Problematic to say the least

First, thanks for your feedback, that’s important to say as all feedback matters. The goal is to have an option to turn off Gutenberg, but the hope as this project grows is that less and less will want to do that.

It’s worth pointing out we are still in beta, the project is still growing and progressing. Thanks for being an early adopter.

I’m not completely against changing the text editor, i’m sure there are a few bugs as it’s a beta and they will be worked out, and after that it will be fine. I think the main issue that myself and lots of other developers are concerned with is the backwards compatibility issue.

I don’t want to have to call all my clients and tell them that if they upgrade to 5.0 their website may break because of Gutenberg when a simple option to update to 5.0 with or without it would allow people the choice, and allow a lot of developers to sleep easier over the next 6-12 months ??

One other point I’d like to make is that whilst I completely encourage your efforts in creating a more user friendly interface and something that is more exciting and engaging than the, lets face it, boring old TinyMCE we are used to, I think along the way you may have missed the point somewhat.

If the idea behind Gutenberg is to bridge the gap between WordPress and systems such as Wix and Squarespace, Gutenberg is nowhere near what is needed. From my own experience working with clients who have started life with their small business on Wix or a similar website builder, they use these services not because the text editors are easier (have you tried the shopify text editor? its a nightmare) but because they can easily click drag and drop design elements such as flashy buttons and image carousels to locations on a page grid, and then add their choice of background colours and change the text link colours really easily, that market wants control of design more than text and basic image content.

If Gutenberg was going to allow users to build a basic website completely, without the requirement for any additional themes or plugins and it provided a visual page builder then It would be a useful step for that market, but it doesn’t in current format. My advice would be maybe to couple Gutenberg with the annually theme WordPress ships with, so in this case, add it to the 2018 theme, rather than core. This way new users with little technical knowledge will have everything installed and waiting for them, and developers who are in the know, can simply remove the 2018 theme and carry on as normal with our custom built themes.

That way WordPress look great for first time users, and you guys don’t get chased by packs of angry developers with pitchforks and burning torches ??

• This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by digitalyak.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by digitalyak.

Just to address the point about backwards compatibility. It’s hard to say what will happen at this point, but some form of graceful approach to legacy would of course be attempted.

At 5.0 (whenever that happens as it’s not decided), it would simply be the post editing part that would go live. Gutenberg is focusing on the editing experience. The Customisation focus is what will take on the page building aspect, it’s worth noting that. What that will entail would be more something comparable to Wix and Squarespace.

Tammie,
“Its hard to say…”?

Nobody asked for this or wanted it in the first place.

Well it better be. Because your going to throw years of developers work in the garbage, irritate all their clients, and lose thousands (if not tens of thousands) of users.

Saying there is an option to switch it off, or saying you respect all comments is meaningless. Saying you will do your best to try is not good enough. There is too much at stake.

Get Matt in a meeting, tell him what’s going on, and abandon this foolishness.

I will be telling all my clients not to upgrade to 5.0

And we already have a CMS ready to go to replace WordPress. We cannot simply leave our clients hanging with this ridiculous editor.

Just to address the point about backwards compatibility. It’s hard to say what will happen at this point, but some form of graceful approach to legacy would of course be attempted.

Weasel-words. “Hard to say”? “attempted”? Is that supposed to be reassuring? Developers are being told to test plugins and themes NOW and be ready for rollout with 5.0, even though there is no roadmap or specifications.

I saw this constantly over at WP.com forums with the “Beep Beep Boop” fiasco… confused and upset users trying to find out WTH happened to their editor… and getting nothing more than “there, there” pats on the head, assurances that everything will be worked out… somehow, sometime. Then threads are closed, disappearing into the vast emptiness of WP.com’s execrable forums.

WP.com has infected the open-source ecosystem of WP.org, replacing a transparent, user-focused product with a profit-driven, opaque and managerial approach that will benefit no one but Automattic’s investors. Bye Bye WordPress, it was a good run.