I have been writing a (yet another) blog platform. This one using simple python and its wsgi interface. However the most interesting part, and why I did write it in the first place, is the static files generated. My goal was to have a robust platform that easily could be moved without servers and not be dependent on any specific running database.
And now I am running WordPress, so what happened.
The tiny itch
It is a commonly known force and motivator to scratch that itch to solve ones own problem. Most platforms already have a full feature set that would take forever to rewrite in ones own project, so why do it?
The main answer is because of what matters. Usually what’s bothering with existing solutions is a minor flaw, however difficult to fix in current code and its community. For someone new the threshold of entering a new community for the sake of adding one small feature might many times at least seem quite large. So large that the prospect of writing something new from scratch looks more promising than delving into the existing project.
Also, not to forget, what solves ones needs is usually a much smaller subset than the existing product. When someone leaves WordPress for writing a platform of their own, they are not saying “I’m gonna write my own WordPress”, instead they are only aiming for the minimal set of features, those that they need to feel comfortable.
The small but many
What I just have described would be an acceptable project for an amateur web developer. But when this itch appears over and over again it becomes too much, in mail, website, wiki, chat, politics, traffic light and that table you lately thought about upgrading.
One way or another you will find out that you finally have to choose you battles. To find that itch that you will scratch, for yourself and hopefully it will help others as well. It’s about focus ones resources.
The wool sweater
By choosing one solution you might get successful, you will solve the problem. And this in return will inspire to address another and yet another itch that will be calmed.
But all the time there will be in comparison an infinite number of other problems that you wish to solve.
Solving them all is not an option. One attempt can be to circumventing the itches, find out whats bothering and see how others work around it or even love it. It’s about changing the perspective of the problem rather than the problem itself. A single blog platform will never be the best choice for everyone. But one can, instead of fighting the itch, try to see how it solves the problem for those that it suits. Eventually one might accept the annoyance knowing that it serves a purpose for a lot of other people.
In the end it’s all about itches, small problems that could have been solved but to solve all of them is not feasible. And living with them is a matter of perspective. In the end you might even become so familiar with them that you would miss then when they are fixed. Well perhaps at a nostalgic level, just as the wool sweater.
