2.5 admin backend annoying

You can make of it what you will. I know what I think.

This recent discussion might give you some more insight. It’s certainly made it clear to me that Matt is very choosy about what he responds to — and how:

https://onblogging.com.au/2008/04/26/b-is-for-blogging-platform/

So has anyone tried the new update? 2.5.1?
I used the hacks from Jabecker, and the no-flash-upload plugin from Otto42’s post. My edit pane looks very good now. and I can add media now. the drafts are at the top on write page. the ‘View this Post’ on right is the preview, takes you to new window or tab.

https://blog.talesofkingtut.com/2008/04/26/wordpress-251-update-again/

Too much useless/rehash posting in this topic like Otto said. there are some good solutions here, but very tedious to have to scroll and page your way to the answers.
I’d request those who have come up with solutions to start a new topic and list them and where to get the zips or plugins to fix your edit pages. suggest: “Users solutions to WordPress 2.5 problems”

Puhlease!
René

It’s a good idea for a solutions thread, but like all threads it will slowly drift down the forum and get lost. It would need to be sticky (ie, it remains at the top of the forum) to make a difference and that seems a difficult thing to achieve around here. Perhaps if you ask a moderator, it might be done?

In WordPress 2.5.1, the pre-filled https:// in the insert box is gone back to the way it was in 2.3.3. I’m thrilled, because I was afraid no one would write a plugin for that issue – looks like maybe it was unintentional? Or else they got a lot more complaints than just us. ??

I’ve found an admin theme that corrects a lot of my issues with the new interface by letting me set admin width to 100% AND rearrange the admin screen in a particularly useful way:

https://konstruktors.com/blog/wordpress/227-baltic-amber-colour-schemes-for-your-wordpress-25-administration-dashboard-panel/

It puts the tags and categories IMMEDIATELY below the write screen where you can’t help but see them, and puts everything else useful in the sidebar. It’s a great use of space – takes a little getting used to, but I think it’s less scrolling and clicking than even 2.3.3.

Re: ReneOdeay’s suggestion.

Unfortunately, any such thread would need constant updating right now and quickly become as cluttered as this one because people are writing plugins and hacks daily.

I wrote this post and am editing it as new info comes in:

https://bluemushrooms.com/tweaks-to-fix-…ess-25-backendtweaks-to-fix-annoying-wordpress-25-backend/

Not as likely to be found by people, unfortunately.

I am thinking I’ll be reverting the one blog I’ve upgraded back to 2.3.3. I’ve installed a blank 2.5 to just play with to see if I can get things to work, and my suspicions have been borne out: I have yet to be able to upload an image and place it within a post using the 2.5 post page. On the one active blog I have upgraded I have had to resort to using FTP to upload the image, then coding the URL for it into the HTML for the post.

This one is a real turkey.

Look, @reneodeay,

while realizing that WP is open-source, it isn’t very good policy to tell your users to just shut up and take it…

There are real issues with the WP “upgrade” cycles, and how they are pushed out. I hope someone hears at least the request to keep releasing critical security fixes for 2.3.3.

Since your “upgrade” (of supposedly MINOR version #) does cause many issues right off the bat (the list is long, among other things it’s lost people’s text widgets from what I hear), it might be worth LISTENING to real-world users that have to upkeep this stuff for their own businesses, clients, etc.

If it breaks stuff (even just some plugins), that does have immediate effects on people and very real $ may be lost.

I would highly suggest pushing out security and other fixes separately from completely new features.

BTW, having to roll out yet another “upgrade” (2.5.1) so soon only proves that your first one (2.5) wasn’t really ready for prime-time.

Take a lesson from MSFT, they have a whole class of users/companies that don’t want to “upgrade” to Vista yet b/c of too many headaches.

—

Thanks Sapphire for the admin theme link, good stuff. I created a similar layout for myself in 2.3.3 with some private hacks and CSS. Among other things I also added a “Duplicate” button which can be very useful for managing multiple versions of the same page (e.g. for split testing) or posts that are on the same topic (with same tags etc.).

Sized everything to avoid scrolling and wasted vertical screen real estate. Took a while to get this working…

Check it out:

post edit screen – https://businessmindhacks.com/p/post_edit_screen.gif

and rearranged/tightened 2.3.3 Widget mgmgt screen
https://businessmindhacks.com/p/widget_mgmt_screen.gif

the only good thing is that we can start making out some pattern in recent wordpress upgrades. The next major(or even minor) version will <b>always</b> remove something of the previous version that quite a lot of people found to be immensely valuable and add something “new and exciting” that will very likely piss off many long time users.

sorry, my post isn’t very relevant to the current direction of this thread but I’m in a particularly good mood thinking of a friend of mine who is an upgrade fanatic and upgraded to wp2.5 as soon as it came out and how he must be suffering all the woes of the earth with the new posting interface.

myself I only just downloaded the new 2.5.1 version and have been tinkering it on my local machine(wamp, localhost, that sort of thing).

I don’t supposed we could just take the security fixed files in 2.5 and copy them to a 2.3.3 installation and trim them up a bit to fit? I mean as far as the minutes of the changelog tell us, its mostly to do with the XML RPC thingy and stuff with registrations.

I set “disallow registrations” (unless you are trying to use WP as a membership site of sorts), the last thing anyone needs is more registrations… since WP doesn’t have some sort of native list management/broadcast to email list, it’s not really very useful for reging people anyway.

If you have multiple authors/etc. let admin register them, etc.

This plugs many security issues right there.

Encourage people to get an avatar account from gravatar.com or MyBlogLog, which are fast becoming the standards. Then add avatar support in your comments template, etc.

(If you are interested in a little WP theme hack to add avatar support in 2.3.3 with 2 lines of code in your theme’s comments.php, go here:

https://businessmindhacks.com/post/two-line-avatar-hack-for-wordpress-comments
)

@whas27

while realizing that WP is open-source, it isn’t very good policy to tell your users to just shut up and take it…

There are real issues with the WP “upgrade” cycles, and how they are pushed out. I hope someone hears at least the request to keep releasing critical security fixes for 2.3.3.

[…]

I would highly suggest pushing out security and other fixes separately from completely new features.

I totally agree with you — would like to see security updates as separate from feature upgrades. Submitted this under “ideas” here:

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=1293

Also, there was some discussion of this in the comments following a post on Matt’s blog, but from his responses, doesn’t look like this is a direction WP is interested in…

https://ma.tt/2008/04/securityfocus-sql-injection-bogus/

Thanks everyone for your feedback here. This thread has some negative interaction on both sides, and has gotten so long as to all but a few aren’t reading it anymore.

I’d encourage folks to start new topics, either in the feedback forum or in ideas, for specific ideas and changes, that way the community and developers can start to coalesce around the next version, 2.6.

In addition to adding features like we always do in 2.6, we’re going to be doing some additional experimentation and testing on new interface approaches for power-users in 2.6, and if you’re curious to see that I’d recommend following the wp-testers list or trunk. If you’ve participated in this thread or others and contributed constructive feedback you might even get contacted to do some interface or mockup testing.

One of the things I’ve always loved about WordPress is that people disagree strongly on issues, but still come together and have a virtual beer afterward. We take development seriously but still keep the perspective that it’s software, not a matter of life and death. It helps that the plugin system allows almost anyone to have their own personal WP experience. (We also watch the popularity of interface-modifying plugins as a form of feedback, so supporting and running a plugin is a great way to get your message across.)

Thanks again for all the feedback, good and bad. Over the 5 years of WP I’ve developed a thick skin so I don’t take it personally. (Believe it or not, 2.5 was one of our less controversial releases!) Even in some of the more emotional replies there is useful information, and I can’t wait until you guys start trying out the new stuff.