Why drupal?

So, this is my first post and the first question I want to answer right now is why I am using drupal.

At Nous we are working on a web platform for students, where they will be able to collaboratively create their lecture notes and share other study-related materials (more about that later). Since we are using python and pylons, I guess it would be logical to expect me to be using a pythonic system for my blog (e.g. zine ). Yet I have chosen drupal.

Personal reasons

One reason for my decision is that I am familiar with drupal. I started using it several years ago, when it was still in version 4.6. Since then I have worked on a few projects based on drupal and have attended the drupal conference in Szeged, Hungary. The experience I have gained has given me confidence whenever it comes to developing things with this system. I know that whatever functionality I decide to implement, I will be able to do it using drupal. Yes, it's a purely personal reason, but these matter too.

Deployment

Drupal is a php CMS. I understand that using anything written in php usually gets mixed reactions from people who have their own (informed, of course) opinions where it comes to security and performance. But drupal has proven to be one of the exceptions to the rule.

Using a product written in php has one evident benefit - deployment is easy. Almost all hosting providers support mySQL and PHP hosting as part of their basic offer. This let's me host my blog inexpensively. What is more, whenever I decide to leave my provider, migration is extremely easy.

Extensibility

When it comes to expanding the list of features, I guess any CMS worth its salt has a mechanism for pluggable third-party modules. In drupal's case the list of available modules is impressive (to say the least). This means that whatever I want (or need) to implement, at least I will find a module to use as a starting point.

What is more, the architecture of drupal stands out in the scene of object-oriented, model-view-controller frameworks and systems. Drupal's core is mostly procedural code with an extensive collection of hooks . I know this may seem awkward, but it works, scales and is easily maintainable.

Making a long story short..

I guess the main reason I chose drupal is because it stands in a middle-ground between lightweight, simple blogging platforms and heavy-duty CMSs. It is simple enough not to hinder something as trivial as launching a personal blog and yet it leaves a lot of room for future improvements.