In the Driesnote here at DrupalCon CopenHagen there was much speculation as to where Drupal may be in 10 years. I really hope that 10 years from now we'll be able to look back at Dries' slides and giggle at our projections, but a part of me fears that if this community doesn't change our ways, that won't be the case.
WordPress as a platform has made it easy for the world to blog. As their community grows and ages, they are starting to see that the web is a great place to do a whole lot more than simply publish content. As demands increase, WordPress adapts.
WordPress is quickly transforming from a blog engine to a content management system. Drupal may be stronger, more secure, more flexible, more mature, more stable, and more technically awesome. But the Drupal community needs to recognize that these things won't guarantee our survival. WordPress has the brand, and the market. WordPress serves as the perfect introduction to web publishing, and once people are hooked it's hard to break their loyalty.
We are a community of developers, and we've been in such high demand recently that we've grown comfortable with some bad habits. We focus on solving hard problems and writing beautiful code, but we've been ignoring the needs of our audience.
I love Drupal, and I love what I do, but I think we need to fight a little harder to assure we will still be relevant 10 years from now.
Do you disagree? Come to my WordPress is better than Drupal session tomorrow morning to participate in this conversation: 9am in room 12.
