A letter to WordPress

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ltrtowordpressUsually, I write about things that are on my mind or problems I’m trying to find a solution for. I would like to bring some issues to the team’s attention that I have noticed through interaction with WordPress.com:

Sharing Buttons

There is no one for Facebook Like when official style is used. It’s only a share button. As there is a Google +1 button, we expect to have the same for Facebook. People now are more into making G +1s or FB Likes for sites they visit. It’s faster and easier. Relatively, WordPress default sharing icons show the counts of sharing or likes on Facebook button but not on Google’s. Here, we expect a fix or an option to hide the counter from being displayed.

wpsocialsharebuttons5

Commenting System Layout

Sorting order is confusing if the last page of comments is to be displayed first. Moreover, threaded comments at the last level don’t have reply button. This isn’t a problem for WordPress members that are replying through the control panel or the mobile application; but it is for non-members that are using a browser.

wp-threadedcomments1

Media

The page of displaying an image (e.g., carousel) should have an option to disable comments if needed. I’m not going to mention the indexing issue of each uploaded image as a single page; many like it this way.

WordAds

There should be more options of locations and types for optimized ads. For example, disabling video ads and banners are in header only. Yet CSS can be customized to hide unwanted location or type, it doesn’t prevent the script from being executed. For performance issue, I might prefer two banners only – on top and below the post.  I know WP Support Team will argue that performance issues have been considered carefully throughout the design, but speed analysis tests don’t always say so.

Following

We can see a list of followers and followed sites. It’d be appropriate though if the Followed Sites have an indication of following back if any.

wp_followingyou

Admin Area

It’s confusing that there are two versions of admin areas. The new version doesn’t have everything from the old one. On the other hand, some settings on the old version aren’t valid anymore. Should I mention the top admin black bar? It appears for the logged-in WordPress members only. However, it would be nice to have it optional as it’s in Blogger.com.

Windows Phone

WordPress app on this platform wasn’t good at all. I understand thus why they stopped developing it on Windows 10. However, I’m sure that there are many who are using WordPress because they don’t want to use Blogger form Google. Isn’t this a good point to be considered?!

(Relatively, you may like reading my other post: Back to WordPress)

I’ll try to update this post with additional points if I came across any. Meanwhile, let’s hear in your comments what else you wish to be added or fixed in WordPress.com?

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Comments

38 responses to “A letter to WordPress”

  1. besondersite Avatar

    Even I have a problem. Some non members of WordPress aren’t able to view some pages of my blog.

    1. mohamadkarbi Avatar

      Hi Prerna, that’s strange! Have your reported that with exact details to support team?

      1. besondersite Avatar

        No I haven’t 😶

  2. Heloise Avatar

    I much prefer the old admin area. It’s so much easier to run on an iPad.

    1. mohamadkarbi Avatar

      Yes. In general, the old admin area are still easier and more organized comparing to the new one.

    2. grumpytyke Avatar

      Agree completely. The ‘new’ one is a real pain except for the simplest update.

  3. grumpytyke Avatar

    I don’t use the share buttons at all but currently I do ‘promote’ posts on Facebook (and twitter). However, I thinking of stopping it for reasons given in my most recent, short, post. I think the WordPress app on iPad is terrible. To do anything on my blog I go into my browser and call it up, and use only the old admin which is so much better than the ‘new’ one. Why do these geeks insist on ‘mending’ stuff when it ain’t broke?

    1. mohamadkarbi Avatar

      Personally, I use the mobile app for push notifications and quick replies. The browser is still the way to go for me. Replying comments isn’t good on browser though – as I mentioned above…P.S., some are arguing that social counting is good for search engines ranking.

  4. Oristel Guenael Avatar

    Wow-wow- I never thought about those issues until now! You should mention them to the Team, then perhaps we’ll have something, let’s say, more advanced. 🙊🙉🙈 Great post!

    1. Mohamad Al Karbi Avatar

      Thank you. I’ve already reported that in ideas section as per team’s advice. Hope they pay the required attention. Even though, WordPress still a good experience…

      1. Oristel Guenael Avatar

        Great to hear! Even if they don’t look at it, at least you tried and took the first step!

      2. Mohamad Al Karbi Avatar

        From my short time in dealing with them, I noticed that they are listening… 🙂

      3. Oristel Guenael Avatar

        😊😊😊😊😊😊

  5. RisFit Avatar

    I nominated you for the Versatile blogger award! Go check it out! https://risfitblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/09/versatile-blogger-award/

    1. Mohamad Al Karbi Avatar

      Thank you very much, RisFit. This means a lot to me and I totally appreciate it. I’ll check it for sure.

  6. Catloverr Avatar

    Even self hosted wp is becoming a mess. It’s a tad frustrating to say the least -_- also before you could share old posts to other apps, now you must be premium.

    1. Mohamad Al Karbi Avatar

      Interesting… I never knew this! I understand your frustration and hope things will be better.

  7. thinkinkadia Avatar

    I’m relieved to see you take care of these tech issues for us👍, since I’m not a techie. Do you think we must change the blog format based on certain updates made recently? Also I’m not into stats besides seeing people from which countries do WordPress and those than I might interest in common concerns, so suggestions / post are welcome. Thanks for your support!

    1. Mohamad Al Karbi Avatar

      Thank you my friend for such encouraging words. I’m not sure if I understand your question regarding updates. However, I think you’re using wordpress.com and thus there should be no worries about updates. They’re doing that for us. Thank you for mentioning the point of statistics. Stats page is doing the job but it could be better.

  8. Caroline A. Ocheng Avatar

    Hi Mohamad,
    Good points you raised there..i am new to wordpress myself so i haven’t encountered many of the issues you mention in your blog.

    I did read the comments with a particular intent though; to see if you have had a response from WordPress. Am not sure i have seen any; so can i ask if you have had any respinse at all?

    Many thanks,
    Caroline

    1. Mohamad Al Karbi Avatar

      Thank you, Caroline. I communicated these in WordPress Ideas Forum as advised by them in other place. They can’t make official reply on a personal blog. Though, I believe they read and concern about such ideas and reports. The more likes this post gets, the more it shows in search results on WordPress’.

      1. Caroline A. Ocheng Avatar

        I did suspect they wouldn’t be able to respond to individual blogs-i can appreciate the challenges of scanning through all blogs for feedback. I was going to suggest using the ideas forum but can see you have used it already. Hopefully the issues will be looked into if they haven’t already.

      2. Mohamad Al Karbi Avatar

        I hope so too. Thank you for your caring and nice words.

  9. weatheringtulip Avatar

    Thank you for highlighting these issues. I am having problems with my notification button (the alarm bell). It doesn’t open anymore to show me my notifications on my site. Is this happening to anyone else?

    1. Mohamad Al Karbi Avatar

      Hi, that is strange; I haven’t faced such problem. If clearing the cache of your browser doesn’t solve this issue, you may need contact technical team for support.

  10. karthik vijay gopal Avatar

    And moreover,if we publish any new post, it gets added to the home page and we can’t create a new page for a post. When I searched in Google, some pages mentioned that we can do but I am unable to do that. If anyone could help me, I would be thankful…Thanks in advance

    1. Mohamad Al Karbi Avatar

      If I got you well, I don’t think it’s possible to create a page out of a post. However, you can allow shares and comments on a page to look like a post. Posts usually go to blog home. So, you probably defined your homepage to be the blog as I did here. Otherwise, I believe it might be a good idea to have an option to duplicate a page as a post too! https://en.forums.wordpress.com/forum/ideas

      1. karthik vijay gopal Avatar

        thank you for the link. hope it might help me. how to contact you here?? maybe i can have some help from you. i would be grateful.

      2. Mohamad Al Karbi Avatar

        I’ll try to help… You may use my “Contact” page to reach me

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