WDD LIVE 072: WordPress' Current Problems Have Been Written Right Here The Whole Time

***Agenda***

🔥 "Dear WordPress" post mortem.
🔥 I participated in a WordPress creators call - here's what I discovered.
🔥 The official WordPress philosophy - line by line.
🔥 Open Topics + Q&A

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[MainsailWebDesign]

You know there are people who live out their lives silently enduring bullshit, day after day, year after year... and then someone comes along and puts all that silent frustration into words and actions. That's how I feel about you Kevin... Thank you for being our voice.

[stripedgoat]

0:00 - Intro
1:27 - Agenda
3:24 - About the "Dear WordPress" video
10:22 - The "WordPress eras"
12:24 - Thoughts on the WordPress Creator's Call
20:04 - The WordPress Philosophy (analysis)
45:26 - Soundbite comments / initial reactions on the WP philosophy discussion
1:00:08 - Q&A

[modemlooper]

46:30 if WordPress more focused on the CMS and custom fields as part of core then people wouldn’t have to worry about as many plug-ins

[AbdulazizAlSehli]

Thank you for your continuous efforts in highlighting the challenges facing WordPress and your relentless pursuit to push the platform toward a better future. Your work has a significant impact in motivating collective thinking on how to improve WordPress to better meet the needs of developers and users alike.
I believe that WordPress is not just a tool for delivering front-end outputs; it also provides a strong foundation for back-end components, enabling us to build robust and flexible websites. We must not forget the importance of this underlying infrastructure, as it has allowed us to innovate in creating advanced front-end experiences. Therefore, improving WordPress should be comprehensive, focusing on enhancing the platform's back-end capabilities while continuing to develop the front-end experience.
I hope you continue to unify efforts and contribute to this important movement to improve WordPress, as we all need your strong voice and ongoing support to achieve the change we all aspire to.

[DavidBell-qqsd]

20 years of technical debt. Yup. Ouch! I would love to see a DEEP DIVE into the WP database structure. Ouch in advance.

[cristianuibar]

Omg. The Philosophy part blew my mind. Never read it or heard of that and I've been working with WP for a long time already.

[thomas-fischer]

I want to stay at WordPress but it must be much better growing inside. The UX have to rewriten in shortest time, that is what I expecting from WordPress! Good Job Kevin!

[KaifShaikhTaufiq]

Kevin, i had a question
Why can’t Automattic come up with a Builder Plugin similar to Bricks which is amazing
and let people decide get gutenberg additionally or use wordpress as cms only

I want wordpress to do a builder but which is similar to Bricks
EndGutenberg

Make Wordpress builder plugin alike with Modern New Tools like Framer ( It’s Widgets, Basic Design, Animation, etc )


Already Subscribed to your Newsletter, got the Schedule will be tuning in

[rafidiul-albani]

I, for example, am still an absolute beginner, but thanks to you I know that you should set variables. I now wanted to set a few color variables, just for the Gutenberg editor. I create the page itself with Bricks but the blog posts should only be made with Gutenberg..since I am a beginner, I have no idea how to do this exactly. I am currently reading my way through. In any case, the Gutenberg project makes it extremely difficult for beginners like me to get started in web design.

[ingoFX]

Totally agree... if i was a blogger, i wouldn't be using WordPress

[rafidiul-albani]

I find full site editing much more complicated for the 0815 blogger, classic themes like Kadence etc. are much easier: Because there you have the Customizer and every setting is labeled. In full site editing: If an 0815 blogger has made one margin / padding too many somewhere: He first has to rummage through the whole block structure and see in which block he has made one margin/padding too many.

[JordanStambaugh]

Someone PLEASE fork Wordpress or better yet - start a new open source project built from the ground up with Scalability (CPT), Security (JFC, please!) and Configuration in mind! Isn't it time?

[bjoernzosel]

Fully agree! Currently WP is built for devs not for beginners

[OneBrokeBloke]

Hope there are other creators who voice these issues too. Only been using WP for a bit over a year, but was honestly shocked at the experience, when i had heard how used it was. Tried learning the block editor, which was a nightmare. Then used a page builder and it was so much easier and powerful at the same time. Yet update after update is all about that editor no one wants to use....

[rafidiul-albani]

Bricks Builder is more beginner-friendly than Gutenberg. I'm sure if you as a beginner only learn the standard layout of Bricks, without custom CSS, you can create better websites as a beginner than with Gutenberg. With Gutenberg you reach the limits: You need a custom block, you have to deal with Theme.json. And with Bricks you learn the correct terminology for the website structure: section, container, block, div. With Gutenberg: group, stack, row.

[gregkeet]

Thanks Kevin, am on the same page. Perhaps its time they gave up on the block editor and reverted to the classic, with options to add a builder of choice? Wouldn't that be working with the community instead of against. Why compete? Its free and its crap. They need to "scrap the crap" and raise the bar instantly in that one "Decision". Also as you said, they definitely should add cpt's to the core to add more realistic "Options" to round off its functionality.

[thomas-fischer]

and by the way, you're totally right in all aspects – 100% 👍🙃

[jonnjonzz]

I watched the entire thing at 1.5x. I feel like he has some good points, but it comes off as a whiny, irritating rant. I have to watch more and digest it to see where I am at on all of this. Thanks for this content, KG.

Interested to see Etch. Whatever that is.

Also, I wish I could be at Wordcamp and see how Kevin interacts with and what he says (and how he says it) to Matt.

I am using the block editor as a page builder...fyi.

I don't think WP is losing too many, especially newbie, users to Figma or Webflow. Not under that impression. Do you?

I do agree onboarding is lacking.

I wonder what Bricks and Kadence leaders think of this. Also, the FSE guys.

[thomas-fischer]

True speech Kevin I support you 100% ❤Hard truth about many shit that is real and Matt Mullenweg is proud of it? OMG he has understanding nothing about people that using this stuff. Bye the way WooCommerce is the same shit in phillosophie. And Customer don't want pay for every little plugin expanding that is not in core. WordPress bubble don't understand was the market needed and want and why WP is losing. That is true.

[maxziebell]

As soon as the philosophy page was mentioned and discussed on the creator's call, I could sense Kevin's impending comments brewing, betrayed by the subtle twitching in the corner of his eye 😂 (Out of pure curiosity, I'd love to see the core contributor taken up on his offer to appear on a stream sometime!)