[wp-testers] Center

[Les Bessant]

On 27 Mar 2008, at 22:43, Matt Mullenweg wrote:
>
> The true test of the release is how usage and adoption of WordPress  
> changes after 2.5 (what people do), especially after people have had  
> a few days to settle into the new feel of things, which I truly  
> believe is a step forward.
>

Much of the negative feedback is coming from people who've been  
working with 2.5 over weeks or even months...

> We didn't always make the safest choices, but we made the best ones.  
> Some things will be uncomfortable to people who have been using WP  
> for years, but I'm confident over time there'll be less and less  
> friction.
>

"Best choices" is always going to be a matter of opinion and  
perspective. Experience suggests that people can get used to things  
that are awkward and uncomfortable to use. This doesn't mean that the  
changes that they're adapting to are for the better.

> Finally, we do have a history of doing things that everyone hated or  
> screamed bloody murder at the time, and were honestly painful to get  
> feedback for, but ended up being good long-term decisions, like  
> introducing the theme system or WYSIWYG.
>

WYSIWYG is optional. Those of us who either don't like it, or have no  
use for it, can easily disable it. This is consistent with WP being  
nicely configurable to suit the user's needs. The fixed vs fluid width  
is easily addressed by a plugin. But the change to the write page  
makes no sense to me, and as you've seen from the comments here, I'm  
not alone.

Making changes that disturb people isn't necessarily bad, but taking  
away functionality and choices is.

Les