I originally posted this as a comment on here: http://jeffwhatcott.com/drupal/content/why-are-people-building-social-ap...

But, I thought the concepts were more general, and deserved more visibility.

This is basically discussing the reason that there are more people looking for PHP developers than Drupal developers, specifically.

Marketing and buzzwords

I recently launched a beta version of this site for my client: http://www.pencils.com/. It uses Drupal 5.7, and the latest Ubercart. The site concept is very cool, and I think they will do well. I'm planning on writing up a technical paper on how everything was done as a contribution.

We're on the cusp of the release of Drupal 6.0, and that will be a happy day for all of us, as there are a number of improvements to the core functionality, and enhancements to the Drupal API. Unfortunately, it seems that two of the key contributed modules (in my book) are going to be a little behind the core 6.0 release. These would be CCK and Views. To me, the easiest way around this is to continue to use 5.x until at least these two modules 'catch up'.

This might be a fairly obscure reference, but it works for me, and it makes me happy. If you've seen the show LOST, there was an episode where the enigmatic character Ben (coincidence) was describing the Island to Locke. Paraphrasing, he said something like "On this Island, there is a box, a very big box, and whatever you want, it will give it to you." Now, I'm sure that someone with a better memory of the finer dialogue will correct me, but that's the idea. He was basically describing this concept of the Island "knowing" what you desired, using the box as a metaphor.

Q: If I'm doing so much stuff with Drupal, why does my own site look like a stock theme?

A: Before giving my 2 "good reasons" why, I have to admit that when I see a new Drupal site with garland, it always makes me shake my head. Garland is the default! At least change the theme to something else, please? Garland is an awesome theme, but perhaps I've spent too much time staring at it, as I use it for the "administration" theme on most of the sites I build. Anyhow, the reasons behind my "stock" Zen theme are:

The time I have spent learning the ins-and-outs of Drupal is starting to pay off. I recently hooked up with the awesome folks at www.vivagreen.com, and have been helping to optimize the site, clean up small issues, etc. The majority of the functionality is done with fairly stock pre-built modules for Drupal.

At any rate, it's a very very cool site, and it looks/feels great! None of it would be possible without the power of Drupal, and the Drupal community.

Long live the drop!

This has got to be the BEST and coolest Drupal site I have worked on thus far. If you like tattoos, or just want to see something that's just a little bit different than the typical Drupal layout, check out: seemyink.com. Very very very cool!

Another site based on Drupal (5.2)... YEAH! http://ickster.com. Check it out, and get icky.

Ok, so this is a Drupal site. Drupal has some nice features, and some nice modules. It appeals to my inner geek. I know that there are basically two major CMS camps out there at the moment: Drupal and Joomla. I have now had the opportunity to use both. I recently had a project that I wanted to use a CMS for, and I tried implementing the same site in both systems.