E-Dribble

In what may end up being the most entertaining “Am not-Are too-I know you are but what am I?-I’m rubber you’re glue” blog battles for 2008(once the comedy gold comments stop pouring in), I present to you:

Matt Mullenweg et al vs. Rob Howard

Matt is the creator of WordPress blogging software(What this blog runs and what we offer with our hosting packages at my real job). Rob Howard is the head cheese over at the GraffitiCMS site.

It seems that Rob hurt some feelers by the old tried-and-true “make us look better by making the other guy look worse” advertising drive that they put into effect. Matt posted that Graffiti was “dissing” WordPress. Immediately, comments began pouring in stating that Graffiti was actually an uber-evil extension of the Proctor & Gamble company whose job it was to harvest the souls that the parent company collected through UPC collection schemes.

The crux of the argument seems to be that Graffiti installs faster and with less clicks than WP. Oh, and WP is not a CMS.

I’d rather not discuss the software, as it’s boring and I could care less which you decide to use. I want to discuss the actions taken by the figureheads* on both sides of the battlefield.

First, Graffiti states that there is “finally” an alternative to WordPress, which is good, because now the mass exodus can begin. The only thing that had been holding us users back from leaving WP in droves was the fact that there just wasn’t a closed source alternative that required IIS and/or Mono to run. Whew! Let the revolt begin!

Matt Mullenweg A devoted WP fan (not MM, as previously noted) posted a comment on his blog stating that WordPress installed faster if you used Dreamhost and then badmouthed Graffiti’s proprietary “chalk” templating system.

Then, as the coup de grace, he stated “I’m already sick of Graffiti and I hope they fail big time.”

Remember that these are our champions of the open source movement.  The ones that believe they will conquer by having a superior product and actually look forward to the competition.

Now, our friend Rob steps in. We have more material to play with, only because it’s Graffiti’s job to make waves and get traffic and they’re doing so in spades, playing the media whore and pinging and commenting like it’s going out of style. I’m going to try to help them where I can.1) On their landing page, they let you know that they are faster to install. Two minutes vs. WP’s 5 minutes. What in the hell you’re supposed to do with your newly earned three minutes beats the hell out of me. Frankly, I would be embarrassed to attempt to use this as a selling point.

2) They let you know although they embrace MS for the underlying technology, it really shouldn’t matter since “..any good developer can make either PHP or ASP.NET code perform.” . Hey, way to ingratiate yourself with your potential customers. If they’re like 75% of the mom & pop web hosts that have never used anything but *nix for their servers, you’ve now called them incompetent. This is marketing genius at work, people. I hope you’re taking notes.

3) They state 80 company zealots that eat, sleep and breathe the application, yet nobody noticed a $100 typo in the price. Are we really suppposed to believe that nobody noticed that the software was listed for over double the actual price? The company either consists of liars or incompentent bastards. Either way, it doesn’t instill confidence.

To continue the festivities, we have to head over to Rob’s blog (which is hosted by MS at asp.net. I don’t know about you, but I would really like the application developer to actually use his application. I know that’s crazy, but I’m an innovator. It’s my job to think outside the box in cases like this.).

After reading his entry, I had to laugh. He starts off with a pompous tone, mocking the unwashed masses throwing stones at him in the name of open source then immediately dives in to defend his position(and mock them some more).

I’ve got to tell you, if I ever needed Graffiti’s services or applications, after reading their site and Rob’s blog, I would consider finding another alternative. Graffiti could have simply stated that their application is going to work on linux, but instead just had to let you know that if you were a real developer, you’d know how to work with MS technology. It’s like they couldn’t help themselves.

I’m poking fun at both camps, but in reality, it’s sad. Advertising drives that consist of degrading the competition is lame. Stating that you hope your competitor fails is fucking stupid. In spite of the animosity, both contestants might be better served joining forces. Between the two, maybe they might have enough restraint to keep their mouth shut when the alternative is only going to hurt them.

From their past actions, I doubt it.