“WordPress for Old Folks”

The wee hours of the full-moon morning provide the anticipation of dawn.

During the late-night hours when the internet works slightly faster, I read posts via email notifications and can sometimes follow those links to the proper webpage.   Lynda (Pixilatedtoo) called our attention to several bloggers who join the verbal protests regarding changes in WordPress.  I commented via email, which now drags lots of clutter from the email post.  Six months ago those comments were clean and without baggage when they reached their destination.

Lynda nudged us to GrahamInHat’s well-researched post About WordPress Changes-What We Can Do  and also “An Open Letter to WordPress” over at Fishofgold.  These recent posts reflect that we are not alone in our grumblings, especially if you read the comments! Graham in Hats stated, “If we get up on our hind legs and howl for the pack to pay attention then we stand a good chance of putting more sensible people in charge.”    Take time to scan the comments as well;  I also enjoyed Jessee’s comment on Fish of Gold, “It’s Not WordPress. It’s been renamed WORSTPress”

Airing Laundry?

His comment fits well with today’s Daily Prompt: Play Lexicographer…   How about it, Jessee?  You should submit your suggestion via post and pingbck!   The Weekly Challenge arrives soon, so I’m hoping that many people will design their post to address these WordPress changes.   Will any of you join me?!  Say, “Bah, Humbug,” if you’re not pleased with the new obstacle course.

People who don’t cook shouldn’t design kitchens.  People who cannot draw shouldn’t be working on an expensive art-design project.  Do any of the people that make these WordPress changes write blogs on computers or have a queue of comments to read and answer when they log onto their account?  If so, let’s play, “Swamp them with comments!” and see if they can teach us the art of finding them!

Of course I can do that job for you!

Years ago I worked in a design studio with a dozen other artists, and the younger ones worked circles around me via computer.  If they had to hand-draw a design, they turned almost white with fear.    These designs were to be drawn on huge stretched pieces of fabric to be made into hand-woven rugs, and I often checked on my younger peers’ progress.  Once I told the director, “You’d better tell Marriott that their hand-made rug will be late…” 

I know how to fly, but I don’t know a thing about drawing rug designs!

The young designer’s hand-drawn work required a complete redraw; there are times that an artist shouldn’t sketch the carpet design – there is a grid system of easy math that keeps the original design accurate.  After that fiasco – to my delight, all future hand-drawn designs were lobbed to my desk, and I was able to dash to the warehouse and use my talents!  I’d leave a note with a huge smiley face icon on my desk, “Gone to the Briar Patch. – signed, Brer Rabbit.”

It’s nice to switch modes every so often, and sometimes unexpected changes and hurdles are later embraced.  But sometimes we don’t want to be hurled to the future, where the obstacles prevent us from doing our work with ease.

Pardon me, but it appears that you have two faces…

Yahoo has been rearranging its format for years, and I stick with it because I love my ‘At A Glance” homepage that shows me summaries on emails, world events, specialized areas of the world, science, the arts and even the weather in locations that interest me.    I do not like the many changes in the email writing options and decided that most of the changes were made by a younger generation that never learned business etiquette or formal ways of correspondence.  The changes have a sloppy informal flavor which I still dislike.

Some people still cling to old values where less is more.

Regarding the changes in WordPress, I think that most of us that are unhappy because we like doing things in the ‘Old School” system.  We don’t want to search for shortcuts that take more steps than the old system.  We want to write and design images around those words and spend time creating.  We’re irritated by cutesy distractions like the “Beep Beep Bop” –  a pesky mosquito buzzing around my face that doesn’t make anything happen faster.  Sometimes I think it slows my already-slow connection even more.  While online, it’s nice to reply to comments as they arrive, but if we’re offline for a while and return, we don’t want to play ‘Hide and Seek.”

“Y’all come back, you hear?”

Many have suggested that WordPress should develop a totally different format for ‘androids,” but I’m thinking that maybe they need to design one for “Old Folks” that doesn’t sing and dance, it just goes straight to business and let’s us enjoy the art of writing!

Thanks for listening!

Z

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