Wordpress 2.7

It’s not done yet but the release is coming fast & harder than any versions prior to 2.7 at least from what I have heard. Regarding my view on the recent acquisitions made by WordPress parent company Automattic , I beleive this is great move by them. Intense Debate will be implemented soon making the comment system more interactive and inviting to your readers will create a stronger community for your blog / website becomes. Not to forget about the other acquisition recently made for PollDaddy.

~The new additions to the powerful blogging platform are plentiful in the upcoming upgrade. A few of them will include the following (Pulled from the source itself)

• XMLRPC Comments API
• Keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation
• Sticky Posts
• Theme update api, like we do for plugins
• Dashboard and write box rearranging (write box in trunk)
• One-click plugin installs
• Reply to comments from admin
• Core updating
• Frame-like method for moderating ping/trackbacks
• Plugin browser embedded
• PHPXref hosted on WordPress.org
• Separate Large and Full image sizes, related improvements
• Comment threading
• Comment paging
• Batch and inline editing
• HTTPOnly cookies
• Column hiding for all management pages
• Post box hiding for all edit pages
• Upgrades and install over SFTP

Snapshots of visual changes WP 2.7 is going through (latest trunk 10/16/08)

A few changes are immediately noticeable ;

 

• Top Admin WordPress Menu is shifted to the left Side
• Write/Manage buttons are now managed via Post n’ Pages

My take

The Good

Threaded comment is always cool albeit iphone-ish. But I’m really excited about the new company they acquired Intense Debate that system looks a lot more appealing and appetizing than Disqus for some reason. (I’m always going with style over substance hah!). They also bought the company Polldaddy

The Bad

Personally just the initial shock from the re-arranging of the dashboard, leaves me very traumatized. I’ll have to drink a lot of Jack Daniels tonight with the guys to erase those memories by tomorrow. (But I pray some cool coder out there makes a plugin to fix the left side menu back to the way I remember it as.).

My other complaints would be that just overall I think WordPress is trying way too hard to make itself look like a complex CMS with a multitude of tools (some may call it bloatware). But it was the simplicity and originality that allowed millions of people take the first few steps of courage to dabble in online blogging. So if this is the final design of WordPress 2.7 I believe it’s going in the wrong direction.

Like many designers say “KISS” -> Keep-It-Simple-Stupid. If people want a bunch of features , there’s a butt-load of plugins. People aren’t stupid monkeys they all know they can get it from Wordpress.org’s Plugin Repository.

The Ugly

The Dashboard menu is ugly , repulsive & scary. Certain plugins that were previously used and popular prior to 2.7 will be implemented and built in-to 2.7’s core. The sad part is that the original authors won’t get the credit. But alas that is the way of the open source world. Some people such as myself will prefer the lighter core deprived of any plugins that I consider bloaty n’ sluggish.

What are your thoughts ? I’m kinda VERY intersted so leave a comment !