“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

Hi Andy,

Do you have any specific feedback with regards to what you feel is wrong with or bad about Gutenberg? Perhaps your biggest gripe with the new editor? That would be a big help in ironing out any issues that come up ??

Hi Hugh

Appreciate you and the other mods diligence in responding to all the negative comments on here (bit overwhelming for a community driven development team…). However, the process is backwards. Rather than such a huge change being implemented due to user/dev feedback, it is being forced in AGAINST the wishes of the majority of users/devs without whom, WordPress wouldn’t be a thing.

Enforcing such an unnecessary change (yes I know about the Classic Editor plugin – That has 200,000+ installs and only one 1 star review…) and then asking objecting users to justify their objection is backwards.

If you and the WP team valued our opinion as much as your responses to bad reviews make out, Gutenberg, at best, would just be a plugin. If our opinions and views matter, where is the evidence of users asking for this in the first place? Or does WP just “know better” than the vast majority of users?

Any responses to your well meaning questions are pointless. It’s not like you’re going to listen to the overwhelming majority of users that have made WordPress what it is today is it?

The WordPress community has been speaking loudly and clearly since this idea was first floated. But yeah, I’ll repeat what countless others have already said to help you “iron out any issues that come up” as WP pushes through this huge change to a community of objecting users to whom WP owe their success.

Disappointing, naive, pointless and patronising response.

Thanks for the additional feedback Andy.

Despite what you think, user feedback is being taken into consideration every day on this project and it is all the more stronger for it.

I would generally caution about seeing the public feedback here as the “majority” of users – review sections like this always tend to skew towards the negative, especially with a project that affects as many people as Gutenberg does.

The Gutenberg GitHub repo has loads of open issues still that are being actively worked on: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues – many of which have been reported by users like yourself who have been using Gutenberg on their own sites. I would encourage you to log specific issues on there in order to make sure your voice gets heard – reviews are useful in general, but without specific, actionable feedback there’s not a lot the team can do with it.

Thanks!

Cheers Hugh.

There has been tremendous “actionable” feedback. That is, don’t do it. We don’t want or, more importantly, need it. Is that “voice” being heard?

Agreed re people generally being more motivated to leave negative feedback. However, you only have to look at the 20,000+ positive reviews of [link redacted] Yoast to realise that your analogy is not a science. When WP users and devs like something, it shows. Assuming that there are myriad Gutenberg supporters keeping silent is a bit arrogant considering the very vocal support of plugins/features that are actually needed.

WordPress is a community built on a collective, respected voice.

Perhaps you could explain to me why the need was felt to introduce this? Was it a community driven decision? Or was it a top down decision aimed at competing with increasingly profit making “drag and drop website builder” services?

WordPress users and devs are generally stoic advocates of the platform. We are committed, our jobs depend on it and we are truly grateful for the creation of WP.

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• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by Andrew Nevins. Reason: Don't spam the reviews
• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by Andrew Nevins.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by Andrew Nevins. Reason: Removed second link

ps. Please don’t feel personally attacked here. I shan’t shoot the messenger. ??

I really do believe Andy has hit the nail on the head in relation to Gutenberg being forced on WP users. It’s implementation must remain optional with the other optional choice being to continue using the existing editor. It should not be installed as a core piece of WP.

His comments echo mine as well as the many people I chat with about WP and its use. This thread is a shining example of how a review that is honest, but, like many other low review posts about Gutenberg, is being brushed aside and simply not being seen as useful for the future of WP. There are a lot of bad reviews for a very clear reason.

Completely agree.

Also agree with the points Andy has made above – as a long time WordPress user.

These “issues” being addressed / questioned are not related to features or potential bugs that need to be resolved, but rather the fact that this is being implemented as a replacement without any concern for those vocally against it. The true problem is Gutenberg as a forced replacement, plain and simple.

This does seem to be ignored with every official response with a “What would you improve?” reply to every negative review, which is missing the problem entirely and comes across as dismissive, even if it’s being acknowledged internally, outside of the Happiness Engineer / WP Moderator / Dev response.

Maybe it should remain as an optional editor, via tabs: Gutenberg Visual Editor, Classic and Text – if we really don’t get the option to avoid this being integrated.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by ianskate.