[wp-hackers] Putting the P in WordPress

[eric at eamann.com]

The same logic could be argued in the reverse for additional filters like this.
 Write a plug-in to add the feature and see how many downloads it gets before
rolling it in to core.  Having to write a plug-in to remove a trivial feature is
one of the reasons many developers I know consider WordPress to be "bloatware."
 
Some time ago I wrote a patch in response to a user's request that we add Skype
and Facebook and LinkedIn and other fields to the profile page ... it was
rejected because "There's a filter there, which means a plugin can easily
control all of this." (ticket #11367)  It makes sense that we not include
additional (trivial) functionality like this into core ... it made sense there
and it still makes sense now.
 
To be honest, the P function didn't completely break my blog.  However, it did
mess with several images on my site.  Years ago, when I first started with
WordPress, I used the "one-click installer" my web host provided.  It set my
directory as www.mydomain.com/Wordpress ... so every image I uploaded in the 2
years I was there was stored as www.mydomain.com/Wordpress/wp-content/...  I've
gone back through and changed them (it was a bad naming schema to begin with),
but that's not really the point.  The point is that we have an inconsistent
development process:
 
- A trivial feature built by a member of the community-at-large is identified as
such and rejected.
- A trivial feature built by a core team member is included and requests to
remove the feature are dismissed by the core developers.
 
It doesn't paint a pretty picture of the core teams' opinion of the rest of the
community ...
 

On July 6, 2010 at 5:20 PM Matt Mullenweg <m at mullenweg.com> wrote:

> On 7/6/2010 10:33 AM, Harry Metcalfe wrote:
> > I wrote a patch weeks ago to take it out. I'm really not trying to be
> > difficult! I just think this filter is a terrible idea. And it's a
> > little sad to witness the total lack of interest from the core team.
> > This isn't how it's supposed to work, IMO.
>
> Maybe write and promote a plugin, and we can see how many downloads it gets?
>
> --
> Matt Mullenweg
> http://ma.tt | http://wordpress.org | http://automattic.com
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