I’ve just realised where I have been going wrong with the new Block Editor. I’ve been approaching it from the position of believing it to be better than the previous version, and simpler to use. I based this on the fact that WordPress used words like improved, intuitive and effortless.
I also allowed myself to be confused by the idea that one of the world’s best known blogging platforms would base its improvements on making blogging easier and that as I pay £240 a year there is a contract between us that they will deliver a decent service in return for the money.
When I look into it, it seems that the changes are all about allowing creativity and website design, which are not things I’m concerned about. I want to write a plain blog and if I’m told that it will be “improved, intuitive and effortless” I’d like my blogging to be better and easier tomorrow than it was yesterday.
That’s like buying a car to use for shopping and day-trips, only to find out that the car company has redesigned it to be better at brain surgery.
I don’t need that.
So, that one is solved – it hasn’t been re-designed with bloggers in mind, it has been designed for creative people (because bloggers clearly aren’t creative) and to create work for the WP team.
So, it isn’t actually improved.
Intuitive? I don’t think so. If it was I would be able to use it instinctively.
Effortless? I now have to press buttons for things like word count that showed automatically. I have to select the Classic block where I used to go straight into the editor. If I want to pin my toolbar to the top of the post (where it used to be automatically pinned) I now know which buttons to press to do that. None of this extra button pressing seems like less effort, so unless my dictionary has gone wrong (ie been re-designed by web developers) this is not “effortless”.
We then come on to the management of change. There was no discussion, I just switched on to find I had been forcibly placed in Block Editor. I don’t feel this is a good way of doing things. If I want to be bullied and forced into doing things I have Julia and the Government to do that. WP is supposed to be my escape from all that.
Then there is the glitchiness. During the writing of this post I looked up from the keyboard to find a blank screen and a fault message. This is the second time this week. Fortunately the post was saved in draft. I have also experienced a variety of missing buttons and other unexplained phenomena, such as things opening that I didn’t want.
I’m going to give up at that point – the editor has shut me out twice in the last two lines and I have struggled to get the text back. That’s three times in total. This shouldn’t be happening.
I’ve also got the “Convert to Blocks” box up again now – I thought I was in blocks.
Just when I thought it was all fixed…
I don’t have a picture of an elderly man crying tears of frustration, but if I did I would use it as the Featured Image, I promise you.
I never assume that changes in programs are for the better (except for the program companies of course). Sometimes things do improve though. The FTP program I use for updating the Archive Group website is a excellent now where it used to be a bit clunky. And OCR programs have improved a lot. I think that the trouble with WP lies in the fact that they are continually trying to attract new customers at the expense of old fogeys like you and me. Think of them as car insurance companies which have exactly the same business plan.
I looked at a list of alternatives as you suggested and as two of them were Facebook and Instagram, I wasn’t tempted to move. I like the WP community too.
I like the WP community too and will still come back to visit. I can understand your reluctance to move to either of those two, I went on Facebook to keep track of the kids, but soon came off. I thought you needed to be keen on Kardashians to be on Instagram…
Somehow I have found WP very manageable whereas the social media sites fill up with rubbish as soon as you look at them. I will be interested to know where you end up.
I used to like Twitter, though the character limit prevents blogging. 🙂 I was on Facebook for a while, just watching what the kids were up to. Never wrote anything on it and, to be honest, never liked it.
I think that WP is my spiritual home. It lets me witter on endlessly (at a price) and never tells me to shut up.
I can see why you would like that. If it had pedals and could make treacle scones it would have everything you needed.
And flying birds. 🙂
🙂
Good luck, Quercus! Take a deep breath and soldier on.
Will do! 🙂
Totally agree, it’s great if you want embed videos from various sites and loads of other stuff, the list on the LHS is endless but it took me 20 minutes to figure out how to put photos in my post. But like everything else these days I’ll just suffer it 😂
I cracked, as you may read later, and went for the classic plug-in.
Oh, you can do that can you or is it just for you Premium peeps? 😉
I believe they said it was because I have a Business Account, though I didn’t realise what they were talking about at the time. I was fuming. Now I realise it’s because I’m special (which, as a teacher, is probably a description you are familiar with). 🙂
Hmmm I chose a business account a few years ago. I was going to make a living from writing. Content writing, Amazon affiliate etc. I realised it was actually work without fun 😂 Now I just write twaddle which suits me.
Yes I did have some very ‘special’ students but I liked them (sometimes) 😂
🙂 Yes, I considered all those options, then opted for poverty.
Aaaaaaaaarrrrrggghhh!
Aaaaaaarrrrggggghhhh