Let me just say this--tried Gutenberg prior to 5.0. Hated it. Hit something wrong, and all of a sudden you have another block created on a page that you don't want. It has numerous other UI issues. What I found ironic and very amusing is that Gutenberg was so rushed that they seemed to have brushed aside a little thing called accessibility:
WordPress’ accessibility team has published a statement on the level of overall accessibility of Gutenberg. The team, largely a group of unpaid volunteers, collaborated on a detailed assessme…
wptavern.com
Gutenberg is an answer to a question nobody asked.
I see it like this. I'll use Microsoft Office as an example. If I need to lay out a long-form document with a lot of writing, I will reach for Microsoft Word. It does what I need it to do, and it stays out of the way--I can write my content uninhibited. Would I use it to lay out a page? No. I will reach for Microsoft Publisher, where I can arrange a page using various blocks.
See the parallel here? Word is like WordPress with its Classic Editor. Publisher is like Gutenberg--you work with blocks to lay things out. Each one has its own use case. And if I'm not mistaken, blogs are more about posting the written word, not loading up pages full of different bits and pieces of media.
A few of my staff have accidentally seen Gutenberg and it was basically a classic "WTF moment" when they couldn't figure anything out. (That was before I was able to get in and get Classic Editor activated network-wide.) And that leads to another problem. Sure, I could probably curse at Gutenberg and muddle through it, but other users who are there simply to create content don't want anything as difficult to use. They are not developers, site admins, nothing...they simply want to write a post and drop in a photo. That's it. They have used word processors and forum reply boxes for decades. There is no need to be littering their experience with all of these pointless new features. They don't care.
They just want to write and create.
What I would have preferred is that Gutenberg be delivered as a plugin, like Jetpack. Those who need it can install it. Those who don't want all the fuss and distraction can avoid it entirely.
So...what about that Classic Editor anyway?
By the way, there's now the
Classic Editor plugin if you want the old editor back.
Only until 2022, when WordPress has said they will end support for it. I've been quite vocal in complaining about that.
If I'm not mistaken, old WP4 was forked as ClassicPress by some people unhappy with WP5 changes and looking at feedback many are switching to it.
This could be both good and bad. Very good, actually--it's the direction people want WordPress to remain on. But bad, since plugin and theme developers will either be confused as to which to support (WordPress vs. ClassicPress), or they will remain with WordPress and leave ClassicPress with all the leftovers and abandoned plugins and themes. If not for that issue, I might actually be looking at ClassicPress with a serious mind to changing all of my sites over to it.
What shocks me a bit is the arrogant and condescending response from Wordpress to some of the feedback.
Oh yeah, definitely--they are telling us what is good for us. As I said above--it's an answer to a question that nobody asked. They are telling us that Gutenberg is the "one twue way" that blogging needs to go. Nobody else feels that way. They are basically ignoring their end users. (And that is the biggest issue when developing any "system"--
you fulfill the needs of your end user. You don't pile on a ton of extras they never asked for.) Their attitude on this, especially Mullenweg's, is IMHO disgusting.
And I can't predict the future--will all of us grudgingly just stick with it even though we hate it, until it becomes the norm? Or will it backfire in such a way that admins start moving away from WordPress in droves, leaving Automattic pretty much abandoned and wondering where they went wrong?
Time will tell, I guess.
For me, for now, it's WordPress with Classic Editor. We have about two years to see how it plays out, before we need to decide if we're going to move our sites elsewhere, or see if Automattic wakes up and realizes they've alienated most of their end users and decides to relegate Gutenberg to a best-forgotten plugin.
wordpress.org
