Is Etch Fixing WordPress?  ## Metadata - Author: [[WP Minute Tutorials]] - Full Title: Is Etch Fixing WordPress? - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: [Assign relevant tags or keywords to the notee to facilitate organization and retrieval. Add a # before each tag. Tags cannot have special characters. Do not use the tag #articles] - #WordPress - #Gutenberg - #ThemeArchitecture - #Etch - #OpenSource - #SeparationOfConcerns Author: Kevin Giri (post, read & discussed on WP Minute) Source: YouTube (WP Minute) — reading & commentary on Kevin Giri’s blog post Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU date created: {{date:YYYY-MM-DD}} {{time:HH:mm}} --- # Title: Is Etch Fixing WordPress? — Themes, Architecture, and the Promise of a Unified Visual Dev Environment ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🧭 Context & Claims](#-context--claims) - [🏗️ Architecture vs. Design: The Core Argument](#️-architecture-vs-design-the-core-argument) - [🧩 Gutenberg’s Opportunity (and Missed Unification)](#-gutenbergs-opportunity-and-missed-unification) - [🛠️ The Etch Proposal](#️-the-etch-proposal) - [⚖️ Counterpoints & Nuance from the Host](#️-counterpoints--nuance-from-the-host) - [🗒️ Notes (deep outline with timestamp links)](#-notes-deep-outline-with-timestamp-links) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging) Assessment](#-deib-diversity-equity-inclusion-belonging-assessment) - [✅ Logical validity](#-logical-validity) - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### References: Include a list of sources consulted and cited in the article. (See [📖 References](#-references)) --- ## 📝 Summary: This WP Minute episode reads and reacts to a blog post by **Kevin Giri** arguing that WordPress has a **structural confusion** between **design (look & feel)** and **architecture (function & data flow)**. The post demonstrates the issue by showing user-created templates vanish when switching themes ([00:43–1:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=43)), framing it as an **architectural flaw** in how **themes** are conceived. Giri claims **Gutenberg** could have unified components/patterns across themes but didn’t, perpetuating fragmentation ([19:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1180)). He proposes **Etch** as a **unified visual development environment** that outputs core blocks and makes themes effectively obsolete ([25:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1545), [27:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1653)). The host offers **nuanced pushback**—emphasizing historical context, open-source complexity, and the end-user origins of WordPress, while acknowledging the pain points and some validity of Giri’s critique ([8:54–9:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=534), [31:11–33:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1871)). --- ## 📖 Main Content: ### 🧭 Context & Claims - **Set-up**: Reading Kevin Giri’s post; host anticipates a **strong, opinionated** stance and notes **theme template loss** when switching themes ([00:02–1:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=2)). - **Central claim**: WordPress conflates **themes** as both **style** and **architecture**, causing **vendor lock-in** and template loss across themes ([2:18–3:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=138), [13:51–15:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=831)). ### 🏗️ Architecture vs. Design: The Core Argument - **User expectation vs. reality**: Themes as “clothing” (style) vs. themes as “skeleton” (architecture), making swaps risky ([13:51–15:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=831)). - **Separation of concerns** should keep **HTML/CSS layout** apart from **functional architecture**, but WP themes blur that ([18:11–18:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1091)). ### 🧩 Gutenberg’s Opportunity (and Missed Unification) - **Potential**: Componentized React era could have enabled **portable patterns/templates** and cross-theme reusability ([19:40–20:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1180)). - **Claimed miss**: A **block theme library** maintained fragmentation rather than creating a cross-theme **universal language** ([20:24–20:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1224)). ### 🛠️ The Etch Proposal - **What Etch does**: A **unified visual dev environment**; everything built becomes **WordPress core blocks**; themes become **minimal/forgettable** wrappers ([25:45–27:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1545), [27:33–28:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1653)). - **Value promise**: **Portability** across installs, **mix-and-match** libraries, client-safe editing in Gutenberg without breaking Etch ([27:33–28:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1653)). ### ⚖️ Counterpoints & Nuance from the Host - **Historic complexity**: Rapid web growth + open source governance → hard to foresee a clean architecture for every persona ([8:54–9:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=534)). - **End-user roots of WP**: WordPress optimized for **publishing for the masses**, not pro-dev personas; commercial tools (like Etch) can help pros but don’t “fix” core for everyone ([31:11–37:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1871)). --- ## 🗒️ Notes (deep outline with timestamp links) - **Opening & framing** — tone & expectations: [00:00–01:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=0) - Strong POV anticipated; respect for front-end expertise; template loss demo ([00:43–1:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=43)). - **Theme definition confusion**: [02:18–04:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=138) - Industry split on “what is a theme?”; WP taught themes = style **and** architecture. - **User needs vs. ecosystem reality**: [09:22–12:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=562) - Businesses need **complete solutions** (subscribe, podcast, video gallery, membership). - **Linguistic/Concept drift (“theme”)**: [13:51–15:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=831) - Themes behave like **systems**, not **skins**; swaps feel like **surgery**. - **Template hierarchy & fragmentation**: [15:57–18:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=957) - Each theme = unique interpretation; **no single source of truth**. - **Separation of concerns** (SoC) invoked: [18:11–18:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1091) - WP violates SoC by coupling architecture to appearance. - **Gutenberg as missed unifier**: [19:40–20:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1180) - Could have standardized **components/patterns**, but library model kept silos. - **Real-world consequences**: [23:02–24:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1382) - Incompatible block themes; losing templates/styling on theme switch. - **The fix = Etch**: [25:45–28:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1545) - Unified IDE-like environment outputting **core blocks**; themes minimized. - **Host’s caution & ethos**: [31:11–37:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&t=1871) - WP’s mission for **free, mass publishing**; commercial tools help pros but don’t redefine core for everyone. --- ## 📖 References: - WP Minute. *Is Etch Fixing WordPress?* (YouTube episode reading Kevin Giri’s post). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU --- ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1) **On themes as architecture vs. style (≈13:51–15:21)** Original idea: WordPress themes, in practice, act like core systems rather than changeable outfits; changing themes can upend how a site functions. **Paraphrase:** In WordPress, a theme isn’t just a wardrobe swap; it’s more like a full organ transplant. Switch it, and you may be rewiring vital - Summary: Join us as we explore Kevin Geary's thought-provoking blog post on the state of WordPress themes. Discover the challenges, insights, and potential solutions for the world's most popular CMS. Whether you're a developer, designer, or WordPress enthusiast, this discussion is packed with valuable takeaways. https://etchwp.com/blog/wordpress-architecture-crisis/ Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction 2:15 - Overview of Kevin Geary's Blog Post 5:30 - The WordPress Architecture Crisis 10:45 - Themes: Design vs. Architecture 15:20 - The Role of Gutenberg 20:00 - Real-World Consequences 25:30 - The Fix: Introducing Etch 30:45 - Conclusion and Reflections WordPress news: https://thewpminute.com/ Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thewpminute.com/subscribe/ Donate to us or join the membership: https://thewpminute.com/support/ - URL: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4XPH7yTDU&si=TIYQuKn2D7LymsT7 Welcome back to the WP Minute. Todaywe're going to do something slightlydifferent. We're going to read an entireblog post written by none other thanKevin Giri, published earlier today,talking about the state ofWordPress themes, and he's going tohighlight a lot of important points thatI think are on a lot of people'sminds. However, I don't know if thesolution is just his product. I think when we're all getting into aKevin Giri piece, we can all agree thatit is a very strongly energized andopinionated point of view from KevinGiri. I think that whether youagree or disagree with his standpointsor his approach, he really knows whathe's talking about when it comes tofront-end design and front-enddevelopment. I would even argue that he's deep into the world of Etch;he knows WordPress theming probably better thanI'd even argue he knows WordPresstheming now better than he did when hewas really railing against it in thepast because he's seeped inhaving to build a product that coexistswith WordPress. I don't agree withEverything he says, I do think. Not everything; I do think some thingsare, uh, you know, overly embellished forhis own points and, of course,the case for Etch. Uh, but we're going togo ahead and dive into, uh, his post andyou can leave a comment below and let meknow what you think. Here's a quick testthat will instantly expose a majorarchitectural flaw in WordPress. Try itout right now. Install the WordPress2024 theme. Create a template called mytemplate. Switch to the WordPress 2025theme. Now try to find my template inthe templates area. Gone. Vanished. Yourwork erased. It's not a bug; it's afeature. And it reveals the mostfundamental flaw in the world's most popular content management system. I'mnot a developer. Uh, but as an end userand as somebody who is, uh, I wouldconsider myself a power user ofWordPress, that was always a thing forme. Like, it didn't make sense that Icouldn't, um, easily — I mean, I thoughtthe whole point was we could create atemplate and then bring those templatesover. And I want to say thatI think early on in the Genesis days,I felt like that was the — that was likeThe whole thing is like you could buildthese structures and templatesand then easily port them into otherthemes as you switch them. I couldbe off on that; I don't really remember. Uh, but I thought there was a wayand I could be thinking of like a Genesisadd-on that did something like that.Containing the theme or containingall of those templates in a theme doesn'tmake sense to me as a Poweruser in the year 2025. I recently just did a video about what I wantfrom a theme, some of which isillustrated in Kevin's post here. Um,and yeah, it is kind of difficult towrap your head around how themes operatein 2025. The vast majority of the WordPress communitydoesn't seem to understand thedifference between design andarchitecture. Ask 10 WordPressprofessionals to tell you what a themeis, and you'll get two distinct answers.Half will tell you that it's the look andfeel of your website. The other halfinsist it's the architecture of yoursite. Both groups are right, and bothgroups are wrong. The confusion isWordPress's biggest problem. I would not disagree with that. Over thelast two decades, WordPress has trainedan entire generation of developers,designers, and users to think thatthemes should simultaneously control howthings look and how they work. Theplatform has made this confusion seemnormal and inevitable. Um,yes. Yes. Like in the video that I didabout what I want out of a 2025 theme isI want a theme to be made that allows meto use a core set of plugins. Let's sayGravity Forms, Lifter LMS. Um,you know, maybe well, I'd be using — Iwould want to use core blocks and templates and things like that and Iwant it tounderstand that I have thosepieces of my media puzzle and I wantthe designs to follow suit, right? Iwant a course section. I want a coursegallery. I want a course single courseview. I want a quiz view. And I thinkwhen the argument comes in like, oh,that’s plug-in territory. Well,the plugins don’t ever really supportthe front end — like, it alsodoesn’t know about a gazillionThemes that are available. So therefore, they just come upwith a baselinelook and feel. Um,so I want the theme authors to overridethat look and feel and say this themesupports a bunch of these plugins. Andthen also understand that I want itto be a business. If it’s abusiness, I want the call to actions,the upsells, newsletter sign up. Iwant all of that to work. The argumentis, well, that’s why you have WordPress.You can kind of build it all yourself.I want that all done for me, and I amwilling to pay a premium price for it tolook good and think of all those thingsfor me. You know, the age-old pricepoint of $59 for a single websiteshould be $559 for a single website ifit were taking into account all of thestuff that I need. Okay? And I would 10x that $59 price to $559 orwhatever the math is: 590. Um, over thelast two decades, WordPress has trainedan entire generation of developers,designers, and users to think thatthemes should simultaneously control howthings look. I already read that.Walk into any WordPress meetup, browseAny WordPress form, or listen to anyWordPress podcast, and you hear thisconfusion played out in real time. Someone will ask about changing theirsite's appearance, and the advice willbe just switch themes. Someone else willask about adding functionality and they'll getthe same answer: find a theme that doesthat. The community has collectivelyaccepted that themes should handleeverything from color schemes toportfolio galleries, from typography toe-commerce functionality, from simplestyling to complex database queries. Theacceptance has created a falseequivalencybetween fundamentally differentconcepts. Yeah, but I mean we want thatto go away, which I think maybe he'sgetting. Uh, what makes this particularlyproblematic is that manyWordPress professionals have builtentire careers and businesses aroundthis confused model. I wouldn't callit like I get what he's saying and thisis where you have to, uh, take the KevinGiri salt as you consume this piece.It isit's a confused model. Yes, it'sunfortunate we're here in 2025. The biggest thing that most peoplewant maybe Kevin to understand and otherpeople to understand is because he'sgoing to get to a point where he's sortof blaming Automattic. We'repointing the finger at Automattic.I think it's easy to look at itnow in retrospect and say, "Yeah, theymissed the mark with this stuff,right?" Like whatever. They messedup. But I think if you go back even 10years, 15 years,a lot of this in open source land, likeyou had Automattic elevating orgrowing at an insane rate, WordPressgrowing at an insane rate, andit was very difficult to wrap yourhead around not only dealing with the growth of WordPress atthat time and developing at that time in an open-source manner,you were also challenged with growingin the short term,the short-term, um, like steroid shot ofthe internet. This was allbooming back then. So just like with theAI stuff today, you're hard pressed tosee a year out, five years out; forget 10years. You're living week toThis week, I've been watching these LLMs leapfrogeach other in performance and dominance,and all this other stuff. Um,back then, it was sort of like the samething. You've got the birth ofthe consumer internet, WordPress, uh,the financial crisis, people starting upagencies, and people recommending WordPress. Open source was taking off. It's free; lookat what we can do, yada yada yada. Soit's a confused model now, butwe have to have, you know, somecompassion that it wasn't builtthis way purposely. Um, I think a lot ofit was a hope of being an open-sourcething;we all should have innovated as we went along.We're going to get there. Theme developers market theirproducts as complete solutionsrather than design systems. Um, I completesolutions, I want a complete solution.In fact, users have been conditioned toexpect themes to be all-in-one packages.The entire WordPress economy hasadapted to this architectural mistake.The result is a community where basicthemes exist, and authorsare out there.Um, because I know Carolina had commentedOn my video, it sounds like you want thetheme to do the entire website. Iwant the theme to think ofme as an end user. I want the theme tothink of that as my complete solution. That doesn’t mean that it needs to haveall the functions. What it should dois elevate strong partnerships. Again, ifyou’re building a media site, and I’vesaid this in my video,it’s great when, like Mike and the teamat Generate Press, they do these nichethemes. It’s a podcast theme. It’s aphotographer's theme. It’s a bloggingtheme.But if you put yourself in my shoes, ifyou put yourself in anyone's, at least forme, I mean, as a business, and like atypical brick-and-mortar business,it’s not just homepage, services,contact form, done. And in my case, as a media site, it’s not just blog posts orpodcasts. I’m forced to make thatdecision on picking a podcast theme and thenbuilding out the rest of my site aroundthat or I’m forced to pick a blog themeor an archaic looking news theme withnone of the other features. In today’sworld, a business owner needsA subscribe page. They might have apodcast page, too. They might have agallery of YouTube videos. They mighthave a membership, right? Like, everyonehas to deploy all of thesedifferent unique services to survive. Again, myself included. I have multiplepodcasts. I have a YouTube channel. Ihave a newsletter signup page. I have amembership checkout page and a regularnewsletter signup. Because I create somuch content at the WP Minute from otherauthors, I need a way to displaymultiple categories and topics.Here’s the featured content on thehomepage this week, right? It needsto operate like Vox Media. Am I askingtoo much? Probably, but most people livewithin that $59 price point. And maybethat’s the point Kevin’s making, but that’swhat I want as an end user. All right,let’s continue. The result is a communitywhere basic web development principles arenot just misunderstood, but activelycontradicted by the tools themselves inmore ways than one. What themes should bebut aren’t? The dictionary definition oftheme couldn’t be clearer: distinctivestyle or character. Typically, one usedIn an artistic work, literature, ordesign, notice the keyword style, character, artistic design, andaesthetic. These all point to one thing:look and feel. In web development terms,themes should control two things:styling, colors, textures, spaces, andpatterns, and the physical layout ofcontent. Change these, and you’ve changedthe look and feel. From a technicalstandpoint, these changes involve HTML,CSS, not architecture. Architecture, ofcourse, is the underlying codebase thatgenerates what users see, but WordPressdoesn't work this way. It treats them asarchitecture. This fundamental confusioncreates a false choice for users. Theythink they’re selecting a visual style,but they’re actually locking themselvesinto a technical quagmire thatdetermines how their entire sitefunctions. This distinction matters morethan most people realize. In proper webdevelopment, themes are like clothingfor your website. You can change them freelywithout affecting what’s underneath. WordPress themes, however, are more likeskeletons, organs, and nervous systems.Change themes, and you’re performingmajor server surgery on a living system. Let me just stop right there. I don'tknow what I forget what the point isthat he's going to make next, butonce again, like I'll just reiterate, Ifeel like most of this blame is pointedat automatic. I don't think it's all ofautomatic.And again, maybe we're making the pointthat Kevin is trying to make here,is for 20 years, like somebody couldhave come along and tried to changethis.I'm not 100% agreeing with him onall these points here, but like somebodycould havechanged this as we moved along. Idon't knowif it's a pure architectureproblem for WordPress. I think whatit is, is everyone adhering to thisstandard and no one trying to break thestandard. Maybe that's what Kevin istrying to prove here. The confusion runs so deep that WordPress has essentiallyredefined what the word theme means tomillions of people. While gooddevelopers treat them as a superficialstyling layer, WordPress has turned theconcept into all-or-nothing packages. Uh,the linguistic hijacking has made itIt is nearly impossible for the community tohave clear conversations around thesetopics. When a user says that they wantto change their theme on most otherplatforms, everyone understands thatthey want to change how their sitelooks. Yes. When a WordPress user saysthe same thing, they might be talkingabout changing colors, or they might betalking about completely rebuildingtheir site's functionality. The wordshave lost meaning because theunderlying concepts have beendeliberately muddled. I don’t know aboutdeliberately. Once again, I think with all things opensource, I look at it like localgovernment; there’s just a lot ofhappening. And over the years,that pothole you’ve beencomplaining about hasn’t been fixed. Iknow this is a major pothole, but Idon’t think this is deliberate. Um,it’s a WordPress architecture trap. For thoseof you just listening on the podcast,there’s an illustration fromHostinger which shows the WordPresstemplate hierarchy. It’s a confusinglooking image. WordPress architectureconsists of a database and a maze of PHP. Based templates, index, home, frontpage, single, uh, and many others.That's just core. These are templates inthe literal technical sense. They'recode-based instructions that generatecontent and structures dynamically. Theproblem is that there's no single sourceof truth for these. Rather, they'repackaged separately into every singletheme in the ecosystem.I don't know. Like once again, assomebody who's been doing this fornearly 20 years, ran an agency for adecade, and have a career in WordPress,what does a single source oftruth mean to me about these? How isit, you know, I'm sure we'll get to thatpoint. Better yet, each theme comes withits own unique interpretation of howWordPress should work based on what thetheme developer chose to include or notinclude and what special features theydecide to bake in or leave out. Fairenough. Additionally, choosing a thememeans you're now relying on the themedeveloper, not WordPress, to keep thatarchitecture up to date. Sure,the architecture that they've built. The most important of all, it meansthat themes are fundamentallyIncompatible with each other. Eventhough two block themes are built withthe same block editor, the block-basedpatterns can't be shared from one themeto another. And switching themes, well,you already saw what happens if you didthe opening experiment. I do agreewith that. Like, I thought the wholepoint of building—well, I think thesolution in this case is if you'rebuilding native blocks and patterns andyou're not bringing in your ownwhat I'll call architecture for blocksand patterns. If you're building it withthe core stuff WordPress gives you,my feeling is that, you know, Ishould be able to switch themes and havethose. Um,I think for a lot of people, maybethey're building it out like if youlooked at GenerateBlocks,and you're building it with GenerateBlocks,don't quote me on this, but Ithink if you remove GenerateBlocks,maybe you lose those blocks unlessmaybe you save them to your library, andthen even if you disable, um, GenerateBlocks,you'll still have them contentand structure-wise, but maybe notstyling. Don't quote me on that. But I get what he's getting at. See, in proper webdevelopment, there's a principle calledseparation of concerns.I think that phrase applies in a lot ofother professions. Keeparchitecture separate from appearance.This allows infinite flexibility. Youcan update the foundation withoutbreaking the design and swap designswithout touching the foundation. WordPress violates this principlecatastrophically. Oops. Every theme isessentially a different applicationmasquerading as a design choice. TheGutenberg opportunity and how it waswasted. In 2016, WordPress founder MattMullen announced Gutenberg, a block-basedvisual editor. Initially designed toimprove the editing experience, iteventually evolved into a full pagebuilder, an evolution that the last timeI checked, over half of theWordPress ecosystem doesn't even realizehas happened. Um, I don't know about that, but I thinkwe're all, I mean, I think anyone whofollows the WP Minute and is part of thecommunity knows that that's happened. Uh, this presented a golden opportunityto fix WordPress architectural sins.A React-based block editor could haveenabled users to freely build, exchange,and sell patterns.Well, I don’t think most people want tosell patterns. I think he’s got hisbusiness hat on. Uh, templates andcomponents make sites infinitelyscalable and swappable unless he’sreferring to just theme authors here. In this case, the timing was perfect.The web development world was moving towardscomponent-based architectures. React wasgaining massive adoption. Moderndevelopment practices were proving thatmodular reusable components could solvethe exact problem WordPress themes hadcreated. This is the first time I’veever read a blog post in its entirety oncamera. Gutenberg could have beenWordPress's salvation. Instead, it wasforcing users to choose betweenincompatible themes and architectures.The block system could have created anuniversal language for WordPress sites.Uh, hold on. I’ll hold that thought.Every component, every pattern, everytemplate could have been built onceand used everywhere. One more step, a unified style systemwould have made mixing and matchingseamless. Users could have mixedpatterns from different developers,combined templates from various sources,and built truly custom sites withoutarchitectural constraints. Instead,Mullen doubled down on the faileddistribution architectural model,announcing a block theme library thathoused individual block themes. The opportunity to unifyWordPress was squandered in favor of maintaining the status quo. Uh, I don'tknow what the status quo is exactly. Ifhe's saying it'slike poor choices were the status quo,you know, I mean, I'm not the first oneto say this. A million people have saidthis before. Um, but I remember goingdeep into it when Elementor was reallyon their rocket ship ride. And uhwhen you looked at that versus somethinglikethe Avada theme, for those of youthat remember, that was like one ofthose themes that just plagued theindustry. I mean, kudos to the guy whomade a gazillion dollars off of it. Uh,but that was one that was always highlyDebated, here's all this stuff inthis theme. Do we need it? And then Elementor came along. We're alwaystalking. I think the real issuewas Mullen thinkingthat,and this is me just thinking off thecuff here, Mullen thinking that opensource would trump that. In otherwords,as much as WordPress grew because of itsopen-sourceroots and the community, like the peoplewho really care about WordPress,I'm thinking he was also thinking, well,this Gutenberg thing is also opensource. It's separate from WordPress,air quotes. He's even said thingslike he sees Gutenberg to be even abigger install base than WordPress. Now I want to know abouthis thoughts on Gutenberg in the face ofAI these days and his perceivedfuture of Gutenberg. ButI honestly believethat was the plan.It just couldn't get there because therewas just so much stuff happening forautomatic, for WordPress, for the web,and for everybody else. This massive ecosystem of people wholooked at capitalizing on WordPress,especially themes and page builders tomake money, and they were just doingwhatever they could do to make money.That was fragmenting the experience ofWordPress.So again, like I don’t fully blameautomatic on this stuff.The real-world consequences are that we’re toldthat the block editors of WordPress’sfuture exist, yet the fundamental problemremains unsolved and, in some ways, havegotten worse. I love the Oi theme, butI want to use some of the patterns from BrianGardner’s work. It’s impossible. They’refundamentally incompatible despite beingblock themes that are supposed to usethe same underlying technology. I, youknow, yes, I agree with that. I stretch a random block theme to itslimits and realize you need more robustpatterns. You can’t simply switch themesas our opening test demonstrated; you’lllose all of your templates. And I thinkthat’s why GenerateBlocks exist asa standalone plug-in to solve thatgap across any theme. And probablyonce again making Kevin’s point, thisalso means that you’ll lose main pages. Like your homepage, if you follow thecompletely insane page as a templatemodel that WordPress promotes.Another article for another day. Yeah,that was weird. And I think theyadjusted; they changed that in2013, but then went back to the old wayin 2014. I forget what that was.Um,but it, yeah, here’s a page; apply atemplate. I’m okay with that, I guess.But if he’s saying that’s technically wrong,then who am I toargue? However, the problem runs deeper thanlost templates. You’ll lose anycustom styling, specialized layouts, andunique functionality that wasbuilt into your original theme choice. If WordPress had proper architecture,you’d have infinite patterns to choosefrom across all themes and corefunctionality that works regardless ofthe look and feel of the choices you make.Every designer, every developer, everyagency could contribute to a sharedecosystem where their work enhanceseveryone else’s. Instead, WordPresshas created thousands of isolatedislands. Each theme is its own walledgarden incompatible with every other. Theme forcing users to start overwhenever they want to change directions.Okay. Yes, but you know, once peopleit's chicken or the egg for me with thatstatement. It does sound heavier thanyou know.It sounds heavier on paper, right? Howmany people just like research and finda theme firstand then stick with that theme for years?Then, like years later,you make the switch and, yeah, there’s anemotional investment and a timeinvestment to make that switch. Okay, fair enough. Butit's all leading up to the fix, as youcan see coming down the page. Thisfragmentation has stifled innovation.Developers waste time rebuilding thesame basic functionality for everytheme. Designers can’t build on eachother’s work. There are 857 carouselplugins.Users get trapped in decisions they mademonths or years ago, unable toevolve their sites without starting fromscratch. It’s a mess of an ecosystem.I’m going to take a sip of this proteinshake.The fix. Here comes the fix. All of thisCan be fixed without abandoningWordPress. We don't even have to sitaround waiting for automatic to get instructure; in fact, the next era of WordPressis already here. You know,Kevin commandeering the era ofWordPress. I get it. Etch representswhat WordPress should have pivoted to: aunified visual development environment.I think for mostbasic users of WordPress,they're already lost at what a unifiedvisual development environment is. On asingle official architecture thatrepresents fundamental principles andpractices. Etch combines the power of anIDE. Most users don't know what that is, withthe efficiency and ease of use of avisual page builder with no compromisesand one crucial advantage: everythingyou build instantly and automaticallybecomes WordPress core blocks. Everyheading, paragraph, pattern, loop,component, and template integratesseamlessly with WordPress corefunctionality. But unlike traditionalWordPress development, themes areobsolete. You install the Etch theme andCompletely forget about it. Uh, becauseit's only there to plug the hole inWordPress's broken architecture. All yourwork is done in Etch's interface, notthe theme. And everything you buildinstantly becomes portable, reusable,and compatible with every other Etchinstallation. With Etch as the singleunified development environment forWordPress, block themes become obsolete. I don't know about obsolete, but I gethis point. Custom blocks becomeunnecessary. You never think aboutthemes again, and you focus on buildingyour site with no limitations on patternsharing, component sharing, templatesharing, and anything else. Want to usethree different pattern libraries? Done.Mix templates from different developers,no problem. The artificial barriers thathave plagued WordPress for over a decadesimply disappear. This isn't just aboutconvenience, about unlocking WordPress'strue potential. Unified architectureallows creativity to flourish. Portablecomponents accelerate, innovate, andtrue themes let designers focus ondesign instead of wrestling withtechnical limitations, and your clients,they see the simple Gutenberg interface. The ability to edit whatever they likeallows them to edit just as easily asGutenberg is today. Do their edits breakEtch? Of course not. They’re seamlesslysynced all together. Okay, so you needEtch. You need to be a power user.You’re probably a freelancer or anagency.Let me get to the bottom lineand then I’ll wrapit up. WordPress architecture crisisisn’t a technical accident. It’s theinevitable result of fundamental designdecisions made over two decades ago. Once again, heavy-handed decisions thatmade sense when websites were simplisticand static, but they have becomeincreasingly problematic as the webhas evolved. The Gutenberg project couldhave fixed everything. It had thebacking, the resources, and thetechnical foundation to create a trulyunified WordPress experience. Instead,it perpetuated the problems, adding newcomplexity on top of old limitations. Idon’t disagree with that. I think thatwas a lot of the issue that people hadwith Gutenberg, especially when itfirst launched. Learn JavaScript deeplyand all this stuff. Um, you know, Matt and automatic backup against the wall. All of these page builders and the fragmented experience ofWordPress was happening. When peoplecomplained about WordPress, it waslargely because of a theme that theywere using or a page builder that theywere using that a hosting providereither installed for them by default orthey bought on Theme Forest, right?Theme Forest played a big roleagainst that fragmentation. Um, and why a lot of people complainabout WordPress, you know, but it also spawned a gazillionother, like, theme shops andwhatever. Like, a lot of people profited,and a lot of good people profited and built businesses off of it. For millionsof WordPress users, this means a continued frustration, loss of work, and artificial limitations. Every time theyhit a wall, every time they can't use apattern they love, every time they haveto start over because their themesare incompatible, they're experiencingthe consequences of these architecturaldecisions. For the web developmentcommunity, it represents a massive missed opportunity.WordPress powersOver 40% of the web had properarchitecture. It could have created thelargest, most collaborative designecosystem in history. Instead, it remains fragmented withthousands of developers solving the sameproblems in isolation. The questionisn't whether WordPress willeventually solve these problems. Thequestion is whether users will wait forsolutions that may never come or embracealternatives that work today. Thearchitectural crisis is real, but you'reno longer forced to consent to thechaos. The choice is yours. You know, once again, like I said at thetop of the video,this is obviously a strongselling point for Edge,but I'll, you know, again, just givingmy off-the-cuff reaction to this. WordPress was not builtfor the professionalweb designer.It was open source, which this is justmy opinion. It was open source as anon-developer and as somebody who ran anagency for a decade and has acareer in WordPress. Open source wasthe framework for everyone out there who were developers,agency owners, and designers to say,"You want to build something? Here's thecode." But meanwhile, whatwe're building is this tool forpublishing on the web.It was not madeinstinctively for those webprofessionals,but because it was open source, itallowed us to come in and say we can doour thing. Just like Kevin's doing withEtch, by the way. He's able to come inand say, "I can build this solutionbecause it's open source and I can buildon top of WordPress." Fair enough.A lot of great points. Yes, I wish Icould build a block, switch themes, andthat block would be there. Block's going tolook different, but I want it to bethere. So, that makes sense.Now, can Word—I, once again, not adeveloper, don’t know the underlyingtechnology. Somebody chime in who doesif they fix that.I mean, that's a big part of theargument here. You know, the solution just simply can't. As much as I have a lot of respect for Kevin,what he's doing with Etch, I think a lot of people doubted it. Um, it's not live yet, but he's progressing. I'm seeingthe updates. I see some people talk abouthow great it is. He's always done well with the attention and the business side. It sometimes pissesa lot of people off, includingme. But he's able to back his opinions. In fact, I've said this a million times;he should probably be out of the WordPress space. He shouldprobably be building stuff for the internet, not for WordPress. The solution should be for every developerout there and not just WordPress becausewhen you say the fix is Etch, you've come into an environmentthatyou now have to, like, force-feed is not the right word. You have to put peopleonto this platform, and they have to payfor Etch. I'm talking about Etch, whichis the same for, like, any other product unless you have a premiumFree component, and if you want more, youpay for it. But you've come into a placewhere it was never meant to be this. Like,it was always, as he clearly outlines in this article, it wasnever built for that persona. So you come in here, you go, "Why doesn'tthis have these features for thispersona?" Because the product,the WordPress app itself,the sum of it, the famous five-minuteinstall, was made for the end user. Itwas made for the end user to say, "I'lltake that. I'll install this. I'll putwords on the internet." And boy, wasn'tthat nice? That's how it started. Now,it slightly evolved,and I will agree it didn't evolve enoughup until this point. It slightly evolved to say, "Okay, now,you can build a business website andautomatic has WooCommerce." And that'sstill kind of just like, "What thehell?" Like, why isn't there moresynergy here, you know? Why isn't itjust nice? I can install a blog,write things, and sell stuff online?Like, there should be this cohesivething that we have, and it doesn'texist. Again, we can debate why, but II don't think it was intentional. I justthink it got lost in the shuffle,unfortunately. And yes, it’s an L, youknow, in a lot of this stuff. I wantWordPress to survive and to be easy forthat end user,but this is where we’re at. And it’s very hard for me to say that.It’s very hard for me to be like this isthe solution, Etch, because it’s a componentthat is made commercially. Number one,it’s not solving WordPress; you’rejust buying a product to fix thesethings, so let’s just say it. You know, like you wanta better WordPress experience. You’re adeveloper or an agency owner; this is it.This is the solution to that. WordPressis built for millions of people to use forfreeand for free, without plugins.Like, what can we dofor millions and millions and millionsof people for free, without all theseplugins and without all this stuff, sothat when they install it, they can justget their words onto the internet? And Iknow you AI people out there are sayingWords don’t matter anymore. Okay, fine. But I want a website. I want a centralplace for my content.On the free side, it’s giving them themost lightweight package to get thatgoing to avoid confusion.Now, there’s a lot of confusion on how to get WordPressrunning 100%. How do we dumb it down to get thosepeople to have an enjoyable experiencebefore websites don’t matter? I mean,I don’t have the answer to that. I justwant WordPress to survive and thrive andwin at this game. And Etch can be a partof that. I just don’t know if it’s thenext era of WordPress when it’s like youhave to go buy it. WordPress needs to set its new era forsure., Is Etch Fixing WordPress?, WP Minute Tutorials, 01k1xqgz46ayb1shfhwtrn54kw.