The author states the problem himself: Wordpress is a blogging platform that people are trying to turn into a full blown CMS.
Stop trying to do that. If you want a "real" CMS with serious content types and a more thought-out plugin system, go use Drupal (if you have to use PHP and not much time to code). If you have more bones for coding, start with Symfony like your colleagues, or Django, or RoR.
If you have even the faintest inkling that a site will mutate from a blog to something more serious, don't start with Wordpress. If your fundamental data types from day one until infinity are not pages or posts, do not start with Wordpress. You cannot make it into something it's not, even though it's getting so popular that enough people will be tempted to do so.
The reason Wordpress is still so popular is that blogging and basic website creation are still getting more popular, and Wordpress is still a great way to accomplish either of those things since it will be used exactly as intended. I don't anticipate these common needs will shift too much in the near future, and the LAMP stack is just too stable and well-supported to go anywhere, so Wordpress is gonna be around for a long time.
> It is like trying to teach a language that doesn’t have an alphabet
Chinese doesn't have an alphabet. It's used by many people and it's possible to teach to those who use alphabetic languages.
That doesn't mean everybody should learn it, or that it's a model for how a de novo language should be designed today. Use it for what it's good for: talking with Chinese people.
In general, I'd just be more careful with cultural analogies like that.
> The author states the problem himself: Wordpress is a blogging platform that people are trying to turn into a full blown CMS.
Trying and succeeding.
Pressbooks, book publishing engine on top of WordPress (selfhosted & Saasversion)
Woocommerce ecommerce with 600k+ downloads (selfhosted & Saas version)
WP e-Commerce, 2 million+ downloads
BuddyPress, equips WP with social network features 1.4+million downloads
P2 Theme, quick community messaging almost 350k downloads
Collabpress, project and task management solution 36k downloads
bbPress, complete forum package, half a million downloads.
S2Member, Wishlist, DAP, MagicMembers, WP Member are among many other membership site solutions, >1 million downloads
Pods, Toolset and other solutions that extend its CMS capabilities, easily 200k+ downloads.
EditFlow, adds professional editorial workflow experience, 50k+ downloads
Fundify, Ignition Deck, crowdfunding solutions on WordPress.
And look in the wild, sites running WordPress: Real estate sites, agencies, hotel sites (there's a WP saas for that now too), restaurant sites (Happy tables), auction sites, market place sites, portfolio sites, photo gallery sites, governmental sites, membership sites, marketing sites equipped with landing pages etc, news sites, online magazines, Event sites and more.
Just a blogging tool, I see. Do continue to look away as it is only going to get worse (in your eyes).
Stop trying to do that. If you want a "real" CMS with serious content types and a more thought-out plugin system, go use Drupal (if you have to use PHP and not much time to code). If you have more bones for coding, start with Symfony like your colleagues, or Django, or RoR.
If you have even the faintest inkling that a site will mutate from a blog to something more serious, don't start with Wordpress. If your fundamental data types from day one until infinity are not pages or posts, do not start with Wordpress. You cannot make it into something it's not, even though it's getting so popular that enough people will be tempted to do so.
The reason Wordpress is still so popular is that blogging and basic website creation are still getting more popular, and Wordpress is still a great way to accomplish either of those things since it will be used exactly as intended. I don't anticipate these common needs will shift too much in the near future, and the LAMP stack is just too stable and well-supported to go anywhere, so Wordpress is gonna be around for a long time.
> It is like trying to teach a language that doesn’t have an alphabet
Chinese doesn't have an alphabet. It's used by many people and it's possible to teach to those who use alphabetic languages.
That doesn't mean everybody should learn it, or that it's a model for how a de novo language should be designed today. Use it for what it's good for: talking with Chinese people.
In general, I'd just be more careful with cultural analogies like that.