Soon to be a Drupal site ;-)

Hello friends. After more than eight months of being closed down, my personal blog is now online again. Yay! However, this is just a temporary site, and all my previous content are still unavailable, because my real blog is going to undergo a major rebuild from static to dynamic — that is, from a simple Hugo site to a powerful, feature-filled Drupal site.

I once said that having my own self-hosted website, even if it’s only static, is already a dream come true for me. That sentiment is still true. However, I want now to do more with my blog — much more than I can do with Hugo, that is, given my limited developer skills. Also, I’ve become tired of maintaining its source code — which is what you do with a static site. Instead, I want now to use dynamic tools for building and managing my blog, and I want to experience again having a CMS for my content. A web application I can login to. Like when I was still using WordPress. But self-hosted this time. And all mine.

And so you ask, why Drupal and not WordPress?

Well, ever since I decided to learn how to build and self-host my own websites a few years ago, I’ve always had my doubts about WordPress — even though it is easier to use than Drupal. For two reasons:

• First, the WordPress core, by design, does not have many essential features (like page caching and maintenance mode), and so it means that you cannot have a working and secure website with it without using a multitude of plugins. And choosing and maintaining many plugins can become quite difficult and expensive.

• Second reason: I just don’t trust the powers that be behind WordPress. I first realized this back in 2018, when they forcibly pushed the block editor into the core, replacing the classic WYSIWYG editor, and despite vehement protests from the community. For me, it was as if all those protesting users simply didn’t exist, and all their negative feedback ignored. And now with the current WordPress drama — which makes me feel very sad indeed for all those who are relying on WordPress for their livelihood — any chance of me using WordPress for this blog is gone.

Drupal, on the other hand, is the very exact opposite of WordPress in this two regard. In addition to being flexible, secure, and powerful, Drupal core also ships with many essential features and modules (a.k.a. plugins), and so you only need to install more modules for additional functionalities. Also, the leadership and the community behind the project are simply amazing and inspiring. I recently watched all the DriesNotes from 2019 onward just so I can catch up, and I was definitely inspired. This is a great community, I said to myself, and although it’s not perfect, it’s definitely worth joining and contributing to.

But the most important reason of all is the success of Drupal itself. It may not be as ubiquitous as WordPress, but it nevertheless has a large user base, and it is being used by governments and corporations. That second part speaks a lot to me. I have big dreams, and using enterprise-level Drupal for my own websites (and not just this blog) will go a long way towards achieving those dreams.

In Drupal parlance, I’m an ambitious site builder. Not a beginner anymore, because I already have some skills, but not yet a developer. And I still have a lot to learn about Drupal — I’ve only just begun! So it’ll still be a few months, maybe, before my real Drupal-powered blog goes online. Wish me luck!

Arjay B. Araña
2024.12.03