[thelist] Drupal... what's with the sudden hype?

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Hi all...
I'm here to ask a question regarding Drupal.

I'm a PHP freelancer.. having built various applications and CMS's etc
in my 8+ year career since PHP 3.
anyhoo, I have a few agents here in central London that throw me work
from time to time, plus my word of mouth work.
In the last two months or so, pretty much every agent has got jobs
that require professional Drupal experience.

now I'm familiar with it, I can get my brain into it as I have with
other CMS (EE and joomla etc).
I've explained to recruitment folk that any PHP developer worth his or
her salt will be able to quickly figure out what's going on behing the
scenes and quickly become 'good'.. or at least experienced.
I'm currently building a site in EE which I've never used before
(though I am a fan of codeigniter framework) and it's taken me less
than a week to learn the ins and outs... I don't know all of the PHP
functions (who does?) but I'm allowed to call myself a PHP developer..

My point and questions are:

1. Where did this influx of Drupal fever come from?
2. Why can't a non tech big wig understand that it's a PHP application
and a PHP developer would be suited to help them.
3. Has anyone else been hounded by recruiters for Drupal only work..
4. Am I deludng myself... is Drupal really hard to master?

I'm sorry to rant, I've had two calls this morning before 10:30 and
I'm sure I'll get others..
Hell, if there's any Drupal 'experts' out there, let me know your
address and I'll be sure to forward your details to the next
recruitment vampire that only wants Drupal experience..

Sigh...
grr


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