What is Backdrop CMS?
Backdrop is a fork of Drupal. It will preserve the legacy audience of developers who value ease of use and ease of learning over architectural flexibility.
Backdrop will be a full-featured content management system that allows non-technical users to manage a wide-variety of content. Backdrop will be feature-comparable with Drupal 8 (containing things like CMI, WYSIWYG & Views in core), but will be built on APIs more similar to those found in Drupal 7.
More than just a Drupal fork:
- More releases will come out, with more features, more often.
- More stakeholders in charge means more can be done, more quickly.
Less stressful than moving to Drupal 8:
- Less code in core means adding new core features will be less painful.
- Less complexity in the code makes it easier for all developers to understand.
We can prevent a Drupal colony collapse
Drupal 8 is a huge departure from anything the Drupal community has released in the past. Most of the code will be unrecognizable to existing Drupal developers. Some of these changes might indeed be "better" coding practices, but is "better" code really better for the whole Drupal ecosystem?
Drupal is taking a huge step away from it's existing developer base by changing things so drastically in Drupal 8. Developers worldwide are already planning their exit strategies. They are learning moving sites to competitors like WordPress, Node.js and Ruby. Backdrop offers them a Drupal-based alternative.
Backdrop's APIs are similar to those in Drupal 7. This allows the existing Drupal 7 developers to spend their time working on adding features to sites, modules, and to Backdrop core.
- Porting Drupal 7 modules to Backdrop will be faster and easier than to D8.
- Upgrading from Drupal 7 to Backdrop will be comparable to upgrading to D8.
- Backdrop sites will be faster to build and cheaper to host than those on D8.
Both site owners and web shops will benefit from the ability to use a modern feature-rich platform without needing to retrain their existing staff.
Put your money where your mouth is, too.
Backdrop encourages funding of it's core development. Developers are expensive, and the best way to get their undivided attention is to pay them fairly. We are seeking $50,000 to pay two half-time developers for 6 months. If we are able to raise more than $50,000 we will be funding more developers for the team.
We're offering some great perks to our highest level donors:
- Logo on the Backdrop CMS website home page (for the first year) - $2000
- Name on the Backdrop CMS website thank-you page (for the first year) - $250
If you support Backdrop and want to help us make this project successful, we'll put your name in lights (or, okay, pixels).
Other ways to help Backdrop
Not everyone can contribute cash, but our cause can benefit from these things too:
- Share news of this campaign on Twitter, Facebook, and around the office.
- Tell your story about why you need Backdrop, professionally, or personally.
- Contribute to the code directly at our github project.
Thanks!
