Recently a couple of b2evolution developers posted comments on my blog about my review of b2evo. Their attitude was hardly like this. They were so open to suggestions and comments and were polite too. They appreciated the fact that I, a lowly nobody, gave their software a review and even clarified some of the points – and I was not even a b2evolution user. None of the WP devs seem to have this openness of mind when listening to their *own* users.

It’s not about being FOSS or not. It’s about developers attitude and I think the point here is that the WP developers seem too to be chasing popularity rather than merit. You’re deciding on features based on how many people want them, not on what’s good for WordPress… It’s showing now… I don’t think you even have a vision of where you want to see WP going – or if you do, you haven’t communicated it to users properly.

So, we all know what you mean – it’s FOSS and we can take your code and change it. To be frank, I don’t have to even do that. I’d find it easier if I can create my own blogging system from scratch… The point is about acknowledging existing users’ concerns about developing and accepting that there are areas where you’ve fallen behind since 1.5.

If we could all easily convert from WP to another blogging system, we would do it and not keep complaining. There are numerous issues in converting content from one tool to another which makes it extremely difficult practically. So I am forced to continue using WordPress if only to preserve my past content.

I don’t think Ryan Filtzer made a “throwaway comment”, because it directly response to Wank’s assertion that 1.5 is good enough for her.

Thanks for the clarification on that Lloyd. No one seemed to pick that up.

BTW, I not sure what features people find so interfering. The WYSIWYG turns off. Mark Jaquith offers Clutter Free which turns off most elements on the post screen.

If you want more/less features in WP, contract a developer to make you exactly what you need. That’s what I do, when I can’t do it myself.

Echoing what I’ve said before, WP gives everyone options. If you don’t like the default WP, do something about it.

Matt, the thing that really bothered me was that 2.0.x and 2.1 series have nothing really substantial above 1.5.x (as far as features related to core blogging goes), but it has become quite huge and bulky.

I appreciated the optional WYSIWYG editor, but unfortunately its usefulness is limited because it doesn’t produce 100% XHTML compliant output (TinyMCE’s fault) and also the new autosave feature is so bugging me that I am even tempted to throw my old blog and start elsewhere with a new blogging tool.

I like WordPress’s templating and theming system and is probably the best out there and its got the biggest active plugin and theme community, but sometimes I think that too much popularity has made WP go off in new directions which is not always appreciated by the old guard.

But instead forking WordPress 1.5, I think it would make more sense to get involved with Habari and make it really simple to switch from WP 1.5 to Habari. You save on bloat, and you get to do something cool at the same time