I posted this on the JOOMLA forums but thought it pertinent for the site at well:

After doing so many sites for clients over the years, I’ve noticed a trend when going to train them in cms and blogging systems like WordPress and Joomla.

Both systems, I feel, have fairly good naming conventions, as related to the core features.  i.e. “plugins, modules, templates, menus” etc.  I was glad to see Joomla change terminology from “mambots” to “plugins”.  Every time I would use that word “mambot” to a client their eyes would glaze over and wander into infinity.  The point: Semantics and word association is very important in this business.  It’s the difference between relating a complicated system and a simple system.
Magento, for example, has horrible word association.  A theme, template, and layout are different things in their system.  This is horribly confusing to anyone in the industry as we say “WordPress themes”, “Joomla templates”, etc.  They are taking associative words and making them different.  The result is having to relearn the words and break apart the semantics!

JOOMLA! has done a great job at separating the core terminology.  The only one left where I’ve seen clients drift into neverneverland is upon hearing the word “Component”.  I feel this is mainly because “component” can be associated with many other things.  A “component” of Joomla could be associated with a “feature” or an “aspect” of Joomla.

I have found myself describing “components” to clients as “apps”.  As soon as I do that, I always get an “Oh!  ok” moment.

So how much earth shaking do you think it’ll take to get that core change approved?
What say ye?

So what does this mean to you?

We’ve restructured how BiD works, especially regarding the old subscription club.  Effective immediately, the subscription club is closed until we decide it’s necessary again.  What this means to everyone is:

All old JOOMLA! templates and tutorials are now free!

We setup a page listing all the old templates and tutorials so you can get them in one spot.  There’s some great templates and tutorials there so check’em out.  Also, We will be phasing out these tutorials and templates in the coming months, so get them while you still can!

Future Plans

Here’s our future plans for BiD over the course of this year and next (hey, if you have any other ideas please leave a comment!):

• Almost all tutorials and templates released will be free!  VIDEOS WILL BE IN HD
• Premium content will be available, priced on a per-item basis (this will include a lot of the training in other formats, like for the iPhone, etc).  Availability to purchase certain series “White-labeled” and on DVD will also be available.
• Helpful articles, blogs, interviews, etc.

On top of that, our plans for various tutorial series this year are:

• JOOMLA! 1.5 Administration Series Series
• Converting an HTML web page to a Joomla template (for 1.5) Series
• Building a JOOMLA! Template from Scratch (for 1.5) Series
• Basics of CSS (2nd edition) Series
• Basics of HTML Series
• Basics of PHP Series
• Basics of Javascript Series
• On-site SEO Series

We have some crazy ideas for the coming year too….but we don’t want to ruin it.

In the meantime…

Because we’ve basically moved our whole inventory of templates and tutorials to one page, the site might look a little bare at the moment.  Never fear, you will be seeing releases soon enough.  Make sure you subscribe to the blog to get up-to-date information and use the e-newsletter form to the right to subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Also, for anyone interested in advertising, we are opening this up for exclusive positions on the site.  We will have a very selected approach to advertisers, so contact us ASAP to get in while you still can!

I look forward to speaking with you on BiD!

Overview Video (HD)

Click here to view the embedded video.

photo provided by Cpl. Sean Capogreco