Petition to remove the Inline Linking tool from WP 4.5

You need to put up a case, the community at WordPress core listen to good ideas and not petitions.

Good ideas? So how did this thing happen in the first place? lol

*Raises hand*

Petitions do not work here. Honest, they do not.

Yes, this is the Requests and Feedback sub-forum and yes, your feedback is important. But features are not put into WordPress without a lot of talk and discussion during the alpha/beta and release candidate phases of development. It’s unlikely that this new feature will be removed.

That said, this is another example of why WordPress is extendable via plugins.

I’ve not looked (I like the new inline feature myself) but if I locate a plugin to do what you are asking for then I will post here in this topic. Or if someone knows of a plugin already or a filter then they can post that as well.

Well, Jan, perhaps the so called “feature” doesn’t need to be removed. I believe to the most of us the fixing of the attached bugs and the addition of the obvious (now we can use the word) features – like a Open in New Window and a NoFollow/DoFollow options would do the trick.

Additionally I would like to note that “features” might not come up without lots of talk and discussions, but this episode shows that some of them come out without proper testing.

Finally, it’s sad to be forced to add extra load and troubles potential by using a plugin to fix something which should work properly.

“It’s unlikely that this new feature will be removed.”

It’s also sad when someone, some institution, some team, some whatever cannot accept a mistake and cannot listen to the feedback of the audience which should serve. I am not saying this is the case. But such statement doesn’t bring nothing good, assuming it corresponds to reality.

Oh I forgot something… how about offering OPTIONS? Like, “use the inline” or “do not use the inline”?

Malkah, I suppose the remedy will have to wait for a plugin to correct the mess. Myself, I will stop using WordPress daily – one of my blogs has usually daily updates – because I can’t work with this aberration. I hope someone will come out really soon with a solution for this.

<Start of long version>

Feel free to skip this whole part. ??

It’s also sad when someone, some institution, some team, some whatever cannot accept a mistake and cannot listen to the feedback of the audience which should serve. I am not saying this is the case. But such statement doesn’t bring nothing good, assuming it corresponds to reality.

I’d like to attempt to clarify a few things so at least people can know what’s being talked about. You can still be upset if you like but at least you’ll understand what you’re unhappy about.

First, I’m on the support team and I am not a developer. Just like you, I spend some of my free time trying to help fellow WordPress users. We’re not that different.

Don’t read into anything I post here as WordPress Gospel? because it’s not. I am merely offering my observation and that’s “WordPress features once released are generally not pulled back”. By generally I mean that after 10 years I can’t recall when that’s happened.

It may have happened but I can’t personally recall that. When I wrote that I was trying to set your expectations accurately.

Second point: the development of WordPress is open, publicized and really out there. You can follow that on the Core team’s make/core blog.

https://make.www.ads-software.com/core/

The WordPress 4.5 beta was released on February 25th.

WordPress 4.5 Beta 1

Followed by more betas and release candidates.

https://www.ads-software.com/news/2016/03/wordpress-4-5-beta-2/
https://www.ads-software.com/news/2016/03/wordpress-4-5-beta-3/
https://www.ads-software.com/news/2016/03/wordpress-4-5-beta-4/
https://www.ads-software.com/news/2016/03/wordpress-4-5-release-candidate/
https://www.ads-software.com/news/2016/04/wordpress-4-5-rc2/

And finally a release.

WordPress 4.5 “Coleman”

The www.ads-software.com news page is in every user’s WordPress dashboard by default and that’s to communicate to all users that this is happening.

The WordPress development does not occur in a vacuum. If you have a site that you depend on then please, take it upon yourself and get involved. Make a second installation of WordPress, set it to private and keep that non-production WordPress up to date with the betas.

The WordPress developers want to hear from you. That’s why the Alpha/Beta forum is so active.

https://www.ads-software.com/support/forum/alphabeta

When there’s a problem a trac ticket gets created and logged.

https://core.trac.www.ads-software.com/

The developers get that feedback and work on those problems. Especially when it’s for a beta or release candidate. That feedback is valuable and if you want to change things then during the development is a good time.

That doesn’t mean you’ll always get what you want. But it’s a great way to provide real feedback to the development of WordPress. In the development phase new planned features have been removed before the release. That happens. Once the release occurs, not really and that’s when a plugin is a great idea.

Last point (I promise) while WordPress does power a great part of the Internet successfully, it is still an open source project.

What that means is that new features may go in that some people do not like or cause problems for those users.

Despite how amazingly upset some people get (and this topic is not that, this really is a reasonable conversation and I thank you all for that) those new features are put in with a lot of thought. That thought is always “How can we improve the experience for the user?”

There’s never a feature put in that didn’t get a large amount of conversation first.

Feedback like “This is stupid! What were those idiots thinking??” or “Another bad idea forced on the users” doesn’t help. Ever.

This is not a commercial product. Literally no one is paid to produce WordPress for users. Critical feedback is welcome. Name calling and aggressive attacks? Who on this planet replies well to that?

</End of long version>

Short version: Please consider getting involved in the development of WordPress during the betas.

The developers would love your feedback and you can really help guide the new featured before the release.

Hey Jan, a very short version: I didn’t mean you, personally were to be blamed. You could be a user like me. But I assume you have knowledge, you have been around, you have experience. Therefore I take what you wrote as a matter of fact. It’s not you who are sad. It’s the situation you described, like, “it’s decided, it’s decided, there is no way back, never ever”. I just can’ manage to like this.

The not so short version:

In abstract I understand quite well the anger. I can imagine the frustration a change cause if it jeopardizes one’s comfort while working with WordPress, even more if one works a lot with it. It’s a fact that what comes for free… well, I guess whoever uses it doesn’t have the same right to be upset as with a commercial product.

As to the so called “improvment” it just doesn’t work well for everybody. And in abstract, again, I tend to dislike this kind of “solutions”. It’s like building a great building with no accessibility for those with physical disabilities. It’s a great building, but it’s not fair to exclude a considerable number of people.

The new link box is buggy as far as I can see. Perhaps it’s something specific in my installation. Some other plugins. But honestly I pretty much doubt it considering the number of reported cases.

Even if weren’t buggy, it’s designed for those using a lot of internal links. And making life really hard to those who need mostly to insert external links, which is my case. We, who use a lot of external links are the excluded of this “wonderful” “improvement”. We need now more clicks to obtain the final result.

Click 1, calling the box
Click 2, getting the focus IN the box (if this is not a bug…..)
or
Click 2, call the good old box
Click 3, well… this is time to pray… perhaps the box will close on click somewhere else, or not.

Ah… in my case any of the previous used external links seems to be “remembered”. If I don’t use the good old new system, I will have to type the whole URL.

No reasons to be happy. Can’t really work on a daily basis under these conditions. Will have to wait for a plugin to come out, hoping one will come, and will have to load the system with a potentially unnecessary plugin. Advantages? Only for some, and not really a hell bunch of them. I don’t know about alphas, betas & etc. In my real world too much people aren’t happy with this. Perhaps it means something.

thanks Torgut for the thorough replies.
I can only propose that the developers will give us the option to turn this ‘feature’ on/off, or a plugin. I am sure we are all grateful for improving wordpress and I have never run into a situation where a feature is so annoying. please consider this if any of you is reading this.

Amen. Neither did I. In these last 5 or 6 years, never I disliked something in WP. Until now. “Option” is the obvious answer for an implementation triggering strong reactions, or it should be.

There shouldn’t be any hostility over this; either the buggy inline linking feature should be fixed or removed. Period.

malkah and Torgut have already described the issues; I’m experiencing the same. At this point, it’s just easier to use the HTML tab for everything but that sort of defeats the point of having other nice features that we do like. So I’d vote for “fix it.” But if not, giving us the ability to disable it and revert to the old linking dialog only would be fine.

Let me just add that this was the only NEW feature described that mildly interested me in the new release in the first place, so to say that it’s a disappointment is a bit of an understatement.

malkah, do let us know if you get any resolution here. My posts keep getting deleted. I don’t see the point of starting a new thread unless it’s simply to hope for a better response from a different moderator, or to simply be annoying and keep opening new threads on this (not my style). Discussions are cropping up, now, on Reddit as well.

More info (if any developers are reading this thread):

The inline link dialog will not close if you click the settings icon to check the box to make the link open in a new window.

To get the inline link dialog to close, you must click any OTHER link, click the pencil icon, then click anywhere else on the page.

Hope this helps you to replicate and fix this annoying bug.

Having the same issue as @hollyjahangiri hope this gets fixed soon.

Thanks,

Yep, Same issue here

I only have the following plugins installed:

Akismet
Jetpack
Wordfence

I thought it might be Jetpack, so I deactivated it but the problem stayed.

I really hope they can roll back this functionality as it’s wasting a ton of time when publishing.