Politics, Sentiment and Alternatives.  ## Metadata - Author: [[Crossword]] - Full Title: Politics, Sentiment and Alternatives. - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/8cf94500-7b0d-49ac-a007-a0dde5151c61 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Political Isolation** - Luke feels politically isolated and disillusioned with the Greens due to their stance on antisemitism. - He also finds himself disagreeing with right-wing politics but agreeing with some of their stances on certain issues. Transcript: Luke Know, at the end of the day, I mean, there is a transition here to WordPress, I promise. But at the end of the day, like I feel just so politically isolated, you know, like my, I used to be a one issue voter. The environment was, was like my main thing. And I voted greens. And now in Australia, the greens have become, I mean, at least we have an option to vote greens, but the greens have become so antisemitic and, and just horrible, uh, just horrible people In, in the way that they treat, uh, the antisemitism that's rife all throughout Sydney and Melbourne. And I can't vote for them anymore. And also, I don't feel a particularly strong affinity with right-wing politicians, which are becoming more and more right. But at least they vote sensibly on the issues that matter most to me, even though I disagree with the ideology that is behind it. ([Time 0:01:53](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6960164c-e978-4b54-83c7-2c4c94471624)) - **Impact of Politics on WordPress** - Recent political changes in the US have led to the dismantling of 18F, a government agency focused on technology and efficiency. - This impacts the WordPress community as several WordPress contributors worked there, bringing open source to the US government. Transcript: Luke Anyway, one of the effects of politics, especially in the United States, of recent changes in politics has been the demise, the sacking, the wholesale destruction of 18F. Jonathan Right, which hits a little bit closer to home. For those who don't know about 18F, this is from the 18F website. 18F knows how to work within government because we're already here. As federal employees, we don't have the conflicts of interest. That's just dedication to your mission. It's basically an agency within the, uh, the U S government that's focused on like efficiency and the uses of technology. And the reason I first heard about it was many years ago when several like WordPress folks who'd been active contributors for a long time to work at 18f to bring like open source to u.s Government so i'd always had a very positive association with it and it was at least for me pretty heartbreaking to hear that oh wow they've just been like dismantled i'm sure i'm hoping That the people themselves will be fine but yeah that hit closer to home in our little wordpress ecosystem Yeah, specifically thinking of, I don't think he worked there anymore, but Luke Nathan was there for a long time and he was one of the OG contributors. Yeah, it'd be interesting to hear a little bit more about what's been going on from the WordPress lens ([Time 0:02:55](https://share.snipd.com/snip/85a8e424-1ab5-4b61-bc57-de91be61a756)) - **Exploring Alternatives** - Jonathan and Luke discuss their increasing use of WordPress alternatives like Hugo for new website projects. - This shift in their usual WordPress-centric approach marks a change in their perspective. Transcript: Jonathan The repository is continuing to fire on all cylinders. Luke, something interesting is happening to me. I am going to be building a new website here in the near future for a project that I'm working on with my brother. That's exciting. Luke Is it the podcast, the secret podcast? Jonathan The secret, yeah, the secret for now podcast. We decided that we're not using WordPress for it. Luke Man, I'm in the same boat, right? I've actually just recently built probably like three or four websites, and I haven't used WordPress for any of them. What have you been using? Hugo. Hugo. Oh, interesting. Jonathan But then, so there's that context, right? I have a friend coming over tonight. We're going to spend some time working on his website that I built in WordPress. And he came to me and said, like, hey, he wants to simplify it and get it down to just a couple of pages. So I don't actually know what I'm going to do yet. But that it occurred to me, I'm like, well, I could just like switch him to something else. I'm actually hosting it as well. So but I don't know. But it was surprising to me that the question like came up in my head. Like in the past, I wouldn't have even thought twice about it. Oh, you want to simplify it? Cool. Maybe we'll look at a new theme. We'll update the plugins. We'll clean it up. We'll just get it done. And that's probably what I'm going to do. But in context of having made the decision to just use another service to spin up a site, it's got me rethinking. Like if I end up spending a lot of time with it, I might be better off just switching my friend away from WordPress, which he'd be shocked to see because I've been nothing but a proponent Of using WordPress for everything for the past decade plus. Luke Yeah, I hear you. My wife's website is built on WordPress and she recently updated her theme and she said, okay, well, what theme should I use? And I almost said, I almost said use 2025, 2024. ([Time 0:09:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7061b056-a8c2-4006-b6fa-199d17014f9b)) - **Consider Alternatives for Simplification** - When helping someone simplify their WordPress site, consider switching them to a different platform entirely. - This can save time and effort compared to extensive theme and plugin updates. Transcript: Luke Then I realized that would mean that she has to use the full site editor. And so I said, just choose one of the older themes. Oh, interesting. I don't have time to run through this full site editor stuff. I'm sorry. Jonathan So, so there's two data points. The next one is that I am about to redo my own personal site, which I'm sticking with WordPress. Um, but on the theme point, I ran into a similar issue and, uh, I've decided that I'm going to use, um, Mike McAllister's Ollie theme. Oh yeah. As the next sort of run through, which to me, at least in the current state is one of the best I'll call consumer friendly, um, like instances of a WordPress theme that like is following The best practices, but also kind of doing its own thing. So I'm going to run through that and see what that experience is like is for me. Kind of excited to play with it. But I have three different things where it's like no WordPress at all, questions about WordPress, still using WordPress. ([Time 0:11:52](https://share.snipd.com/snip/dc1f8e1e-22a1-42cf-85a6-9ca5ad5772c8)) - **WordPress as a Blogging Platform** - WordPress's attempt to be a one-size-fits-all platform hinders its effectiveness as a blogging tool. - Streamlining WordPress to focus solely on blogging could improve the user experience. Transcript: Jonathan And I don't like it, Luke. I don't like that it feels like the ground is shifting under me here. So all that's to say, I came across something that got me thinking recently. Are you familiar with any of the fact that you can use different editors in WordPress? Luke I just know the classic editor. Jonathan There's the classic editor, of course. There is the Elementor and Divi. Is that what you mean? So they are effectively their own editors, right? But there is some work that's happening with folks working to introduce like an editor that's for, uh, marketers. For instance, we started working with, uh, the folks over big commerce. They have a product called makeswift and that team has begun exploring. What would it look like if the makes with editor worked with WordPress and it's a like react based editor, a lot of similarities, but it's purpose-built for marketers it's a monumental Luke Project right yeah you know the block editor is great for blogging it really is like such a good blogging experience but it's not so great for page building really like it feels jammed In there in the same way uh back in the day inserting product editing with woocommerce yes with wp e-commerce before it sort of felt jammed in there and it wasn't a great experience it Was this editor is built for blogging it's not built for products these days you know you can get really bare bones systems of old operating systems, right? You can get like a Windows XP that's cut down and it has only the basics and you can install that on your old PC if you want to. Things like that. What would it look like if somebody took WordPress and just cut everything out and just made it actually a good blogging platform instead of trying to be all things to all people at all Times. ([Time 0:12:51](https://share.snipd.com/snip/bc2c81ec-2fbe-4af0-8f29-8a22ca5496f5))