Andrew Nevins
(@anevins)
WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support
Is the standard installation of WordPress complex, or are you targeting particular themes or plugins?
The standard has a number of options no-one to my knowledge ever uses.
But giving the opportunities to developers to think of anything they like, which leads to a plethora of different theme options and admins all over the place, makes WordPress hell to the user. It might be WP has not say in this, but by ofering the opportunity WP has become unruly, unclear, full of errors or need-to-know thingies which differ per theme. Shortcodes which completely ruin your page because you forgot one space somewhere, numerous different admins, (options they call them lovingly). Users blame WordPress. The reason for choosing WordPress has departed. The reasons to move away have popped up.
Andrew Nevins
(@anevins)
WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support
Would you mind listing these specific issues with the dashboard so that they can be considered to be reviewed? Thanks.
The more detail about the issues the better.
WP has become unruly, unclear, full of errors
Examples?
need-to-know thingies which differ per theme
That depends completely on the the author. There’s nothing that WordPress can do about that.
Shortcodes which completely ruin your page because you forgot one space somewhere, numerous different admins, (options they call them lovingly)
See above. That’s all to do with the theme/plugin authors and how they see their system working.
It sounds to me like you don’t have a problem with WordPress itself, but with the authors of which ever various themes that you’ve been downloading/buying. There’s really only two choices that you’ve got at this time.
- Contact the theme/pluign authors and let them know what you think and give them some constructive feedback on how they can improve the experience for their users.
- Start writing your own themes/plugins so that you can control exactly what they do, how they work and how they display.
Personally, I’ve gone for no. 2. If something doesn’t work the way that I want it to, I do it myself, and it normally turns out better because I know how it works, and I know how ot make any changes that are needed.
If something…I do it myself…I know how it works…I know how to make any changes…
I do the same where I can, but that does not address this:
I started with WordPress for a number of customers because of the ease of use.
Since then WordPress has been swamped with shortcodes, complex galleries, the chaos developers…
Why are programmers running off with my usability?
Because they can…and saying anything beyond that would step on one philosophy or another.
Well if that is what is happening WP will become more bitchy. Every themedeveloper goes his own way, without any guidelines except for ‘its working’. I see the demise of WordPress as an option for many clients who want clarity and structure which they can onderstand without so many different options and so many hours lost trying to find out what they did wrong.
No I will not divulge into developing themes myself. Its no fun, never has been. Adding to the chaos never has been an option.
ByeBye WordPress, you were kind once.
What sort of “guidelines” would you like to see imposed? Remember, the beauty of the current system is that it is so flexible. Take away that flexibility and you also take away peoples ability to create what they want to.
If WordPress isn’t for you, then there’s a lot of other options out there that you should explore. I’m sure that you’ll be able to find something that suits your style. Just remember that there’s one big point that is common to all of all of these sort of systems – If you’re not willing to learn for yourself, you’ll always be at the mercy of what someone else thinks you should do.
Every themedeveloper goes his own way, without any guidelines
http://codex.ww.wp.xz.cn/Theme_Review
The de facto guidelines
Imagine what it’s like for the layman like me,
we are supposed to be able to log in as admin and manage our wordpress sites. I couldn’t change the size of my logo… and, as it turns out
neither can many so called experts.
Whenever I post s job I know I’m going to get a compromise
or nothing at all and that a quote of two days will turn
into two months which means the developer is stuck and won’t admit a
problem which means I’m being charged seven weeks of those eight weeks for developer to sit and wait for theme support or plugin support or some other support at best and at worst which means I’m being charged seven weeks of those eight weeks for nothing because problem can’t be resolved.
Then when you say … ok … I want plugin A with plugin D with theme 236,
the average developer shudders with the fright of having to use a plugin
or theme they are not used to… to wails of ‘let me hand code what you need’…. ‘let me hand code what you need’…. which of course means that all the functions and features you wanted as promised by the plugin are missed out by the programmer … who, in order to add those features and functions says ‘sure thing but that will be more money !’ … ‘oh and another two months !’
startutors: It sounds like one of your biggest problems is dealing with “devleopers” that don’t know what they are doing. I’m guessing that you’re hiring these people based on the lowest price? Even though I understand that costs do need to be kept to a minimum as much as possible, you need to look at the quality that you’re getting as opposed to just a bottom-line figure and understand that someone that’s been doing this for years, has professional qualifications and the experience to do what you ask them to is always going to cost more then a developer that doesn’t have the same experience. The trade off is that you get something done the right way and actually works rather then waiting like you have.
Now as far as “we are supposed to be able to log in as admin and manage our wordpress sites” – you can. But who ever said that changing the size of your logo was a ‘standard’ management function? Most times you do not want to allow managers to do that. The more access people have, the more they’ll #$%^ it up. This is the same arguement that we’ve been posing here all along, and the answer is the same. WordPress is a tool. If you don’t know how to use it to do what you want to, you have to learn how it’s done. That’s the same with every other tool out there. Try to use something like Druapl or Joomla to change the size of your logo. I’ll guarantee that you’ll be 100 times more lost then you are with WordPress. If you want to do something but you’re not willing to learn what you need to actually do it, then there’s nothing that anyone can do to help you.
…who ever said that changing the size of your logo was a ‘standard’ management function?
Exactly:
Every time you give a user an option, you are asking them to make a decision… It’s our duty as developers to make smart design decisions and avoid putting the weight of technical choices on our end users.
http://ww.wp.xz.cn/about/philosophy/
I used to get a bit angry whenever I brought a styling question or “How do I add a logo?” to these forums and nobody seemed willing to either write my code for me or teach me how to do that, but now today I understand anyone who ventures into something even as simple as a Child Theme in order to change a color or two is going to have to either learn for himself or herself or hire a skilled coder that is not someone who really only knows how to make a Child Theme in order to change a color or two.
