Fans of ExpressionEngine (a premium CMS/blogging software developed by EllisLabs) have been criticizing the company lately over bugs from the company’s launch of ExpressionEngine 2.0 (which was released in July).
After gathering feedback from developers, Kenny Meyers published an article criticizing EllisLab for their silence regarding ExpressionEngine’s launch (in which he humorously compared EllisLab to Apple), as well as highlighting why the company needs to hire a UX (aka user experience) designer.
In response to the criticism (which seems to have the support of many EE developers), EllisLab issued a response upon their corporate blog.
Historically its no secret that we’ve been bad at communicating with the Community during times of growth and the stress that goes with it. That’s precisely why I hired Leslie Doherty. So, speaking specifically to Kenny’s point #2, yes, unleashing Flinger is already happening.
A blog post or potentially a series of blog posts is how we would normally respond. But we’ve decided that’s not giving this the weight it truly deserves. Instead, we’re going to ask Dan, Lea, & Ryan to bring us on the EE Podcast so we can actually talk about what’s going on with EllisLab. Anybody who has talked with me in person knows that I’m very open about the state of EllisLab and I think an interview will bring that out in a way that a blog post simply can’t. (Official ExpressionEngine Blog)
Unlike most other CMS/blog platforms out there, ExpressionEngine is a premium service where members pay the company (i.e. EllisLab) in order to use the software for their respective sites.
Despite attracting over 1,000 new clients a day, the company has yet to resolve many of the issues plaguing the CMS, leaving it up to third party developers to “fill in the gaps” (which might explain why one of them launched an iPhone app).
Although ExpressionEngine isn’t as big as other CMS/blog platforms out there, they do have a very active and passionate community that is unrivaled by anyone save WordPress and Drupal (at least from my experience).
Hopefully EllisLabs can resolve these issues soon (not to mention communicate with everyone more), as the company is one of the few premium blog/CMS platforms worth their weight in code.
Update: As Frank pointed out below, ExpressionEngine 2.0 was launched in July. Article corrected to reflect that fact.
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Um, maybe you missed it, but Expression Engine 2.1 was released in July. And I would say that you’ve mischaracterized the reaction of the community to the delays. Just my opinion.
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Hey Frank, thanks for letting me know (I must have missed the 2.0 release although I did see the 2.1 mention in my feed reader).
As far as “mis-characterizing the reaction” goes, I think Kenny’s post clearly speaks for itself regarding issues with EE2, which listed (from a developers perspective) frustrations with the CMS.
IMHO strong reaction to bugs, issues, etc. is a good sign that a community is thriving as it means they want to see something fixed as they passionately believe in the product (and yes even WP has these discussions too as wading through the forums would reveal).
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Darnell – well, it appears I’ve had my nose down in the depths of coding a little bit too much! I came up for a moment to read Kenny’s article (I should have done that before commenting) – obviously, I’ve been missing out on all the fun!
I’ve used Ellis Lab products since pMachine, I’m very passionate about Expression Engine as a tool that I use for my clients and myself, but I don’t always pay attention to the forums unless I need to. That probably explains why I missed the firestorm of discontent reflected in the comments to Kenny’s article.
I will say that in the approximately six years that I’ve used Ellis Lab products, I’ve seen concerns expressed about communication on more than one occasion. Up until today, I would say that almost always, those concerns expressed in the forums have consistently been countered by more people saying the community should be patient.
It’s also somewhat amusing to hear people complaining about the price tag, saying that more functionality should be included for the $299 price. In my day job (in which I don’t use Ellis Lab products), I routinely hear quotes for content management / ecommerce systems in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range, so $299 seems like a small price to pay for all the functionality that _is_ included in Expression Engine. But again, it’s just my opinion.
Thanks,
Frank
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