Does anyone use Genesis Framework? If so can a newbie use it and a few other questions

[asbchris]

Hi,

So as I search the wonderful land of the internet, I see this Genesis framework brought up quite a bit.

I have researched it for a few weeks, but it seems like it uses hooks instead of shortcodes.

So I am curious if anyone has used it? And if so what your thoughts are about it?

I am a COMPLETE newbie here, so hooks look scary. I am sure with time they will seem like second nature.

They claim it has airtight security. So if you have used this framework, how is this any different than an updated stock wordpress site?

I understand that vulnerabilities may be in plugins and such, but if it is really airtight, that seems great.

Any thoughts are appreciated as I just want the best user experience. So many people use this framework, yet my site gets if I'm lucky 1000 views each month. It is a basic site to let people know we exist. So its not like I have a popular blog with 50,000 pageviews each month.

But... going into the future, I want a pleasant and consistent user experience. Maybe a wordpress theme is all you need. Maybe a framework is more for developers.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Chris

[DennisSeymour]

It's actually a pretty sweet framework, easy to use and their child themes are great. I dropped Thesis back then because of Genesis.

Don't worry about hooks, just use basic hooks for now (they have a plugin) until you learn in time, they also have great tutorials.

Best thing about a widely used framework is that most plugins are compatible plus a lot of people write tutorials about how they fixed up their own sites.

Security wise, I haven't had trouble with it. As long as your server is tight and the plugins are properly configured, you shouldn't be worried too much.