omgwtf!

Problems in the WordPress camp

This article said everything I feel about WordPress but have been too angry and frustrated to articulate without dissolving into a frenetic mess of profanity and aggravation.

I knew that the switch over to WordPress would be a challenging one; I have only the most rudimentary CSS knowledge and no PHP skills at all, though I was eager to learn. To my horror and irritation, it has been one catastrophe after another trying to get even the most simple things done. The unnecessary complexity of the software, combined with the utter lack of user friendly documentation even got my best friend and I into a vicious argument.

I tried to explain to her about the scattered, fragmented CSS and the highly technical documentation available in what is otherwise an excellent Codex, but she just didnt understand what I was trying to say. She herself spent three weeks forcing knowledge into her head just to set up a blog. I personally refuse to do such a thing.

The developers have a responsiblity to their users to make their very complex software usable by providing appropriate documentation geared toward the people who don’t want to have to be coders in order to use it, especially since more savvy or experienced folks tend to treat you rather rudely on the support forums when you ask a question that to them should be obvious.

Actually, to an inexperienced person, the explanations that are offered are usually little more than gibberish…even if they’ve already tried the Codex for help. I’ve seen it happen over and over again there, and I know from my own experience with the Codex as well as trying to find help in the forums that this is all too true. I haven’t even bothered posting there yet. I dont take well to rude people, and since I’m already irritated enough with the software (or more correctly, the inadequacies of the documentation) to want to jump on someone.

Take this perfect example from the Codex to illustrate my point. I have been trying to make my permalinks “pretty” for SEO (search engine optimization) and user-friendliness, and the first time I took a stab at it, exhaustion and crankiness led me to the dark side. So I quit for a few days. Last night, I got some sleep and this morning, I took another crack at it.

When I had first tried to make this customization for permalinks, I changed the string, clicked okay, and promptly 404′d all my archived pages. So I mosied over to the forums and the Codex to take a look around.

When I’m tired, my reading comprehension goes way down. I was tired, and the Codex danced before my eyes in a shimmering miasma of jargon. I went back and forth between the Codex and the forums, verifying steps and squinting my eyes until the following paragraph in the Codex page for permalinks appeared before me:

“You must chmod the .htaccess file to 666 to edit it with the WordPress template editor, but this is not recommended, since if you do that, any user of your blog, who can edit templates will be able to edit it. You can change the permissions to 660 to make it server-writable, which again will have the same limitation.”

Okay…what? You must chmod the file but this is not recommended? What the hell is wrong with you? This is the troubleshooting section. You dont tell me that it is vital for me to do something and then recommend against it and drop the subject! Where is the solution? You know…the troubleshooting?

I closed the browser and I went to bed.

I’m no programmer. I know enough about computers and technology to hold jobs in the field, but this is not my area of expertise, and I’ve always kind of wanted to change that. Just to say I can do it. When I discovered WordPress, I wanted to use the opportunity to switch to what looked like…and is…a great blogging package so that I could learn CSS (which isn’t really programming) and PHP (which kind of really is) at last. What I got was a nightmare, and all due to lack of appropriate documentation.

I really like WordPress. I think it’s terrific software. I’m grateful that it is open source. But if it is to be used on a widespread scale, the documentation absolutely needs to be clarified so that the majority of the users can actually glean knowledge and instruction from it. The vast majority of these users are going to be people who are not technically savvy in any way, much less have the ability to code or construct CSS.

Not even I can easily comprehend most of the information in the Codex, and it’s not because of lack of experience. It’s because it’s poorly written, and very highly technical. You can tell that a geek with a thorough knowledge of the subject matter wrote it. Exactly the wrong sort of author. You need people who know how to write really good tutorials to rewrite the Codex to make it the user friendly, highly informational resource that it could be. There’s a wealth of information in that Wiki and I’m absolutely grateful to have it. I just lament the inability to comprehend it.

I’d edit it if I could…well, can I, indeed, in all my lowly n00bishness? Perhaps that’s something that I should look into. If it turns out that I do have the ability to edit it, then I need to put my money where my mouth is and get my writer’s cap on, because bitching without helping find a solution is solely the domain of assholes that nobody should pay attention to. :)

Anyway, this was a great article. Jump on over there and read it.