Wordpress, the new 500lb Gorilla?

[csabatka1]

• Pride of ownership. This is one of those intangibles that is easily overlooked. When you own a website it changes how you think of it. It becomes the garden that produces food that you helped to cultivate instead of the produce isle at the grocery store.

This couldn't be anymore true. Since I designed and developed our site and it is a major contributor to sales, there is a lot work and effort on my part not to see it fail. I'll do everything in my effort to ensure it works. That pride of ownership and effort is something you won't get from any vendor.

 

[MikeFitzpatrick]

This is a great article from Altimeter Group, and even though they don't discuss WordPress specifically it fits this discussion well. Just about everything they touch on can be handled with a WordPress site, micro-site, or blog (choose your flavor).

The Converged Media Imperative: How Brands Must Combine Paid, Owned and Earned Media

 

[MikeFitzpatrick]

I wonder if any vendors would be willing to put themselves to the test! We could create a fake City, State and Manufacturer combo, and each of them create a website to try rank well for specific search terms.

I am in for this. Although I would venture to guess that there won't be any non-WordPress vendors that would be .

 

[craigh]

Yay WordPress.

 

[ryan.gerardi]

What does this boil down to? How does this affect dealers whose websites are with WP providers?

 

[craigh]

What does this boil down to? How does this affect dealers whose websites are with WP providers?

From what I understand, it boils down to a few things:
- Wordpress has a database level exploit that has yet to be revealed publicly
- Wordpress has been aware for 5 weeks and is not fixing it, primarily due to the fact that it would break many themes/plugins
- Developer is going to release the exploit in a matter of days, forcing their hand

From the time it is released until the time they patch it for real, any Wordpress sites using specific plugins or configuration could be entirely vulnerable. This is not the first time this has happened and it's not going to be the last. It's an unfortunate side effect of an open source blogging platform over-extending into a full blown CMS that now often stores sensitive data.

 

[Alexander Lau]

From what I understand, it boils down to a few things:
- Wordpress has a database level exploit that has yet to be revealed publicly
- Wordpress has been aware for 5 weeks and is not fixing it, primarily due to the fact that it would break many themes/plugins
- Developer is going to release the exploit in a matter of days, forcing their hand

From the time it is released until the time they patch it for real, any Wordpress sites using specific plugins or configuration could be entirely vulnerable. This is not the first time this has happened and it's not going to be the last. It's an unfortunate side effect of an open source blogging platform over-extending into a full blown CMS that now often stores sensitive data.

Right, with that much worldwide usage, you have to expect hackers to find vulnerabilities. I didn't see the the exploit news though, good info. I'm sure the powers that be at WordPress-based automotive platforms are all over it.

I don't see a decent forum, even to this day with the popularity of WP, where themes and plugins are held accountable against each other. That is not a bad idea, IMO.

 

[Alexander Lau]

What does this boil down to? How does this affect dealers whose websites are with WP providers?

It could, but guessing they are on it or once they know about the exploit.

 

[craigh]

It could, but guessing they are on it or once they know about the exploit.

In theory, yes.
But he's only helping plugin and theme developers with hundreds of thousands of installs.
Everyone else will find out on the same day when it is disclosed.

 

[Alexander Lau]

Looks like he's offering help, but probably at a rate for companies.