I’m Slowly Leaving WordPress; And Why.  ## Metadata - Author: [[Somewhere Within Boredom]] - Full Title: I’m Slowly Leaving WordPress; And Why. - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: [#wordpress, #community, #contributor-experience, #platform-feedback, #developer-exit] - #wordpress - #community - #contributor-experience - #platform-feedback - #developer-exit author: [WithinBoredom] source: [WithinBoredom Blog] reference: [I’m Slowly Leaving WordPress and Why](https://withinboredom.info/2024/12/14/im-slowly-leaving-wordpress-and-why/) date created: 2024-06-16 16:30 --- # Title: I’m Slowly Leaving WordPress and Why ## Table of Contents: 1. [📝 Summary](#-summary) 2. [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#-notes) 3. [📖 References](#-references) 4. [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) 5. [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) 6. [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) 7. [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) 8. [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) 9. [❓ Questions](#-questions) 10. [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) 11. [💡 Implications](#-implications) 12. [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) 13. [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) 14. [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) 15. [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) 16. [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) 17. [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) 18. [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) --- ## 📝 Summary: The article outlines the author's gradual disillusionment with WordPress as a platform. Initially a passionate contributor and user, the author reflects on frustrations related to developer experience, project governance, and platform innovation. They highlight increasing complexity, contributor burnout, and decision-making issues as key reasons for stepping away. The tone is introspective, seeking to raise awareness rather than assign blame. --- ## 📖 Main Content: ### 🗒️ Notes: #### **1. Author’s Journey with WordPress** - Early enthusiasm for the open-source community. - Deep involvement in the ecosystem as both a contributor and developer. #### **2. Growing Frustrations** - Increasing platform complexity hinders developer workflow. - **Governance Issues**: - Centralized decision-making leaves contributors feeling unheard. - Perception that core contributors prioritize their own vision over community needs. - Contributor burnout due to unpaid labor expectations. #### **3. Innovation and Competitiveness** - WordPress feels outdated compared to emerging technologies. - Better tools, frameworks, and platforms offer improved developer experience. #### **4. Final Decision** - Slowly transitioning away from WordPress to platforms that align with the author’s current values and workflow. --- ## 📖 References: - [Original Article: “I’m Slowly Leaving WordPress and Why”](https://withinboredom.info/2024/12/14/im-slowly-leaving-wordpress-and-why/) --- ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1. **The Complex Reality**: "What started as a love for open-source has shifted to frustration. WordPress feels unnecessarily complex, and the decision-making process often sidelines contributors' input." 2. **Burnout and Better Options**: "Unpaid contributor labor takes its toll. Other platforms offer modern solutions and a smoother developer experience, leaving WordPress less appealing for long-term involvement." --- ## 📰 Newsletter: 👋 **Why Some Devs Are Moving On from WordPress** In a thought-provoking piece, [WithinBoredom](https://withinboredom.info/2024/12/14/im-slowly-leaving-wordpress-and-why/) shares their journey of stepping away from WordPress. Reasons include governance frustrations, contributor burnout, and a sense that modern tools offer better workflows. This candid reflection is a reminder of why fostering an inclusive, innovative community matters more than ever. Let’s keep the conversation going: How can WordPress better support its contributors? 📢 Join the discussion here! --- ## ✅ Action Items: 1. **Contributor Advocacy**: Develop resources to address unpaid labor and reduce burnout. 2. **Governance Transparency**: Propose initiatives for decentralized decision-making and greater contributor input. 3. **Developer Experience**: Advocate for tools that streamline workflows and reduce platform complexity. --- ## 🧪 Hypotheses: 1. Addressing governance transparency could improve contributor satisfaction and retention. 2. Modernizing developer workflows may increase engagement and innovation within the WordPress ecosystem. --- ## 📊 Methodology: - Conduct **surveys** to identify the top pain points among developers and contributors. - Compare WordPress’s developer experience with competing platforms (e.g., Next.js, Laravel). --- ## ❓ Questions: 1. How can WordPress balance platform complexity with usability? 2. What steps can improve governance transparency and contributor engagement? --- ## 🔮 Future Research: - Explore the impact of contributor burnout on open-source ecosystems. - Identify emerging technologies that enhance developer experience. --- ## 💡 Implications: Future improvements in governance and developer workflows could strengthen WordPress’s position as a leading open-source project while reducing contributor attrition. --- ## 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment: 1. **Visual**: Limited imagery—suggest adding charts to illustrate platform complexity trends. 2. **Aural**: Include audio discussions or podcast links on developer frustrations. 3. **Logical**: Add data points comparing developer experience between platforms. --- ## 📊 Accessibility Assessment: - Improve text readability with clear headers and bullet points. - Ensure screen readers can easily navigate the content. --- ## 🌍 DEIB Assessment: - **Neurodiversity**: Simplify complex sentences for clearer readability. - **Representation**: Include diverse perspectives to reflect a global contributor community. --- ## ✅ Logical Validity: - **Strength**: The author presents well-reasoned frustrations with governance and platform complexity. - **Weakness**: Lacks statistical evidence to support claims about WordPress’s competitiveness. --- ## 🔍 DARVO Analysis: - **Deny**: No denial of WordPress’s strengths. - **Attack**: Criticism remains constructive and avoids personal attacks. - **Reverse Victim**: The author highlights frustrations without portraying themselves as a victim. --- ## 🔍 SEO Evaluation: - **Keywords**: “Leaving WordPress,” “WordPress developer experience,” “WordPress governance.” - **Meta Description**: Suggest: "Why developers are stepping away from WordPress: frustrations with governance, complexity, and burnout." --- ## 🎯 Conclusion: The article offers a candid critique of WordPress governance and contributor experience. While constructive, it raises concerns that WordPress must address to retain its open-source community and relevance in the evolving developer landscape. - Document Tags: [[matt mullenweg]] [[wordpress]] [[wpdrama]] - Summary: For those who know me, I’ve usually been a pretty big fan of WordPress. I even worked for Automattic for a time. I have quite a collection of custom plugins and code to do some pretty interes… - URL: https://withinboredom.info/2024/12/14/im-slowly-leaving-wordpress-and-why/ For those who know me, I’ve usually been a pretty big fan of WordPress. I even worked for Automattic for a time. I have quite a collection of custom plugins and code to do some pretty interesting things. But now, I think it is time to go; for many reasons. The thing that triggered this move for me isn’t the drama around Matt and WPEngine; despite it being a total hypocrisy. I’ll get to that later. Rather, WordPress is just an absolute pain to use. #### Stupid Blocks A long time ago, Matt Mullenweg said that the future is JavaScript and every developer should learn JavaScript. Shortly thereafter, Gutenberg was created. It is a master-craft in overengineering. First, it doesn’t require that you know JavaScript. Most of the work (at least with my custom blocks) is in configuration and knowing the magic incantation of JSON keys. Discoverability is near non-existent, and it almost feels like someone didn’t like how opaque arrays were going out of style in PHP, didn’t want to use named parameters, and decided to stick it all in JSON documents instead. I’d be willing to bet that someone could have written a better editor with [htmx](https://htmx.org/) and regular php over the course of a few weeks. But here we are. #### Scalability WordPress simply does not scale by default. There are quite a few things you have to know to scale it properly. This isn’t documented very well either, because then what would all the hosting companies charge you for? If you think I might be wearing a tin-foil hat, there is a reason Matt wants that sweet doh (or contributions) from hosting companies. #### Slow WordPress is pretty fast, all by itself. The problem is exacerbated by the stupid blocks. It is so convoluted to create your own blocks that it is much easier to just install a plugin. It used to be that it would take 10-15 minutes to throw together a simple plugin to do what you needed to do; or just install a similar plugin and refactor it if necessary. See, originally, the plugin repository was designed to be an open source repository. In fact, it is still one of the guidelines that the license in the repository be compatible with the GPL. I scanned those licenses for you, and the number of non-licensed (meaning all-rights-reserved) and explicit all-rights-reserved plugins were very high. It’s not open source, despite their own guidelines saying otherwise… This is why I was saying that Matt was a hypocrite. He selectively enforces open source in the plugin repository, allowing some non-open source plugins to thrive, while others clearly are not allowed. I simply don’t trust the platform any longer. So, throw in my distrust along with requiring some slow af plugins that aren’t really open source … well, yeah. It is yet another reason to move on. #### The destination Between the politics and technical issues I have with WordPress as a blogging platform, it is time to go. The first step is to generate this blog as a static site and hunt for issues. There are many issues already (Jetpack completely breaks in fun and interesting ways due to embedding CSRF tokens in forms, for example). I need to figure out a solution for comments as well. Most likely, I will end up moving back to Hugo, but even that feels bloated after revisiting it all these years later. In the interim, though, I will explore multiple CMS’s and try to find one that suits this blog. Some content could not be imported from the original document. [View content ↗](https://widgets.wp.com/likes/?ver=14.1#blog_id=125744883&post_id=5459&origin=withinboredom.info&obj_id=125744883-5459-675e0b7374cb0&n=1), I’m Slowly Leaving WordPress; And Why., Somewhere Within Boredom, 01jf97e7c7e07zrk04tvxypvm4.