Title: false idea Last modified: August 14, 2018 --- # false idea * [Mark-k](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mark-k/) * (@mark-k) * [8 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/false-idea/) * The quality of the code of the plugin is actually irrelevant as the idea behind it is totally false. Looking at the code it is obvious that disabling gutenberg is a relatively complex task which will probably require continuous updates for every new release of gutenberg, something that even if will happen in the code of this plugin will not be obvious for site owners. * The option to disable gutenberg should be part of gutenberg/core to make sure it is synchronized with whatever changes are made in the gutenberg code. * As an aside for the plugin to be useful it also needs to convert gutenberg posts to none gutenberg when such posts exists. Not having such an option means that this plugin can be deployed only when setting a new site. Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) * [barnez](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pidengmor/) * (@pidengmor) * [8 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/false-idea/#post-10204324) * > As an aside for the plugin to be useful it also needs to convert gutenberg > posts to none gutenberg when such posts exists. Not having such an option means > that this plugin can be deployed only when setting a new site. * I think the idea is that when Gutenberg rolls out in 5.0, existing sites can install and activate this plugin to prevent all their existing content from being converted into blocks. * Thread Starter [Mark-k](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mark-k/) * (@mark-k) * [8 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/false-idea/#post-10204388) * [@pidengmor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pidengmor/), and how will they know about this plugin? The realistic scenario of 5.0 is that people upgrade, go to edit some post which prompts them to convert to blocks (or they create some new content) and after a week they decide that they do not like the experience( for whatever reason, plugin incompatibility, inability to properly edit via xml- rpc, wordpress search is 100% useless instead of only 80%, or just a general dislike) at that point they search the interwebs find this plugin and install it. * And at this point, what exactly gona happen to all that content which was authored and changed with gutenberg? gutenberg is disabled, so the inline styling will not be applied any more, and on the editor side you will see only the text, but to see whatever additional data used with it you will need to go to the text tab and guess how to apply all the json data in the comments, something that will be hard even for technical people. * [barnez](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pidengmor/) * (@pidengmor) * [8 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/false-idea/#post-10206286) * I 100% agree with the problems that are going to erupt, particularly as most users will be unaware of the implications of converting all their content to Gutenberg blocks. But as the development team are determined to add this to 5.0, it seems that having this plugin installed and activated is the best option at present, along with this [function](https://gist.github.com/senlin/691c5f06459857f57247dc92f7ec1406) to force the replacement of Gutenberg with the Classic Editor. - This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by [barnez](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pidengmor/). * Thread Starter [Mark-k](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mark-k/) * (@mark-k) * [8 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/false-idea/#post-10206348) * [@pidengmor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pidengmor/), yes which brings the second part of my review. History shows that the wordpress core plugins fall into disrepair and no one feels like he should “own” them. We seee it with the importer breaking on php 7.2. * So what is going to happen is that in the long run there will be changes to “ gutenberg editor”, but there might be no one that will be interested in maintaining the “classic editor” plugin. In addition [@pento](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pento/) said in a very clear language that moving forward the gutenberg team do not plan to maintain the possibility to run the classic editor at all, which means that more and more hacks will be needed, and maybe at some point it will not be possible at all. * The only true option that can be actually maintained is an official way to turn gutenberg off and use the classic editor. Any thing else is a hack with an unpredictable life time * in [https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/4409#issuecomment-357118208](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/4409#issuecomment-357118208) [@pento](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pento/) said * “So, to get back to the original question, a single code-based option to disable the block editor isn’t a viable long term solution, it can’t expand to give appropriate options for future WordPress Core development, it really does a disservice to everyone here if we were to create this option.” * Therefor the notion that the maintaining the classic editor plugin is going to be harder and harder. * [barnez](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pidengmor/) * (@pidengmor) * [8 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/false-idea/#post-10206503) * I think there will be tens to hundreds of 1,000s of users and developers keen to keep this plugin alive (possibly even millions?). If the current authors ( WordPress Contributors) stop maintaining the plugin then I imagine (*hope*) it will be forked. Their strategy for Gutenberg isn’t going to change (introduced into core with no filter or toggle to activate or disable), so it seems that our choice as users is to either find a solution (currently the Classic Editor), or look for a new CMS. * [Pieter Bos](https://wordpress.org/support/users/senlin/) * (@senlin) * [7 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/false-idea/#post-10500127) * [@pidengmor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pidengmor/), thank you for mentioning my additional function in your comment earlier. * In the meantime we (@gschoppe and myself) have rolled that function in a plugin and released it as [**Classic Editor Addon**](https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor-addon/). * Please have a look and if you have any suggestions to improve it, we would love to hear! * [jason1308](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jason1308/) * (@jason1308) * [7 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/false-idea/#post-10555177) * I just hope that if they continue down this road with the new editor, then someone will fork wordpress with the classic editor, before this plugin stops being updated. * [netix1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/netix1/) * (@netix1) * [7 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/false-idea/#post-10562277) * What you guys are mentioning makes complete sense. #wpfork, let’s start the movement now! Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) The topic ‘false idea’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/classic-editor/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=1998671) * [Classic Editor](https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/classic-editor/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/classic-editor/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/classic-editor/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/classic-editor/reviews/) * 8 replies * 5 participants * Last reply from: [netix1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/netix1/) * Last activity: [7 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/false-idea/#post-10562277)