If You Can’t Spot The Sucker at The Table…

Posted on 01. Sep, 2009 by Fred in Miscellaneous

The 1998 film “Rounders” starring Matt Damon as a poker player in the cutthroat underground New York poker scene was thrilling and compelling to watch. Not only because it had a good storyline, but also because there were some very interesting points made about human nature. At one point, Matt tells us during one of his inner monologues “If you can’t spot the sucker at the table, then you are the sucker.”

I was reminded of that a few minutes ago as I saw another of a series of tweets touting a recent Wordpress plugin that has the community abuzz. It has some new tools and features that are certainly useful if you are really trying to leverage your readers in some manner. The thing that amazed me about this was that not only are these tools just coming out, but that the very same functionality has existed for quite a long while in my CMS of choice, TYPOlight. I know the first thing that you’re thinking is “okay, so if you like TYPOlight so much, why aren’t you blogging on it?” The answer is that I was in a rush to create a blog, and I needed a good template, something that by virtue of market penetration I could easily procure for Wordpress (thanks, Woothemes!). However, when it comes to using Wordpress as a CMS, it can’t possibly compare to TYPOlight. When I see new plugins coming out, I immediately think about the fact that what they do is often achieved for free with TYPOlight and often, the breadth of features exceeds that which the plugins offer even under commercial license.

I also hear talk here and there about frameworks in relation to code, whether it be meta language, scripting, stylesheets, or php. The thing that amazes me is that TYPOlight has existed as part of an amazing PHP framework that is simply the best and easiest since it went live in 2006!, most reliable and secure I have ever dealt with. As a developer, nothing matches the ability to extend a package compared to TYPOlight. The design philosophies and the coding patterns are magnificent.

Both as an end user and as a developer, I can tell you with confidence that if TYPOlight was sitting at a poker table with Wordpress, it knows exactly who the sucker is, and it’s holding a monster hand. Either way you look at it, in the next year, TYPOlight is the tool that will storm the CMS market in the U.S. It already has abroad, its home country is Germany. I won’t bother to go into the feature set here, I will just say that if you want more information – and you will – you must go to www.typolight.org to learn more.

2 Responses to “If You Can’t Spot The Sucker at The Table…”

  1. Ben

    01. Sep, 2009

    Good post, Fred. I have always been a bit confused by the popularity of Wordpress as a CMS. To me, this has always seemed like a bit of a mismatch.

    I think the popularity of WP and Joombo is a classic case of following what you’re told. While it’s easier to listen to the masses and use what they recommend, I’m glad I conducted my own research which led me to TYPOlight a few years back.

  2. Fred

    02. Sep, 2009

    Hi Ben,

    Thanks. Interesting that no one is arguing in defense of WordPress on this one. Perhaps there is less loyalty than I originally thought?

    You are absolutely correct about “following what you’re told”. Perception is reality, and people are readily led down one path with the common methods – heavy marketing, endorsements and such. The truth is none of that has to do with actual delivery of promises, there are only suggestions of the product’s quality.

Leave a Reply