Does Drupal Suck?

It's entirely subjective, but there are people who think it does and a Hacker News discussion on it. There's barely any utility in taking the time to harp on something's weaknesses and conclude it is essentially worthless. Maybe people on the fence are swayed and thank you for it, e.g. in the vein of a well-written criticism on Amazon reviews. Cathartic benefits are dubious, but also a possibility. Somewhere I read that doing negative things in order to "get it out of the way" tends to reinforce rather than relieve. I'm guilty as anyone.

Heck, I agree that Drupal kinda sucks, but at the same time I admire its super-flexible architecture and cowboyish mantras: "We'll break compatibility for better features". It's exactly the type of web site software I set out (and failed) to build back in 2001. I read a quote somewhere which essentially said the quality of what you create or use is effected by the time you invest. Basically, if you spend a while to get to know it thoroughly and keep building on that knowledge, then it does become better. I think these result in isolated bubbles of fancy that turn into little turf wars in defense of what's been learned and being used. Once we're comfortable with something and agree with its doctrine, it becomes worth fighting for.

And why not, that sounds just fine to me. If we didn't lock on and learn, every one would jump to every new thing. Hype would control the hackers, completely. Drupal doesn't suck for you, because you know enough to make it awesome. You are part of something bigger than yourself, a tight knit community manning the walls and digging a moat. There is a problem of new adopters, but there are enough people who see this township and will expend exhorbant effort to join up. New recruits for the battle against Joomla or wherever they're needed.

For myself, the wars are losing their luster, if they ever had any. I'm still an opinionated bastard, stubborn and steadfast on whatever I've latched onto. And I'll argue my points, dig my heels in, and pitch against a losing fight. However, I'm finding after a nourishing night's sleep or maybe a week or two to cool off, I start to recognize whatever stupidity I spouted.  Maybe.  It's what I hope, because I don't want to miss out on all the great ideas and opportunities due to technological religious differences.

When it sucks, I blow it off.  It all depends on how hard the struggle is to break into the inner sanctum of quality.  With Zend Framework, for example, I ended up feeling like caught in the cobwebs of so many classes, objects, iterators, exceptions, etc. that I lost the will to explore in depth.  My own current project, FanSiter, needs to retain some fluffiness and accessibility for swift understanding.  Not necessarily for new users, but for me when I've tired of it, let it go for a while, and then come crawling back for forgiveness.