Gutenberg Observations

I’ve been using Gutenberg for a couple of months now (since whenever that nag prompt appeared as part of the a wordpress maintenance release). I applaud and support the effort to integrate a block-style editor into core, while leaving “classic” as an option. I am using it on a live site with a slightly modified Twenty Seventeen and a bunch of plugins. I have experienced very few show-stopping issues and have been (generally) pleased with the improvements and bug-fixing releases.

Barriers to Adoption

IMO, one of the barriers to adoption of wordpress as a CMS by non-techie users has always been the complexity of using the “classic” editor. I have worked with a variety of office staff, and despite repeated attempts to get them to use WP as a CMS, I’ve always run aground because of the perceived complexity of creating a post/page.

These folks are typically used to using publishing tools such as MS-Office Suite, Constant Contact, Mailchimp etc., and I know that once Gutenberg goes live, they will find it a better option than the classic editor. This will definitely increase usage of WP as a CMS in my environments. BTW, I will not release it for live usage until the WP 5.x official release has been in the wild for at least a couple of weeks.

Still Treating as Beta Software

Something that seems to get lost in all the griping about Gutenberg on this forum is that it is still beta software in my mind until WP5.0 is released. As such, rely on it or use on your live sites at your peril, especially if you have a unique theme or a bunch of third party plugins installed. The theme and plugin developers are always going to be lagging the Gutenberg team in testing for compatibility. For example, a recent Yoast SEO hiccup which caused me problems for a couple of days.

I am confident that the developers will end up releasing a quality product, and oh by the way, the Classic Editor will still be there as an option.

Onward and Upward

In the meantime, I will continue to use it as beta software. If I find any bugs I will do my best to provide reports to the team with supporting information. If the bug is really bad I will revert to a known good image in certainty that the GB team will eventually fix it.

• This topic was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by malcolmneiledmondson.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by malcolmneiledmondson.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by malcolmneiledmondson.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by malcolmneiledmondson.