Once Again the Behavior Changes without Notifying the User
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So recently – with apparently NO WARNING or notice to the user – the behavior of WP “Press This” feature changed.
Now whenever I use Press This, my posts are qualified at “post-type = quote.” This is a most a couple of days old.
That you are making changes is not an issue.
What is an issue is that you are making changes that impact the way HTML is formatted and apparently doing that without bothering to inform anyone. Or at least anyone in the community of users.
While changes to accommodate the EU’s GDPR needed to hit by a certain day, what is the excuse for this?
Is there a list of planned/proposed changes anywhere? Or are you just making stuff up as you go?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there,
There has been no changes to how the Press This feature on WordPress.com works since we introduced our own Press This bookmarklet in November last year to replace the one that was removed from the Core WordPress software several versions ago. I checked the actual code for that feature, and there has been no changes since then.
Are you sure you did not accidentally click the Quote post format while working on the draft Press This created?
What is an issue is that you are making changes that impact the way HTML is formatted
What changes to HTML formatting are you referring to?
While changes to accommodate the EU’s GDPR needed to hit by a certain day, what is the excuse for this?
An update on changes related to GDPR was posted on the WordPress.com blog on 14 May, we posted a sticky forum thread on 16 May which we’ve also been updating as new documentation and tools became available, and we launched a new site specifically for updates related to the GDPR:
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/about-the-gdpr/
Prior to that we had a support document published on en.support.wordpress.com since late 2017 outlining some of the changes we were working on.
Is there a list of planned/proposed changes anywhere?
You are welcome to follow the public GItHub repository for the Calypso/My Sites interface on WordPress.com at https://github.com/automattic/wp-calypso/
But we make hundreds of commits over several code bases every day as our developers work to remove old and outdated features, optimise existing ones and introduce new ones. It is not feasible to personally inform the millions of WordPress.com users and site owners of every change.
The fact is, change will happen. Without changing stuff WordPress.com will eventually stop working, and then you won’t be able to use it at all.
If you have constructive feedback about how we can make things better we’re happy to listen, and if you think something is broken please provide detailed information, including steps we can follow to replicate the issue, so we can report the matter to our developers to fix.
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I’m not complaining about change. I spent my entire career in information technology. What I am complaining about is that the behavior of a system I am using changes without warning.
OK this is what is happening. You will have to tell me if this is a bug or a feature.
1. I find an article/blog post/whatever that I want to reference on my blog.
2. I use “Press This” to create a stub.
3. I verify that in the settings of “Press This” the post-type=standard flag is set.
4. The post gets autosaved, because you think that is the way things should be. (Personally I think I should be able choose: Autosave yes or no AND frequency = n seconds. But hey, that’s my background in application design speaking.)
5. I go to the editor, and the post-type=quote flag is set. So I have to reset it because post-type=quote invokes a different part of the cascading style sheets. Which I don’t want.This only started happening this week. Prior to this week, everything was always post-type=standard
Windows 10 Current with feature upgrade May 1 and quality upgrade June 13.
Firefox 60.0.2 (I can test using other browsers if absolutely needed.) Various customization settings including EFF’s Privacy Badger)(As soon as I can find out how to attach an image to this forum I will do so. I have 2 snips saved.)
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Oh, and prior to this week, using “Press This” created a post with a blank title. This week (along with the post-type flag situation) the created post includes the title from the referenced page. My guess is that it is filling in the data from the “title=” html attribute, but that is just a guess.
Either way it is another change in behavior that started this week – all this started BEFORE the 6/13 windows upgrade.
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Just to confirm, you’re using the Press This bookmarklet in My Site ->Settings ->Writing, correct?
I’m not able to replicate the behaviour you’re describing. If I try to create a post using Press This, it is already set to Quote for me when the Press This editor first opens. If I then change it to standard and save the draft, it’s still set to standard when I resume editing the post in a regular browser window.
As for Quote being auto-selected in the Press This editor, that’s intentional. The editor has always tried to “guess” the post format to use based on the content if one was not explicitly set, and for Press This it should use the Quote post format as default, as that’s essentially what Press This was designed to do – create a new post that quotes content from another website.
This was not working the way it should, and was recently fixed.
However, if you explicitly set it to Standard and save in the Press This editor, it should not revert back to Quote if you later continue editing the post in the dashboard. If that is happening as you describe, that is a bug, but I’m not able to confirm it.
Can you please check again and specifically confirm if this happens even after you click Save in the Press This window, or after it auto-saves?
If you have screen shots to share, you can upload them directly to your media library at My Site ->Media ->Add, and I’ll be able to see them there.
Oh, and prior to this week, using “Press This” created a post with a blank title. This week (along with the post-type flag situation) the created post includes the title from the referenced page. My guess is that it is filling in the data from the “title=” html attribute, but that is just a guess.
When I last tested Press This a few months ago it already auto-completed the title, but I remember there being a delay, the title sometimes only appearing after auto-save happened. So it’s possible you added your own title before that would happen. Now the title appears instantly for me as well. This is due to optimizations on the editor itself.
What I am complaining about is that the behavior of a system I am using changes without warning.
I understand that this can be jarring, but it’s simply not possible for us to communicate changes like these in advance. WordPress.com does not work with versions on a fixed release schedule, so there’s not any changesets outlining all changes in a specific version. Developers deploy changes as they are completed, and this happens hundreds of times a day, some days.
Some of these changes – most affecting the Calypso interface – can be seen in our public GitHub repo, but many changes are also made to internal code that is not publicly visible.
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On what site are you using Press This? Your theme on http://wheelgun.wordpress.com/ does not support the Quote post format.
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Yes. Using “Press This” found under “available tools” I added it to my bookmarks toolbar years ago, and then refreshed (last year?) when the api/protocol changed.
I am working on https://wheelgun.wordpress.com/
This first snip is from the “Post Options” from “Press This” (Open Press this, click on the settings icon – the gear.) Post options should be displayed by default. It is clearly set to “Standard”
The 2nd snip is from the same post, after it has been saved/autosaved as displayed in the post editor. (One of them anyway) It has been changed to “Quote”
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If you can’t publish notices of when changes are going to be promoted from development to production, that tells me that your programmers are free to do whatever they like, whenever they like.
If that were really the case, WP would not be the (mostly) rock-solid environment that we all know, and (mostly) love.
I would bet dollars to donuts that somewhere someone has a project plan that includes things like “testing” and “installation in the production environment.” All I’m asking is that be made (at least the milestones that impact the user community) be made pubic somewhere.
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Hell, I’d be happy if you told me about changes AS THEY HAPPENED. Instead, the last 2 times something has changed (this incident, and the roll-out of changes for GDPR) both resulted in errors being introduced into my BLOG. And I only found out about them days later when something either wasn’t working correctly (in the case of GDPR) or wasn’t working the way I wanted it too.
That’s twice in 2 months.
If I knew these changes were happening/had happened I would be in a position to do some testing on my own. Because clearly – at least in the case of GDPR – not all paths through the code are examined during whatever testing you do in house.
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While I’m sharing images, here’s another, that kind of sums up how I feel about the process WP has for moving things into the production environment.
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While the theme I am CURRENTLY using does may or may not support the “quote” post-type, I would like to be free, in the future, to adopt a different theme.
In any event, it does not explain why the Post-type in “press this” is Standard. And the post-type actually stored in the database is Quote.
Don’t you think that constitutes a problem? Or is it a feature?
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In any event, it does not explain why the Post-type in “press this” is Standard. And the post-type actually stored in the database is Quote.
Can you clarify that? Do you mean the default post type on the writing screen? That’s actually separate from Press This.
All I’m asking is that be made (at least the milestones that impact the user community) be made pubic somewhere.
Have you seen our Github? That may help if you’d like to follow milestones and issues and what not.
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Clarify? Look at the sequence of events above.
1. I use “Press This” to create a stub posting. In “Press This” there is a gear icon. Press that to access settings. Verify that “post type” = “standard”
2. Save the post in “Press This”
3. Open the post in your favorite editor. You probably don’t like the version I am using.
4. Verify the “post type” = “quote”
I do not want it to be “quote.” I do not want the “post type” variable to change between the time I verify what it is, I save it, and open it again. It was set to “standard.” It should remain set to “standard.”
This is either a bug. Or a feature. (Probably depends on how far behind schedule you are.) What is NOT, is a reasonable design, or reasonable behavior.
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And if you actually read the original entries above, you will note that this behavior changed this week. Probably Monday or Tuesday, though you would know better than I when updates were made to the production environment.
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And “default post type” is a variable set in the profile -wherever that is stored. It is probably how “Press This” is deciding what to use in the settings panel.
But then it is ignored. (I would guess at save, but that is just a guess.)
I would like “default post type” to be “standard” for EVERYTHING. Including and particularly “Press This” since probably more than half of my posts start out the way. Or that’s the way it was, 2 weeks ago.
Otherwise, “Press This” has just been upgraded to the point where it is useless. (Not the first time I’ve seen that happen to a piece of the software.
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I suppose you could tell me that everything done via “Press This” is supposed to have “post type” = “quote,” but then you should not be giving me access (via settings INSIDE “Press This”) to the “post type” variable, and even if you did, it should NOT be set to a value that is meaningless. If you must show it then it should be a non-editable field set to “quote.” At least that would be consistent. It wouldn’t be the way I would have designed it, but then it is becoming so abundantly clear that WP is not designed the way I would have designed it.
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There isn’t a gear on “Press This” here. Are you referring to something else?
https://wordpress.com/settings/writing/Press This is supposed to be a quote if that option is available.
As for Quote being auto-selected in the Press This editor, that’s intentional. The editor has always tried to “guess” the post format to use based on the content if one was not explicitly set, and for Press This it should use the Quote post format as default, as that’s essentially what Press This was designed to do – create a new post that quotes content from another website.
This was not working the way it should, and was recently fixed.
This was from an earlier staff reply.
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Surprise surprise. Press this has been updated (again, no warning).
The previous version of Press This did in fact have a link to settings.
Just close this. I have stopped using Press This, since it instuted that policy that “Default Post Format” is not default everywhere.
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Here is a link to an image of the “Old” version of Press This. You can see – directly under the URL bar that there is a gear icon. Which takes you to a settings menu. But apparently not to the post settings.
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