It seems that with every new upgrade of WordPress nowadays, someone is complaining. Usability testing? This is going to confuse all my clients! My plugins will break! What will I do?
I will say that there has been far less complaining in the wait for 2.7 than the last couple of versions — it does have a pretty slick interface built in, doesn’t it?
Let’s take a quick stroll down memory lane.
WordPress version 1.2
I first started tinkering with WordPress during the 1.2 days. I didn’t use it on this site until May 2005 (version 1.5).
Earlier today, I decided to set up a test install of 1.2 just to see how far the platform has come since I first installed it.
I actually screwed up the initial install somehow. It was probably because I had to use this crazy file system. As it turns out, 1.2 is not even in the Subversion repository. I did manage to get it installed though.
If you’ve ever once said that WordPress needs to slow down or not update so often…
WordPress version 1.2 write post screen
Yes, that’s the Write Post screen you’re looking at. Not much to it, but it got the job done as best it could.
Like those beautiful themes we have these days?
Yeah, it was much harder back in the day to dress up your blog. Imagine editing your lonely index.php file to run your blog only to get this:
Default style of WordPress version 1.2
OK. So, today’s Default theme isn’t much cooler, but you couldn’t manipulate the look and feel of your blog like you can now.
Still don’t like advancement?
I suppose I could go on listing all the advancements WordPress has made in such a short amount of time and why I love each new version that comes out, but I’d rather not. I have to go play around with WordPress 2.7 Beta a little.
If you can honestly tell me that you’d rather go back to the good ol’ days, then I’ll just have to take your word for it. The only argument I could see you making is one based on simplicity.
It doesn’t take three PhDs and an IQ of 180 to run a WordPress blog these days though, so that argument is trivial.
I tend to like a few bells and whistles with my blogging platform anyway.
The point of this post is not to point fingers at anyone that’s complaining (you know who you are!). It’s just to remind everyone that we should be thankful to be a part of such a wonderful community and using a platform that does get updated regularly.
If you want to learn more about the history of WordPress (the pre-1.2 days), read Evolution of WordPress: B2/Cafelog to WordPress 1.0.
I’m really thankful to wordpress and his regular updateds but i see what happens to these people who complain… they just live with fear…. and we do not have to live with fear, at least with wordpress. The community does a great job.
sorry for my english…. and thank you for this post.. really amazing
[...] Tadlock has recently attempted to put this into perspective with his most recent post, be thankful WordPress gets updated. I’ve personally always loved and appreciated all the updates WordPress receives (and that [...]
I really am confounded by the number of complaints/reports of complaints I always hear. From 2.3–when I started using it–on, I haven’t seen an update that didn’t add many more improvements than hassles. Certainly they haven’t been perfect, but I much rather have a few disagreeable changes and some great new features than no changes at all.
Also, with core upgrades and a way to install plugins without leaving the admin area, I’m very excited about 2.7. And that’s ignoring huge usability improvements.
luquerias
I’ve only ever messed up one upgrade on a live site with WordPress because I skipped over a vital step and forgot to deactivate some plugins.
Luckily, since I made backups and WordPress is documented so well on the Codex and around the Web, it was easy to get my blog back up and running.
Having a little fear isn’t a bad thing because it makes you follow all the steps. But you’re right, there’s nothing to fear as long as your you follow directions.
david
Yes, each update gives us many improvements and cuts back on the hassles. I didn’t think I’d really use the plugin upgrade ability, but I tried it out a few weeks ago on my site — now, I’m totally in love with the feature.
I probably won’t use the core upgrade feature because I can upgrade from Subversion in about 10 seconds.
Yes, advancement is good. But the direction of advancement changes does it not?
Is it advancement to keep adding more and more without end? is it advancement to take features used by a minority and add them to the code that must be downloaded and run by everyone? is it advancement to make changes that then need to be replaced because they were not really an advancement (according to some)?, is it advancement to ask the community, on the back of which the success has been built, to continually update themes and plugins with the result that more and more fall by the wayside?
I would argue that advancement can mean slowing down and taking a more measured and considered approach to the future . It can mean giving others the time to bed features in and find ways to extend them. It can mean giving the community space to find new solutions and new ideas.
Just because a person doesn’t want change on a half yearly basis, doesn’t necessarily mean they are against advancement.
Well said, Andrew. If anyone could argue the point against this post, it’d be you.
I’m usually of the opinion that all advancements are good, even if they’re really bad. What I mean by this is that the software is continually evolving and we’re trying and experimenting with different concepts to push the system.
[...] drives the evolution of WordPress? Justin Tadlock published a piece yesterday titled, Be thankful WordPress gets updated which got me thinking about the way WordPress is [...]
You just can’t please everybody. But for a software product, there’s only two choices: Evolve, or die.
Staying at a level once deemed sufficient is a guaranteed way to oblivion, when the world around you continues to spin and avid developers throw out yet another blogging platform every other month.
thank WordPress updated
Hi Justin I love your work and I read your blog whenever I have time, but your post now is like
” It’s rather the argument to end all argument in a figurative sense” [ I hope this is the correct figure of speech for "Totschlagargument" ==>dict.leo.org ]
I agree with Andrew, I love if WP have new things. But I hate new things 4 times a year.
Yes a software is dead if there is no advancement, but nobody could say that typo3 is dead.
I love to update for security reason, but not for features every time.
Sticky post is a very good plugin, now WP 2.7 have sticky posts but a very very simpler version as the popular plugin.
There were wonderful tag pluging out there. WP now can handle tags, most of the plugins are down but the way WP handle tags is very very very simple, so simple tags is the last of the big tag plugging we have before WP can handle tags.
I love a simple core and good Apis
And yes I remember the first version of WP too -
It was fun and crazy and everyone asks me: blog —-??? -wordpress…???
Monika
Robert
That’s too true. You have to continue developing new features to appeal to the masses.
Monika
What’s “typo3″? I’ve honestly never heard of it until I read your comment.
Every update isn’t for features though. We’ve had plenty of security updates for WordPress this year.
Sticky posts were added because of user demand. And, it’s much better integrated than anything I’ve seen.
I’m not sure where you’re going with the tags thing. We’ve had tagging in WordPress since 2.3, which was another major feature users have asked for. Plus, once they added tags, they overhauled the taxonomy system and made it much better. You can now essentially have any type of taxonomy that you want through a plugin — a huge leap forward for the platform.
This all comes back to the evolution of WordPress. If the developers aren’t listening to their users, then the software starts dying out. You mention tags and sticky posts in particular. These are two not insignificant things that users have been asking for.
Hi Justin maybe typo3 is only used at Europe, but most of the people do not know something about CMS - they know the word “Typo3″ and thought “Typo3″ is CMS and no software more.
So someone would like to have a “business website” he said:typo3 because he didn’t now another word to explain.
WP started to update more and more - so user would like to have: make the updates easier- WP do it and now WP say:updates are easier we can update whenever we would like - it is a hairspring of tempo
You argue with features and I say:features good but updates to often - WP rushes me and not only me - and so I argue on another level as you, Justin.
I love WP of its simplicity and fear that WP would become a next Typo3 - a big, very powerful software - but to complex for the *normal* user. Here a feature there a feature in the core and WP is on its best way to become a “big truck” and not a very elegant “roadster”.
Monika
Yes, I do mention some features, but you specifically brought up sticky posts and tagging.
Luckily for us, WordPress is becoming easier to use. Just think of plugin upgrades, and now even core upgrade. Advanced users don’t even use that type of stuff. Those things are for the “normal” users.
I fail to see why three major updates in the past 15 months is “too often” (assuming WP 2.7 is released in December).
[...] and how often those updates occur, take a step down memory lane with Justin Tadlock in “Be Thankful WordPress Gets Updated.” He takes you through the various versions and why we should be so thankful for the most [...]
I think what I love most about WordPress is the administration aspect of it.
Many commercial web-based products - not just blogging software - could learn a lot from WordPress in that way. A toxic mix of complexity and profound naffness still continues to sink perfectly good concepts and as a UX professional I have yet to use a read-write interface with such a distinctive character. Even that old screenshot comes across better than a lot of today’s “cutting edge”!
That said, I have not yet upgraded to 2.7 - I intend to do so in the next few days. I have concerns about the use of icons (of which I am more than a little suspicious) and this shift towards grey that seems to be happening, but I expect to be pleasantly surprised. The fact that I can have that expectation underlines that, for me at least, a WordPress upgrade can actually be an exciting experience.
There’s still two color schemes (Classic and Fresh), so you don’t have to go with the purely grey style if you don’t want to. You can choose them from your profile.
WP 2.7’s administration interface may be the easiest thing I’ve ever used. The ability to get to nearly any page in one click is worth the upgrade alone.
[...] there are some few people who are feeling annoyed about this frequently updating WordPress, but a post from blogger Justin may enlighten you and come to the realization that all these changes aren’t bad at all, and are actually pretty [...]
Sorry, Justin. That was a bit presumptuous of me, wasn’t it? I should really download 2.7 and use it before I talk about grey
I hope then that the WP team maintains that option in the future!
I read somewhere that the colour grey is supposed to help you think better than any other colour. They’d done some tests back in the days when everyone had the best of intentions and wore hornrimmed spectacles.
Evidently someone in my office took these findings rather literally. Both the carpet and the walls are the same tone of grey. Tilt your head through ninety degrees and everything looks pretty much the same
Thanks for letting me know anyway!
[...] and how often those updates occur, take a step down memory lane with Justin Tadlock in “Be Thankful WordPress Gets Updated.” He takes you through the various versions and why we should be so thankful for the most [...]
I love wordpress. I have been using greymatter, pmachine, expression engine, blogger, and settled on wordpress since opensource is the best way to go! I am so impressed with the wordpress community I’d like to donate! It’s fantastic and as long as the automatic updates work, I am happy!
Wasn’t 1.5 out by May 2005? I upgraded from B2 in June/July 2004 and that was 1.2 days, I’m sure 1.5 came into play around February of 2005 and indeed 2.0 around the turn of that year
Mike Padgett
I’m not sure if I’d like working in a place with everything colored grey.
Tim
I think WordPress.org has a donate link somewhere if you feel like donating.
Greg
Yes, you’re correct. I first started playing around with 1.2, which was well before I started using it on my site in May of 2005. I’ll correct the post to reflect this.