Last Thursday Tuija Pirttijoki called me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our common aquaintance & friend, tax law attorney Dr Marja Hokkanen, was already at the second full website rebuild within under 4 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What she ordered:<\/strong> What she got:<\/strong> Yes, two individual installations. One site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tuija was supposed to refresh the design. And now we’re here to ask the uncomfortable question: Because when: \u2026 you don\u2019t have a website. Even if it wasn\u2019t intentional, the effect is the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2757 This is especially upsetting because that behavior hurts our industry<\/strong>\u2757 So, what was the fix? \ud83d\udfe2 I activated Twenty Twenty-Four (which is WordPress’ default template since Nov. 2023 – actually before the time when the website was rebuilt for the second time, so no excuses) -and-<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udfe2 Documented every modification!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now the site it editable by the client and maintainable by any competent developer. And live by Friday (yes, Friday like 24h after the call).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The main takeaway<\/strong> But professionalism means building systems that: If your solution requires secrecy to survive, it\u2019s not expertise. If your WordPress site feels fragile, overly complex, or suspiciously dependent on one specific person \u2014 it probably doesn\u2019t have to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes the solution isn\u2019t more code. # WordPress Website Complexity: Incompetence or Intentional Lock-In? How to Build Maintainable Sites Instead<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-generic","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/folla.fi\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/folla.fi\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/folla.fi\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/folla.fi\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/folla.fi\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/folla.fi\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1009,"href":"https:\/\/folla.fi\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions\/1009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/folla.fi\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/folla.fi\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/folla.fi\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/folla.fi\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
A website that is simple to use, so that external collaborators or herself would be able to update it with ease. That’s why she asked (twice – second rebuild, remember?) a “WordPress Expert” for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A cryptic custom theme no one else could read, with hardcoded content buried inside template files and duplicate plugins doing the same thing – that’s not the whole list, but you understand my point.
My personal favorite? WordPress running inside WordPress for bilingual content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, she was reverse-engineering a black box. \ud83d\udd75<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Was it incompetence? \ud83d\ude35\ud83d\udcab
Or was it dependency by design?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1) Only one developer understands the structure
2) Content can\u2019t be edited safely
3) A second language requires a second installation
-and-
4) every small change requires \u201ccalling the guy\u201d (and paying handsomely)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You have a lock-in mechanism. \ud83d\udd12<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\ud83d\udd34 It destroys trust.
\ud83d\udd34 It makes clients suspicious of everyone.
\ud83d\udd34 It turns WordPress, an open and flexible system, into a hostage situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, no full rebuild. No ego “I’m a super coder” project. Focusing on offering upgrade paths instead of dead ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\ud83d\udfe2 Removed plugin duplication and bloat
\ud83d\udfe2 Replaced hardcoded content with proper blocks
\ud83d\udfe2 Installed TranslatePress on a single installation
\ud83d\udfe2 Implemented clean language filtering
\ud83d\udfe2 Hardened security properly<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WordPress is not complicated.
People make it complicated.
And sometimes – let\u2019s be honest – complexity is profitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1) The client can understand
2) Another developer can take over
3) Won\u2019t collapse on the next update<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s insecurity.
And we can do better than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s less ego. \ud83e\uddd8<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"