file system. Changing configuration files in Notepad back then really wasn't much different than any other configuration file (i.e. .ini files for video games) so it didn't bother me. The fact I could apply any template I could dream up made it a long time creature for me.
Some time after that, extensions were introduced and it opened a whole new world (everything from guarding against comment spambots right through to allowing for interactive content).

For me, Pivot (and subsequently, PivotX) are tried and true scripts and have yet to let me down in any way (and you couldn't ask for a better community for support). If that isn't reason enough for me to continue with Pivot(X), then I don't know what is.

[smile]

So why am I using Pivot(X)? I started my weblog in May 2001, with handmade coding. Soon after that I switched to GreyMatter. I don't remember any more how long after that I switched to Pivot, but I do remember those screens. And the rebuilding, whch always gave me a comfortable feeling. I have always used Pivot and got used to Pivot and the drrrreaded safe mode with my hosting provider. I also looked at other CMS's like Nucleus and WP but always came back to Pivot.

Khevor: if you think WP has a none transparant structure in templates, don't look at TYPO3. I am still struggling with those...

[Massive]

1. Why should anyone choose PivotX over WordPress? Is there maybe a technical advantage that I don't know about? I don't have experience with WordPress, could it be it's not that easy to use?
2. To other users: why did you choose to use PivotX?

That's easy: Pivot is for the elite! It's like preferring a Lamborghini over a Ferrari!

It's easy to install, use and backup plus it's portable like no other (I had to change hosts for a few times already and it was like backup the database and the configs which are .zip files, install on new host, upload the backups and it was running in a short time without major problems).

Also its template system is awesome and I know some websites that are pretty big (like top 2000 in Alexa) and run smoothly on Pivot Dreadwind!

What else can you wish?

I haven't tried PivotX yet but it's going to be even better for what I've been seeing!

[Ebola]

It is not easy to compare Word-Press with Pivot. WP is a very cute way to blog - and around the www comunity a powerfull blogsoftware. Lots of extensions and tons of free templates. Pivot is much more.

I use WP for Friends and some Cumstums - because of easy and "no think" use, free templates and extensions.
For myself I use Pivot (after 1.5 year Greymatter) since ~2002end. And I never think of switching to another thing, like WP, Nucleblabla or some other thingamy. There is no Blogsoftware apart from Pivot that can force my wishes in a clean way. WP can do it also - but neither the code nor the handling is clean. ... In a short way to say: Pivot is Baba, WP is bubu. Both can make Blabla - one for Adult, the other for ...
Anyway - as I sayed: It's not easy to compare.

The only thing I not happy with the X-Core is the translation. Maybe we can find a way to make it more individual.

[hansfn]

The only thing I not happy with the X-Core is the translation. Maybe we can find a way to make it more individual.

OK, this is off-topic, but I couldn't let this on go uncommented. Yes, translation in PivotX requires you to you use a tool - poEdit normally. Except for that you have the same freedom as you had in Pivot. Please elaborate on what you aren't happy with - maybe start a separate thread in the "2.0.x Discussion" forum?

[Ebola]

Hans,
this life is short and sometimes beautiful. Do not take erverthing so serious. If I was soo unhappy with it, I had done as you sayed.

[smile]

OK, this is off-topic, but I couldn't let this on go uncommented. Yes, translation in PivotX requires you to you use a tool - poEdit normally. Except for that you have the same freedom as you had in Pivot.

But the .po files for the languages are not accessible, are they?