David Fiske Affiliate Marketing & Web Development

We're always being warned off some sort of food. This is bad for you and so is that. Don't even think about the other!

There's always some sort of nasty chemical or ingredient that is had for you: artificial colours, flavourings and hydrogenated fats for a start.

So what has this got to do with websites? Well for a start if you use a ready-built script off the shelf, there could be stuff lurking about in it that you do not know about.
 
Before I go all crazy with my analogies, let me give you some insight into why the post came about. I'm currently building a affiliate blog script. Wordpress didn't offer me everything I wanted (although it did offer me things I didn't need). I needed some other scripts so I took a look at a few, which is where I discovered this information.

Food & Scripts: You can't always be sure what's in it

I came across a well known piece of software which loaded a "powered by" icon from their webserver. This means that they can collect usage data. That in itself isn't that big a deal but it is if they are collecting visitor information, which is quite possible. All you need is a PHP page that collects full IP and browser data in exchange for serving an image. That's 5 minutes work.

The other side of this is that they could then theoretically log usernames and passwords along with your master credentials. I'm not saying it did but could you run that risk? What happens if they did collect it for research purposes and their website has hacked?

The point here is that when you install a script you haven't built yourself, consider that *some* may contain unsavoury things like this. It's worth pointing out that the majority of well documented scripts don't do this - just watch out for 'powered by' images!

Food & Scripts: Make It Yourself And It's Healthier

By making a script yourself you are only including features and functionality that you need. Wordpress, for example, is 1.2MB zipped at present. My affiliate blog script is 102KB. I'm not saying mine is better as it's not finished (it might be then!), I'm just pointing out that my script is lightweight, concise and ideal for what I need. I'm sure it runs less queries than WP too, when all the relevant mods are enabled.

Food & Scripts: Change The Recipe To Suit You

If you followed a recipe to make a turkey burger (is this another Christmas themed post?!), the net result is an extremely healthy turkey burger compared to that you could buy in the shops. But just because a recipe tells you to use just turkey doesn't mean you should. How about adding cranberry sauce into the meat mixture before cooking?

What you end up with is something different to anything else you could buy from the shops. You end up with something designed especially for your tastes. It's the same with coding.

By building something from scratch, you can tailor it exactly to your needs. The thing with mass produced scripts is that they are designed to accommodate the needs of just about everybody. Wordpress powers sites like The Long, Long Honeymoon and Noisy Noisy Man right through to the FT and CNN as reported by Patrick and Threadwatch respectively. Those are all vastly different styles of blogging used for different purposes. Yes they are all blogs but they are different. Each of those users has different needs.

Ultimately, you can customise scripts like Wordpress with add-ons and widgets but the core underbelly of the script is wildly complex. There could be gems you have overlooked or there could be a distinct lack of functionality required by your application.

Food & Scripts: Make Your Own Mind Up

When it comes to food, you'll make you own mind up. If you want to eat ABC rather than XYZ, rock on! The same can be said about scripts. I've used open source scripts for years and they have done me well thus far. But I've outgrown the functionality for the scripts I used and have had no other option than to build a fresh script.

I'm now of the opinion that it is easier to build a script than to hack away at a pre-built one. That's my own personal perspective on the matter. But so you know, the scripts I now use are Price Tapestry and Nucleus. All the rest are custom built.

Just be careful which scripts you choose to use and try and make sure you and your user's data is safe.