If WordPress charged for their blogging software they would most likely be seeking bankruptcy right now, or be ripe for a Microsoft or Google takeover. The latest version of WordPress 2.5, to put it mildly, sucks!
I would like to put on record right from the start that I am a WordPress fan – I like the software and the relative ease of use. Although I have only been in the blogging world for 6 months, I have used several different platforms including Drupal. Hopefully I can continue my happy association with WordPress, just not with release 2.5. Fortunately I didn’t upgrade this blog so I can continue to operate in a happy blog environment. I did upgrade three of my other sites and so far the experience has not been great.
There has been a lot of discussion about the WordPress 2.5 release and the lack of support on Andrew Boyd’s On Blogging Australia site – the discussion makes for interesting reading so I wont go back over those issues. If your interested I suggest you click on over and have a read.
My title says it all really. WordPress 2.5 would be a commercial failure. Proof of this can be seen by the relatively quick patch release that fixed around 70 – yes seventy issues. Talk about product recall big time.
I think WordPress as an organization has become stuck in a mindset that says ‘this is free software’. The reality is, free or not, they should be taking a commercial approach. At present, part of their ‘mindset’ seems to revolve around having specific release periods which seem to be scheduled for 3 or 4 times per year. Commercial software goes through an annual release and thats it.
Having regular scheduled upgrades is a great motivational tool, particularly when you are relying on unpaid programming support. You can still achieve this motivation whilst have longer release time frames.
The beta testing phase was far too short and did not leave any time for ‘fixing’ issues prior to its release. The more workable timetable could see annual releases, say in January each year with beta versions released for testing in July. This would enable three months of testing and feedback followed by three months of fine tuning prior to the following release. To have 70 issues that needed ‘fixing’ is testament to the lack of beta testing.
WordPress needs to undergo a cultural change within the organization that can relate to users on “commercial” rather than a “free” basis. WordPress has been, arguably, the best platform available for self hosted blogs for a long time with millions of blogs using the software. The problems that users are now facing is providing real motivation for alternatives to update and promote their software.
Once users find viable alternatives, they will slowly move away from WordPress – and as has been shown in the past with other software, a dribble soon becomes a flood and WordPress will be left with a small dedicated group of users and developers and a poor reputation.
I hope WordPress can open its ears a little more, listen to what the users are saying, and return to a more user friendly blogging environment. I would like to think I could continue using this software for as long as I need it. Sometimes, we can be too smart for our own good and this time around, WordPress got it wrong. Fair enough – let’s get it right and move on.
happy blogging – les
you have been in the blogging world for 6 months and you say wp 2.5 would be a commerical fail, sir look back 9months and when the wp 2 upgrades came a patch was released to cover up security problems. i hope you are aware that the competition of wp has thousands of people dig in the code for exploits. you talk about using drupal but thats not a blog platform, its a CMS, and why dont u look at drupal release of version 5 tons of exploits found after release of the code. i think you need to really research what you type and not just jump on the temp bandwagon that comes each time a new release is available. the same goes for ANY open source software at initial release, goto sourceforge and read, i hope that you can see where i am coming from, because you have no basis to talk when you do not know the industry
I may have only been in the blogging world for 6 months, but I have been involved with computers and the internet for over 20 years. Any piece of software that has 70 bugs in it would be doomed if it were a commercial environment competing for dollars. I am aware that Drupal is a CMS and it too has problems.
You seem to be under the impression that I am condemning WP, far from it, just this latest release. As for jumping on the bandwagon, There wouldn’t be one if there wasn’t such a backlash from the users of WP.
Your response has been typical of the response many individuals have received when vising the WP forum looking for help or making their thoughts on the upgrade known.
If the software met everyones needs, this and the hundreds of other posts would not be around. As I said in the post – lets fix it and move on!!!!
les
My blog is going quite easy with version 2.5.1 of WordPress.
I’d like to tell you that the 70 fixes that you’re talking of in the latest release were not all security fixes. Yes. there were a few serious issues like the XML vulnerability but they have been taken care of in the update and the rest of the fixes were performance and visual enhancements for the already so-cool user interface.
It has become a lot easier to manage posts and pages using the new interface. Akismet that comes with the latest version of WordPress is so efficient that I hardly have any spam over a few days time! Plugins-Compatibility is good and I haven’t had a single problem with any of the numerous plugins that I use.
I don’t have any complaints, anyway.
Abhinav: Thanks for your comments. I know there are a lot of people who are happy with the new version of WordPress. I can also understand that change takes time to get used to.
I think that some of the complaints, for example with the widgets interface are valid. Widgets are a lot more difficult to manage and I for one regret the loss of the simple drag and drop that existed in the previous versions.
I have to admit that I have only had one major problem with new version, and it is a major problem involving blank screen issues, many others have reported the same problem.
2.6 will be released in a couple of months and it will be interesting to see where they go with that version.
My point in this post is that there are simply to many updates. Users are not able to develop a routine with any version – as soon as they do another version arrives and it becomes a whole new learning process – who has time for that these days.
les
For those who think that upgrading to the latest version every now and then is a pain… use WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin. For those who find it hard to follow the new interface, I’d suggest that you take fifteen minutes out of your busy life when you upgrade and take a look through the main tabs and sub-categories which are not any more than 4-5 in number. Plus, all these things will be very familiar to you but just placed differently in the new interface. It simply isn’t too hard to learn!
that’s I didn’t bother to pursue my wordpress account.. constant updates can be a real pain esp for busy people.. Hi passing by from my entrecard…
am i wrong if i didn’t aware of security reason… doh …
Hi Les…
I have been blogging for about three years, and I have found that it is my newest love. The more I do it the more I love doing it… it is too bad that I cannot get PAID for doing it.
That said, I can partially agree with you on the 2.5 release. I was not real happy with the release itself, but I upgraded anyway, knowing that I had better if I wanted to stay on top of things. The install was not as easy as they promised, and it took me a week to work all the bugs out.
Now that it has been up and running, I am pleased, but I see room for improvement as well. I do not think that something like WordPress would be a commercial success regardless of how it was run. It seems like making something like this a “For Profit” endeavor has a tendency to suck the life out of it. You know what I mean?
that’s I didn’t bother to pursue my wordpress account.. constant updates can be a real pain esp for busy people.. Hi passing by from my entrecard…
Mighty… I am not sure that is the right answer for everyone. I think it is a matter of how important your blog, and blogging in general is to you. I am willing to go through the steps because I love it so much, and WP is the best I have used so far. If something else comes along, then I will check it out.
As a wordpress 2.5 user, it seem ok for me… Maybe it take a little time to adapt but for me its OK….