I have noted with some pleasure the continued progress of ExpressionEngine (and it’s parent company pMachine) and the expansion of the EE brand. Now pMachine (the company was named for the legacy CMS tool that started it all) have evolved into EllisLabs. The new name is drawn from the surname of company founder, Rick Ellis.

I was one of the early pMachine customers and then later migrated my blog to EE. Whilst not a power user by any stretch I have always been most pleased with three aspects of the now EllisLabs and EE:

- Extensibility
- Flexibility
- Incredible support

The EE product is easily and quickly extensible and even I have delved into the source code on occasion to make tweaks and edits. It also extremely flexible – allowing configuration of EE sites for all sorts of purposes. I merely use the simplest iteration – a weblog. But others use EE to create forums, online catalogues, magazines, pubications, books, a ticketing system!, and a myriad of other esoteric uses.

Lastly, and probably most attractive to me, is the support. The community and the dedicated support team are amazing. Support requests are promptly answered, the community provides enormous numbers of practical examples of how to solve particular problems or achieve particular outcomes, and critically new users are generally treated with respect rather than the newbie derision that occurs in some other projects. Very few other projects I am involved in have a level of enthusiasm and community involvement as EE. Additionally, unlike some other companies, as the organisation has grown and expanded that level of support hasn’t suffered. Finally, EllisLabs have no forgotten that one of their most valuable resources is the community that has adopted, fostered and taken EE into new directions and new places.

I am greatly looking forward to seeing where they go next.