WordPress as a Group Sucks
The other night I decided I needed to have some php run from my posts now and again. I started doing the “normal” WordPress thing and messing with plugins and seeing which worked on WPMU and which did not.
This went typically… find the plugin, install the plugin, watch it blow up, remove the plugin, find the next one, modify WPMU configuration so it works… hack hack hack…
I finally found a couple that worked and I will write them up soon.
Except…
When I put the php code in my post and hit save, it just vanished.
O_o
My first thought was, “gee, how STUPID!”
My thoughts have since gotten worse. Let me backtrack for a second and say this newest version of WPMU has REALLY annoyed me. No, I am not going to say which one it is because from here on out, this is the LAST upgrade I ever install of a WordPress script. From now on, I will only use my own modified version. This means I WILL have some security holes poking around as time progresses.
Why won’t I migrate over to something more sane?
First off, just how many labor hours do you think I have tied up into this code? You see how spotty my posts are here. Trust me, it is not because I have a day job that gets in the way. It is due to having a LOT of behind the scenes work.
Second off, what is going on with WordPress is typical of how Open Source goes. Mambo/Joomla, anyone? How about the infamous phpNuke architecture?
This is why I usually insist on rolling my own code.
BTW, my own code is currently in shambles due to not surviving a server migration and an update. Obviously Closed Source code has its downside too. 
I am certainly not saying I could write anything as comprehensive as WP or WPMU this decade without a team of developers.
I have no issues with the skill of the developers of WordPress or ANY successful code.
What I have an issue with is the attitude.
I can relate to their attitude though… I write Closed Source code, after all.
Notice the difference?
Closed Source.
Open Source.
Isn’t the point to Open Source Software the strength of the community?
The *official* WordPress community has always sucked, IMNHO. This has been a concern of many people I have shown WP and WPMU to. Of course, the Greater WordPress Community ROCKS though! Lots of people with sites along the lines of this one but FAR superior to my efforts.
That was then.
Here is an example of the problem with WordPress at Skippy Dot Net. Skippy has a point by far. Of course, I say this after I determined a lot of the thoughts that brought on this particular rant. I found Skippy’s blog again after a friend showed me I wasn’t alone.
I have a work blog where I post notes of what I did each day on, and in it is where this rant began.
I was infuriated that after messing with adding various plugins and monkeying with the WPMU configuration (see yesterday’s post for an example) I was left with the editor STILL quietly discarding anything wrapped in php tags.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!
So I started to dig…
And fume…
At one point, I even went so far as to say, “is MicroSloth running WP now?”
Later, I was vindicated by this mail list flame and didn’t feel so cheap.
Basically, the developer had a nervous Nelly moment and forever changed WPMU for us. WP decided to take control from the user for their own purposes.
You know I can understand allowing php in posts can be bad, so before you think I am asking a lot, let me point out that this issue has a chunk of the community in an uproar because it kills evil little things like alt tags. Can you say HTML/XML spec?
I knew you could.
Take a look at this Article on Restoring Style to WPMU for some rational discussion on this point.
As of this moment, I do not have a fix in place, only a work around. I spent far too much time figuring out what they did and got too angry along the way to get any of the solutions provided to work to allow php in posts.
And this brings me to my point in this rant. WordPress has always been crap at building a real support community. Things often get ignored and the chance of flames becoming the body of the content is high.
WordPress has a HORRIBLE level of respect for its users.
For example, people want their alt tags and CSS back (never mind php) and check out the Official FU from WordPress.
I am starting to look closely at Habari and I think I may migrate to it in awhile.
For now, I have hundreds and hundreds of hours tied up in WP and WPMU so I am going to fork it.
I wonder if I still have the last version around?
Tags:babble configuration custom settings hacks Hibari OSS php plugins rants server theory wordpress wordpress mu
I do hope you mean that the WordPress developers and/or Automattic staff instead of WordPress in that statement. I did my best to help as many folks as I could even though I was treated rather poorly by staff.
I gave up on releasing my own WordPress code as well.
Matt and other members of Automattic have this “We’re right 100% of the time” attitude that really shows a lack of respect for those covering their asses. Matt doesn’t see it that way of course. A quick look at his blog shows that any negative comment or one that shows him to be wrong is quickly removed.
actually, yes I do… there are some SUPER people trying very hard to make WordPress a great thing!!
I am sorry I didn’t make your point clear in my above rant… there are some people that go WAY out of their way to help.
But, their efforts tend to show just how wrongheaded the cronies and Automattic people are… I lost the URL of the flame thread I wanted to reference in this article… it showed member’s trying very hard to help while being called names and chastised for “improper” attitude. Five posts on topic and an easy twenty telling the helpers they were bad people.
Sorry, Automattic is PAINFULLY arrogant and disrespectful.
the GREATER WordPress community is totally different. As is true of most successful Open Source programs.
Let me officially apologize for making my point sloppily.
I am this far into WordPress integration BECAUSE of people like you. The official WP support has always been pathetic, after all
Thanks for correcting me and allowing me to clarify my point!
Thank you for the follow up. I’m actually sitting here looking at the Mu forums wanting to answer questions and help folks and then I remember being called a rat yesterday by Matt and think “why bother?”
The annoying part of all this is that Matt will never see or understand what he does is wrong and incredably lacking in ethics.
The disdain for those forums is why I have this meager blog going. I can provide help as I see fit and not deal directly with the politics.
I can obviously relate to Automattic wanting to control things, but again, I don’t claim to be Open Source or Community Supported.
I personally think that the best word for what has happened is hubris.
Talent can ruin a person.
Thanks for your comments and thanks for your thoughts elsewhere on the web!
I can relate to the arrogance, of Matt and his team, although I try not to, I have numerous times seen and have reported bugs or other inconsistencies that Matt classifies as “invalid” WordPress has weaknesses and yet Matt has failed to address them and thinks that they shouldn’t, probably because he spends most of his time worrying the profit margin of Automattic.
I have posted on Matts blog, but its weird how he deletes them, yet what I say isn’t nasty or horrible. But I suppose he has a hard time when it comes to trivial matters. Its a bit unethical to delete any sort of negative comment because its more of an act of an abuse of free speech, but I guess he loves the attention. honestly when you put up a blog, you must be prepared for negative comments or else don’t have a blog at all.
I don’t know that I agree it is unethical to delete negative posts… in my house I don’t have to tolerate people being rude, and neither do you and neither do they.
I do think it is bad business and stupid though.
For example, let’s say for a minute that we disagreed on the concept here. (the “you” is of course just for example)
If you showed up and just flamed away, I could pass popcorn and watch you make an ass of yourself.
If you showed up and explained to me the error of my ways, even in a heated manner, we could still discuss things and maybe hit a consensus.
Ok, so in reality if we had a heated discussion no one would ever agree cause that is generally how the web works…
BUT, both our points would be out in the open for other’s to decide. The community would decide. If I was found to be wrong in that case, I would either start losing traffic or start losing my wrong headedness.
If I just delete you, I am admitting I am wrong from the start.
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article WordPress as a Group Sucks, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
check out This Google SERP and you will start to get an idea.
[...] Recently, I went on a rant about some of the heavy handedness of the WordPress developers. [...]
I agree with all above, but WP is simple enough that I can handle the work-arounds. Some of folks in the WP and MU forum have *tudes, but questions do get answered. And users who never appear in the forums often have excellent insights and fixes. The “community’ rocks, even if there are some deficiencies in the mix.
By the way, Daniel above is a robot and spams a million spams a day. He appears to be a humanoid, but don’t be fooled. Give him the kiss of Akismet.
Sorry it took me so long to reply…
Yeah, I know that the greater WordPress community is FULL of great people! I respect most all of them that arent officially with WordPress itself. A couple of the noteworthy examples have even graced my meager work with input.
I feel bad for them though. They are only appreciated by other users and not by the people who are directly earning their large incomes off those people’s backs.
Also, it is unconscionable that quality members of a community get asked to leave or worse yet, just locked out for saying what they think. I think that most of the people that got treated such were of the Loyal Opposition category.
I *think* I have finally put my ranting about WordPress behind me now that I am moving to a different blog platform.
I hope I have made a good choice in LifeType and it will allow me to get back to work on this blog as well as the others I have.
I do take exception to your calling WordPress simple though. To me, a “simple” script works. WordPress has catastrophically failed on me 4 times this year due to sloppy coding on their part. Anything that just breaks without my monkeying under the hood is NOT simple. I am on the web to publish, not to put out fires.
As for Daniel, yeah… I knew he was a bot… it was an inside joke to myself that I left “his” comment, it also gave me a chance to preach my agenda some more with a link to Google… you will notice i stripped out “his” link though.
Akismet is bad news in itself… I will save that for other authors to go into detail on…. it is enough that it is an Automattic product just like WP for me to never ever let it touch my servers.
Spam Karma and Bad Behavior for me. (Daniel got here before those plugins did.)