Elteto.net

Thesitewizard.com's Christopher Heng makes setting up and using Drupal seem dramatically more difficult than it really is.

In the article "WordPress Vs Drupal Vs Expression Engine: Which Blog Software Should I Use?", Mr. Heng declares that in order to "undertake" Drupal, you must meet the following criteria. (His criteria, that is.)

1. You must be familiar with CSS and HTML, but having used web page editor software is not good enough.

2. You must know how to write PHP programs. He even calls knowledge of PHP "mandatory".

3. You must be willing to decipher Drupal code.

While I am very impressed with the amount of information thesitewizard.com site offers, I am left wondering:

1. What version of Drupal is Mr. Heng talking about?

2. Is he even talking about Drupal in the first place? (Or did he somehow confuse it with some other, esoteric platform?)

3. When was the last time he used Drupal?

In addition to the article sounding somewhat condescending to aspiring webmasters coming to the site seeking knowledge, some of its opinion-based findings presented as facts and requirements deliver inacccuracies. The choice of those three blogging platforms reviewed in the article is curious as well.

For those readers evaluating Drupal for blogging purposes, here is the bottom line: Once Drupal is installed (via a simple web interface at that) and a user is created, all you have to do is click "Create Content", then select "Story" from its expanding menu. To change themes, click on "Administer", then "Site building", and finally, "Themes". You want multiple users with their own blogs, click on "Administer", then "User management", then, "Users". Create a user, who will be notified by e-mail of his or her account, and he or she can add to the master blog by creating a story, or you can enable blogs for each individual user.

Full disclosure: Yes, WordPress is an excellent, extremely easy blogging platform, and yes, Drupal is a bit more challenging out of the box than blogging-specific tools, but its customizability and expandability will give more options to a user later down the road when he or she decides to add more features, and the user community is always there to help.