New Visual Editor Concerns
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I’m really sorry you’re experiencing difficulties with WordPress.com. I can assure you that nothing is being “downgraded”. These are all changes that are coming with WordPress 3.9 that are geared to improve the overall user experience. That will be the standard WordPress version for all self-hosted users, and we have those changes in the specific WordPress.com code now.
As part of this process, as explained on the forums sticky notes I’ve posted, some features have changed, and others have been removed.
While we won’t revert the code to the way it was before, we will do our best to address bugs or other issues that have cropped up as thousands of real users engage with these changes. Not everything can or will be fixed, but we will consider all feedback as we move forward.
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The downgrade I speak of includes such things as the removal of the More Colors option, removal of the border and spacing options in the Advanced section of the old Image Editor, etc.
It’s a downgrade because now I have to switch to HTML editing, search out multiple strings of text and image insertion code, insert or edit code on each of them, then deal with mistakes I make in that process, the typos, leaving something out, etc. for which the editor is merciless in the way it removes the entire piece of code because of a single mis-typed character (I know, it’s like that in lots of editors, but I shouldn’t have to be using it), for many posts, not just once in a while, for results that I FORMERLY ACCOMPLISHED WITH A FEW CLICKS.
And in the case of More Colors, the downgrade requires that I go use a different selector palette (e.g.: background color, header text color, or outside of WordPress) to get the hex # needed to insert into my post’s HTML … sometimes several times with several different colors in one post. That’s not just tedious. It’s almost prohibitive, because finding just the right color for a particular use is very often a trial-and-error process. Simple clicks in the past. A headache now, in some posts.
You aren’t allowed to call it what it is. But it IS a downgrade.
I wonder if there’s another downgrade coming that will remove More Colors from header and background settings, too.
Regardless of anyone’s good intent, or the reason for it coming out with bad result (perhaps because of the new TinyMCE), down is down and that’s where it went.
These are all changes that are coming with WordPress 3.9 that are geared to improve the overall user experience. That will be the standard WordPress version for all self-hosted users, and we have those changes in the specific WordPress.com code now.
It seems like you are saying (and not alone in it among Support people) that in the overall application of this move to TinyMCE 4, there will be a lot more good stuff that will far outweigh and overwhelm the down side, these apparently deemed piddling things we’re complaining about. It seems that you’re saying there’s a trade-off, where in the end we come out way ahead (and I won’t have to buy an upgrade to get there). It seems like you’re saying that. But it’s not clear, not explicit. Maybe just my wishful interpretation.
Geez I sure hope that’s where it’s going. Sometimes it’s well worth taking the bad with the good.
Here’s an idea: tell us what sorts of true upgrades and true improvements are in the pipeline, whether generally or specifically. (Or do they know?) Tell us what we will get that will outweigh what we lost. If there are some definite, certain things coming, announcing them might work well as consolation for all the trouble this visual editor change caused. (It would for me.) I’ll be very surprised if you can get a response to this from higher authority, but it’s a serious suggestion you can put in the box I can’t reach.
If NOTHING else, it could be a good idea to issue a simple apology, publicly in the WordPress News blog, from someone in authority over their own name, with the usual promise to do everything possible to make things better.
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We believe the changes are making WordPress.com (and WordPress as a whole) better. There are indeed tradeoffs whenever you change or remove a feature, and some users will mourn those changes while others will applaud (or not even notice) the changes. It’s inevitable with all software.
When online services (think Facebook and Gmail) or desktop software change things, sometimes it’s really a pain in the neck for a while, but we all adapt and in the end, almost always forget how things were before. In this world, this kind of change is inevitable as we all try to make our products better.
As far as announcing things in advance, that’s really not possible for a platform such as ours that makes changes every single day of the week. Literally. What we do try to do is post about our biggest changes and new features once they go live on our blog, http://en.blog.wordpress.com/
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As a long time subscriber to the WordPress News blog, I look forward to the good news in the offing.
Now that you mention them … I’m glad I got out of working professionally in Information Technology before Facebook and Google+ and the ilk took over cyberspace.
I deleted my Google+ profile and I despise Facebook. Not that I didn’t give them a fair trial. I wanted to make them work for limited purposes. I tested Publicize in WordPress.
Facebook is insane, for an insane culture (rhetorically speaking … I bet Zuckerberg is very sane). I don’t visit the Fb pages of other people or businesses. I put it off my radar. I won’t do WordPress the disservice of comparing it to them, and I hope you don’t do it again, as if they are the standard Automattic should meet, or accept.
You like those all-encompassing words … “inevitable, impossible, all, whenever,” huh?
It is as “inevitable” as the one with the most marbles says it is, whether right wrong or neutral for any party. In that sense, given the WordPress cache of marbles, you’re right.
But I would not have said to any of my users or clients that it’s inevitable that they take what this new Visual Editor has dished out, especially to somebody who had explained in detail how it had really hit him as a true downgrade, causing him more work, amidst countless others with the same and similar complaints.
I WOULD say that it’s nearly inevitable for a large percentage of support staff to excuse the company from responsibility like that. It is too close to saying, “S*** happens. Get over it.” I could have been fired for saying it — or even implying it in some situations — and I might have fired people for saying it.
The “literally every single day of the week changes” aren’t all the kind of thing to pre-announce, to say, “Hey, we’ve got this cool thing in beta for you to be excited about coming soon!” But big changes that are still in beta, or going into beta, get plenty announced by many companies with platforms like yours, and larger and smaller ones.
It’s a form of advertising, and, unless they have a captive beta audience, sometimes they announce a call for beta testers. I’ve had the chance to preview software that way. So it is “really possible.” Well, maybe not for Automattic; but I hope they can do it without making a mess. They seem like a pretty savvy outfit.
I think we’ve far exceeded the limits of the term “off-topic,” and I have one or two other things to do. So I’ll read your next reply, if any, then I’ll unsub from this topic.
Thanks again for your time. Be well.
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I appreciate your comments. For now, I agree that we’ve probably taken this as far as we can, so I’m going to close this thread.
I’d encourage you to give WordPress.com a little more time and play with the new changes for a bit before dismissing it entirely. If you run into any other issues, just let us know.
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