It’s the weekend! Hence we’re having a major upgrade!
I am, admittedly, the only person in the world who thinks the colours are an improvement on that godawful dark blue (though that blazing orange bar in the middle of the page? what were you smoking?) but we now have two different navbars and it’s messing with my brain. I used to think 1024×768 was a perfectly average resolution but no, apparently we’re a disabled minority who need to be SHOUTED at. Logging in is like having someone standing in your personal space and talking VERY LOUDLY AND DISTINCTLY. And yet the pimpage and recent activity links are teeny-tiny. If the massive fonts in the ‘Right Now’ panel are comfortable for you, those are going to be too small. Scale, people, scale. It’s all over the place.
Why can’t I move modules around? I don’t care about stats, I care about recent activity on my blogs. That was the only bit of the dashboard I ever found useful and you’ve shoved it away at the bottom. I don’t use tags, I use categories, so I want the category module somewhere I can get to it without scrolling. There’s all this empty space above the fold. They really hate 1078×768, don’t they?
(Actually, this is my sister’s preferred rez, I just can’t be bothered to change it every time I log on. I think from now on I’m going to have to.)
Thank the lord, for the forty-seven millionth time, for Scribefire, which will save me having to deal with this ridiculous post page ever again.
Obviously the forums are overrun with people saying DO NOT WANT, which was to be expected as the target audience here isn’t especially techy and they don’t appreciate having to learn how to use their blogs all over again:
Not to mention the broken stuff. Nobody appreciates broken stuff. I’m so glad I tweaked my widgets yesterday as naturally the widget interface is broken big-time, along with image uploads. At least it gives the forums a respite from made-up penguin drama. 
Dr. Mike Wendell said
heh heh heh
And the top post around wp.com on wp.com’s front page is Dear WordPress – WTF??
Kristin said
I’m currently counting down to the first “I can’t upload images!” message on the forum. It took about 15 minutes after the launch of 2.5 to get on the .org forums.
Dr. Mike Wendell said
Here’s one: Link
Alan531 said
ZOMG, there’s more than one of you?
Joshua Goodwin said
Am I the only person wondering why The Big Blue Navbar is still there? It might be replaced with a “shoot the duck to write a new post” thingy, but it seems kinda stuck in the past.
Kristin said
Dr. Mike: How long did it take, a day? But the link you posted shows that it took less time before people blogged about it.
After reading some of the reactions here on wp.com to the new interface, I think I have to code an ‘old dashboard’ plugin before upgrading any of my mu sites.
Root said
WTF is this *inactivated* malarkey in the com forum? I wanted to add my 2 cents to the dashboard fiasco but I do not seem to be able to *reply*. I still get a cheery welcome message though. Flamin’ cheek. LOL. I haven’t had as much fun in years. A great opportunity to justifiably criticise the bone headed facism of the WP management (read SuperMattTM. And this is Open Source (kind of)? errrrrrrrrrr.
Matt has got me so riled up I have come out of my winter torpor. The new dash? It sucks. Like a hole in a spacesuit.
that girl again said
Almost everyone who might conceivably post something other than ‘OMG u guyz R so AWESOME!!!!!!!!!’ got banned from posting back in the new year, in case we frightened the VCs or the invisible new support staff. Do keep up
Heh, my sister barely knows what blogging is. I tried to teach her how to use Textpattern once but it didn’t fly.
options said
welcome back, patient Root
yes, you, a person of known bad character (or, as it was simply put by Mr. OpenSource, just a “bad element” ©), was *preventively* banned from posting* to
the Automattic support forathe ward.and here are some good pointers why:
wank.wordpress.com/2007/12/29/happy-new-year-guys
archgfx.net/blog/2008/geek/blogging/desaparecidos-wordpresscom-sucks
http://www.cornellfinch.com/2007/12/29/dont-shit-on-your-volunteers
*) also, you cannot add or remove any bookmarks you might have, nor change your forum profile anymore. although the respective page still *claims* just the opposite.
Root said
So this is what MattCo calls *Social Media*. Thank heavens I do not take it seriously.
As a person of known bad character I have just started poking about in Joomla. Seems a cool CMS.
Dr. Mike Wendell said
Somewhere in there, Matt stated that the navbar is due for an upgrade as well.
options said
re: ‘Social Media’
Root, do you mean that one:
Kissing Bandit said
It’s unfortunate that Matt didn’t see the one flaw in his plan to rid the forum of all the “bad elements”, which whatever-that-penguin’s-name-is-now seems to be using in his own favor: the ability for said bad elements to create a different, un-inactivated account to post under.
-KB
Root said
Must look into a new un-inactivated account.
timethief said
As a matter of fact I just saw a sock puppet become inactivated …
timethief said
she was a moonlightrider or something
timethief said
@options
Thanks for posting the link
Kissing Bandit said
@timethief – which is more likely: the sock puppet remains inactive or the sockpuppet pops up under a new (un-inactivated) username?
-KB
Root said
I like Matt’s *pre-emptively moderated* stance. He absolutely abhors any kind of dialogue at all. At the higher levels it might be true that a subject as emotive as the dashboard – would – if opened to the floor – generate a lot of noise. But that gives two choices. Close it out. Or filter it. And some where in amongst the mass of WP users are a fair number of information architects, usability gurus, conversion and landing page designers and a whole mess of other interesting folk. Matt has got an absolutely lamentable track record whether in themes or in admin – of developing or commissioning any half decent interface. And with Happy Cog at his disposal he still cocked it up. Jeffrey Zeldman must be weeping in his Chicken and Dumpling Soup.
Just recently a degree of coherence and consistency has entered WP – although the new black color scheme is reminiscent of Nazi Germany. But Matt remains firmly in the *well it looked OK in my browser* – (Safari 4.5) on Mac OS 12.3 or something – school of developers. God knows I do not like designers. But there is a place for them. Somewhere.
that girl again said
The trouble is, I don’t think Matt finds them interesting. As far as he’s concerned, informed criticism is no different from uninformed whining; it’s all ‘noise’. Hiring Happy Cog was a smokescreen — he was never going to implement anything he didn’t like, and conversely if there was something he wanted and they didn’t it was going in regardless. I’m sure they realised that when they took the job on, which is why they made clear in their announcement that while it was designed by them, the implementation was entirely WP’s responsibility.
The only solutions to sockpuppetry are boredom or internet deprivation. I’m sure some of these kids take pride in saying wordpress.com has banned x number of their accounts. It’s like when I was in high school; you weren’t anyone until you’d been banned from the MegaBowl at least twice. Being kicked is all part of the fun.
(Also, we got to nineteen comments before falling foul of Godwins. Yay.)
WordPress 2.5 again | The New Wolfs Howl said
[...] seem. Since moving over to self-hosted, I haven’t spent any time at WordPress.com but from what I understand the upgrade was done over a weekend and without warning; possibly not the best way to do it. It [...]
Kissing Bandit said
It’s also probably why Automattic didn’t even make it on their client list, much less their featured work page.
-KB