The Association of Former Students has adopted WordPress as the preferred platform for the websites it hosts on behalf of its classes, clubs, and registered constituent networks. We are asking all participants in our Aggie Network Web Hosting program to seriously consider migrating their Drupal sites over to WordPress. After responding to the form at the bottom of this page, Drupal 6 will remain on your until you feel your new WordPress site is ready to replace it. We want to make transitioning to WordPress as easy as possible!
The infographic and the list below it illustrate why we chose WordPress.
Why WordPress:
- Over 140 million websites are using WordPress (stats show that WordPress is 60% of the CMS market, while Drupal is 5%). Drupal is on around 15 million websites.
- WordPress has a really large free plugin base and WordPress plugins are updated more frequently, meaning less security holes. Drupal plugins, on the other hand, aren’t updated as frequently, making your site vulnerable to potential security holes.
- You gain the ability to upload custom themes or plugins, adding functionality to your site without needing our intervention (we still will provide support. You must contact us to install a specific plugin or theme on your Drupal site.
- We created three responsive “Aggie” themes for WordPress, with potentially more to come (meaning your site will display nicely on tablets and smartphones).
- You can easily customize WordPress by choosing from over 2000 other free themes, many of them are responsive and smartphone compatible.
- Easier upload and management of your club documents, photos, and multimedia.
- Unlike Drupal, we can upgrade WordPress to new versions automatically with the click of a button. Upgrades between major versions of Drupal are a hassle for everyone as they can’t be done automatically; it requires a complex multi-step process.
- WordPress has an easier administrator interface and does not require as much “skill” as Drupal.
Migrating to WordPress:
We would like to provide your Aggie organization with a brand new WordPress site. We can transfer page body content and uploaded files to your new WordPress site from Drupal 6, but you will need to reconfigure the site menus and blocks, and also reinsert migrated files and images into your existing pages. We will not immediately decommission your Drupal 6 site until after content has been moved. If you’d rather continue using Drupal to avoid migration at this time, we ask that you allow us to upgrade your site to Drupal 7 instead, however, this may pose some problems. Below are some problems you might encounter with a Drupal 7 upgrade.
Potential Problems of Upgrading to Drupal 7:
- Your site will look different once the upgrade to Drupal 7 completes. The themes “Giordani” and “Marinelli” were merged by their Developer into one theme for Drupal 7, and the developer changed the feel of the theme.
- As with moving to WordPress, you may need to fix your blocks and modules after the upgrade.
- The administrator interface for Drupal 7 is far different from the familiar Drupal 6 administrator interface: You will need to learn how to find things again, even if you decide to delay moving to WordPress for now.
- After the upgrade, some plugins previously enabled might become disabled, and plugins previously disabled might become enabled—all because of steps we must take during the upgrade process for your site.
- Some plugins may require reconfiguration after the upgrade.
- Menu items and sidebar content might disappear from the site after the upgrade.
- You will still need to contact us to install plugins for you, you still can’t do that yourself.
- Responsive themes will not be offered for Drupal, so the site won’t work well with smartphones or tablets. Drupal offers only three choices for themes.
- Drupal plugins aren’t updated by their developers frequently. We might need to remove useful plugins if we discover they have security holes.
- Other unforeseen issues.
We need to hear from you soon, so please provide your response through the form below! Your prompt response helps improve the security and efficiency of our free web hosting services.
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