Charles Stricklin wrote a post called, "Graffiti disses WordPress" because of an adSense campaign run by Telligent.

However, Charles believes this is really about open source vs. commercial software.

What they seem to be saying, without coming out and just saying it, is, “Open Source Software = bad, proprietary = good.” And that’s a valid subject open to debate, but don’t start slinging mud and then skirt the issue.

WordPress is a wonderful blogging platform. No one is trying to deny that. None of the ads we published said anything negative about it's blogging ability or the fact that it is an open source solution. We are simply stating that while it is a great blogging application and does provide technical users the means to "bend" it into a CMS, the process can be better.

As an example, here is an article which highlights some of the things you can do to make Wordpress more like a CMS:

WordPress was originally created as a weblog or blog platform. But now WordPress has grown so powerful that you can use it to create any type of website and use it as a Content Management System (CMS).

If you have tried Graffiti, take a look at the author's suggestions. You should see most of those things are automated features built into Graffiti. You do not have to write code to make it work.

We (Telligent) have been thinking about the CMS space for quite a while. We have had some of our own Community Server customers who have "bent" a CS blog into a CMS and have had others who have tried to do the same with Wordpress. The goal with Graffiti was to simply make that experience better. Less time spent trying to make something work, less time hiring a developer to write custom code for you, and enable users to spend more time on generating content.

As I have said previously, we are not trying to build another blogging engine. There are already plenty of blogging applications available. We are however trying to incorporate some of the things that make publishing a blog much easier than a traditional CMS system. Targeting a huge existing market where there are many folks already trying to do similar things just makes a lot of sense IMO.