WP FUNFun with WordPress

5 Things WordPress should not do in 2.6Filed Under: General

Dan Philbin has written a great post over at WP-Candy titled 30+ Things That Should Be Changed For WordPress 2.6. Some I agree with and others I don’t, so here is my list of things I don’t want to see in WordPress 2.6.

Customisable Colour Themes / Login

This point isn’t really about colour themes, but customisation in general. I don’t have a problem with customisation itself, just with the idea of adding unecessary default code to the admin pages.

There are already plugins, like the excellent Baltic Amber plugin that I am using, that let you change the admin colours and I am sure there must be one that alters the login screen. I don’t feel that a high enough percentage of WordPress users need to change their colours or their login screen for it to be worth adding extra code, and extra menus in the admin space.

Having said that, I wouldn’t object to a folder in wp-content where an alternative, override, stylesheet could be uploaded, in a similar way to themes.

More AJAX

I don’t really like AJAX that much. I would much prefer to have a page refresh and for an action to work properly than to wait for something to happen, if is going to happen; it doesn’t always. I know I shouldn’t have to wait, AJAX done well will keep the user updated with the process, but how often is AJAX done well?

AJAX should be used where there is genuine need, or advantage, and I just don’t see either in the WordPress admin theme.

On the user side there are perhaps some advantages. The excellent AJAX edit comments plugin is very good, and worthwhile, but AJAX commenting in general just feels like a gimmick to me.

What I want is time spent on getting good code right. Pretty / cool! can wait.

Integrate admin and live areas

I think separation between the admin area and the live site is a very good thing. I think it is useful to have two distinct modes of use, better for theme authors who shouldn’t have to think about admin content and how it will affect their theme, and I think it is better for security to have a clear divide.

In my eyes it would be far better to alter the admin side so that it isn’t necessary to swap; for example, being able to respond to comments in the admin screen, and better comment sorting options.

I know some people like to make their blog easier for their own use, but I think this is another case where one good plugin can give those people what they want without adding more code to the core.

Integrate with Feedburner

Feedburner is not the only game in town. A simple text box to overide the feed location will do fine. Don’t forget category specific feeds and comment feeds though.

Give in to temptation

So far I think the developers have done a great job of resisting functionailty that is beter dealt with by plugins. I imagine this is becoming more and more difficult with more and more users coming on board.

The decision to leave something out seems as important as adding in something new. If everyone got the killer feature they wanted then WordPress would not be the platform we know and love today. I dare say it would start to suck pretty quickly.

So what about you? I bet everyone can think of a lot of things they want to see in WordPress, what do you want to see not in WordPress?