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The Trouble With WordPress
Recently it leaked on a blog (there are few secrets in Open Source) that elements from a design known as “Kubrick” by Michael Heilemann would be incorporated into the default template for the next version of WordPress. Kubrick is many things: a design, a set of templates, some plugins, and a removal of a lot of cruft currently in the default template. It makes things much friendlier for readers. Best of all Michael released everything under the GPL and submitted it to WordPress for inclusion. After it had had several iterations I checked it out and saw a lot of great ideas that would make WordPress a better product, especially for new users. Even though no decisions had been made and no code had been committed, a number of questions were raised in people’s minds. A thread was started in the forums that I’m not even going to link to because it’s not worth reading past the first page, if that. Many people seemed to misunderstand what was going to be incorporated and what wasn’t, even though that was stated pretty clearly in the original blog post.
Michael is primarily a designer, not a coder, and coding things in a way that works on the variety of platforms and setups that WordPress itself does is hard, so there are issues with that in the templates Michael has released. WordPress devs have a lot of experience with those issues, however, and anything added to the core will work just as well (if not better) than WordPress does now. Several others questioned the inclusion of graphics in a template. If graphics were included, how would people be able to edit it? We can’t expect people to have graphics editors, so if graphics are included in the final template (that hasn’t been determined yet) I’ve committed to providing an online interface on wordpress.org for people to customize the graphics to match their color choices without needing any software beyond a web browser. There were some questions about the CSS being used in Kubrick, but the CSS used for it in WordPress won’t be the same and will be treated like any change to the WordPress code, that is it will go through the normal QA process and be tested across platforms by the developers and the few dozen or so people who keep up with the nightly builds, and then extensively tested by the hundreds that use the beta releases once we enter that phase for 1.3. Any problems will be treated as bugs and fixed as such. Watching trends on the forums and continuing a high level of support is very important to everyone.
The problem was after all this was explained the thread continued long after all these questions had been answered with everyone talking past each other. If it shows anything it’s that people can be very passionate about the smallest of things. It’s interesting to note that while this all was occuring what has actually happened in WordPress development in the last week: Dougal wrote a plugin to slow down spambots, literally; Alex made a new style for the styles page; Kitten sent in another comment moderation plugin that’s going to be included in the core; Craig Hartel and Kevin Francis (amoung many others) did some great work on the new wiki; Michel is refactoring the XML-RPC code; we started the process of moving to a better source control system; Ryan is coding too much cool stuff to mention, but the next version of WP be the easiest to customize and template ever. That’s just off the top of my head, there’s lots of other exciting developments happening.
In other words, life moved on. It showed up on a few blogs, but that’s a price of popularity: bad news gets more buzz than good. Numerous examples are in the checkout line of every supermarket. (Not to mention the blogosphere.)
So what’s the state of the WordPress community today? I’d say it’s better. The number of people who actually got out-of-hand was only a handful, and personally I’m ready to apologize and move on. I’ve never been good at holding grudges. The things that make the WordPress community great haven’t changed, and several lessons have been learned. Hundreds of new WordPress blogs have been started, testimonials and donations keep coming in, I’ve noticed more people helping out on the forums, and best of all there’s a healthy amount of disagreement keeping the project young.
Gallery: 8-27-2004
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Weird Al WordPress
Yank Blog, a recently switched blog about Weird Al. Their front page is pretty neat. Hat tip: Davedorm on the WP forums.
More Spam
Gallery: 8-26-2004
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Microsoft Redesigns
The new Microsoft Corporation site actually looks decent. Highly optimized markup. There’s gotta be a good story behind this, it’s a complete reversal for Microsoft. Scoble? Hat tip: Doug. Be sure to read the comments.
Giving Credit
Codex Guidelines
Codex Guidelines, some tips on writing for the new WordPress wiki. (Not “live” yet.)
Net::MovableType
WP Tag Quick Reference
WP Tag Quick Reference, also known as “WP Tabs.” Neat work.
Feed Searches
Like Milk
“I’m gonna treat you like milk and spoil you.”
WP on Subversion
Thanks to the generosity of Jonas, we’re rocking and rolling with Subversion for source control in WordPress. Working on restoring some of the old services and getting all the developers up to speed with it.
Slash Happy
Slashdot linked to Browse Happy (an excellent project beautifully designed by Ethan, by the way) but what makes it interesting is that I host browsehappy.com. The bad news is I had to bump MaxClients to 800. The good news is after the initial bump (settings too low in httpd.conf) it’s running along just fine. 🙂 And then it got huffy when I went to dinner.
Unusually Enthusiastic
“WordPress seems to be supported by an unusually enthusiastic group of developers” I suppose that’s one thing to call us. 🙂
My Templates
My site page on the new wiki has near live versions of a few of my templates. I can add more if anyone is interested. They aren’t the best or cleanest, but they work and it’s what powers what you’re reading now.
Book Hooks
Opening Hooks, a collection of literary beginnings. Cool idea. Have a look.
Feedster DeGoogled
Why Feedster was removed from the Google index. Doh! Hat tip: Phil.
Redemption in a Switch
Chu Yeow switches to WordPress and has an interesting story. Welcome to the family. 🙂 “I can imagine how the rebuilding frenzy brought the server to its metaphorical knees. […] being able to read and understand the source code of WordPress is a very, very uplifting feeling. It makes me want to contribute as a developer.” I dig the way his comments are set up.