Disqus - Latest Comments for pmaiorana

Re: The New AVC

Paul Maiorana — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 10:39:13 -0000

Fred: if you edit that page and switch from the Visual editor to Text editor in WP, you should see the space represented as nbsp (ex: https://cloudup.com/cbdLuBJ... remove that and you should be good to go!

Re: HealthCare.gov: Why didn't the White House use WordPress?

Paul Maiorana — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 09:52:01 -0000

This is a great thread -- love seeing the debate here.

Re: "wp.com has sites with millions of users. But they aren't filling out forms and banging constantly on the databases."

I'm not sure what you think people do when they're blogging, but it's basically a lot of filling out forms and banging on databases :)

Re: 5 questions to ask when deciding whether to use Drupal or WordPress

Paul Maiorana — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:22:55 -0000

It's anecdotal, but I've had better luck finding dev help for WordPress sites over Drupal sites. WP is more popular and powers more sites, which of course plays into it, but I think it's also easier to learn.

And in terms of FTEs, it's really too hard to say…depends on how aggressive you are with schedules, scope, etc. We had 3 or 4 working on FC's Drupal sites at any given time, and could have used a lot more :)

Re: 5 questions to ask when deciding whether to use Drupal or WordPress

Paul Maiorana — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:13:08 -0000

Great post, Meg.

I've spent a lot of time in both the WordPress and Drupal worlds (I currently work for Automattic, and previously ran a couple of large Drupal sites for Fast Company as their CTO), and wanted to add my $.02.

One area that's often overlooked in these comparisons and feature breakdowns is how the platforms differ from a day-to-day operations and maintenance standpoint. That is, 1) is the platform easy for your editors and producers to use?, and 2) technology-wise, how much work is required to keep it up-to-date and well-tuned?

These are two hugely important (and often overlooked, or at least under-appreciated) aspects of making a CMS decision, and in my experience WordPress outclasses Drupal on both fronts.

The WP publishing interface is optimized specifically for publishing content on the web; it's attractive, efficient, and gets out of your editorial staff's way. Also, given the platform's wide deployment, new hires often have prior experience with the software, which means a faster on-boarding process, less time spent training, etc.

In contrast, Drupal's back-end is optimized for programmers. We spent a lot of time at FC customizing the publishing tools (I've tested every WYSIWYG editor in Drupaldom, and they're all terrible), and providing support for internal users.

And in terms of software updates, the two approaches really couldn't be further apart. Major WordPress releases come out every few months, and upgrades (with new features, performance improvements, design optimizations, etc.) are as simple as clicking the "update" button. Drupal releases come every 2-3 years, and any custom code you've written typically needs to be rewritten or it will be incompatible with the software upgrade. As a result, there are a lot of Drupal sites stuck on older versions of the platform, unable to upgrade without breaking their functionality.

Re: Zynga To Acquire Flock, The Social Browser That You Never Used

Paul Maiorana — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:14:21 -0000

I wonder if Twitter wanted them simply for their domain name and trademarks. Flock fits with their bird motif.

Re: No Respect for IT?

Paul Maiorana — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:37:11 -0000

We here at Inc. love supportdetails.com -- thanks for building it! I use it all the time to troubleshoot.

Re: I’ve redesigned

Paul Maiorana — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:19:02 -0000

We just fixed the FriendFeed widget bug you guys were seeing. Let me know if you see anything else!

Paul Maiorana
Director, Technology - Fast Company

Re: FastCompany.com turns on social network

Paul Maiorana — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:20:06 -0000

We're back up! We'll be watching the site closely this morning, and hoping to iron out the performance issues some of you encountered.

@Luke -- we hear you. We'll be reevaluating our RSS feeds now that we're live on our new software platform.

Best,
Paul Maiorana
Director, Technology
FastCompany.com

Re: Sugary Land Deal: Domino Sugar Plant Purchased

Paul Maiorana — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 09:53:24 -0000

I haven't been in Park Slope very long, but I don't think there's anything gentrified about 4th Ave.