WordPress 2.5: Its here, its queer, it wants another beer!
By AndrewBoyd • Mar 30th, 2008 • Category: Blogging tips, Recent posts…or something like that.
Those of you who follow my blog know that I am not a huge fan of the admin interface changes in WordPress 2.5. In WordPress 2.5: Perhaps I was wrong I even got a little abusive. So today, when I learned that it was out, I upgraded a couple of my blogs to test the release version.
I now have new and better reasons to hate it. Read on.
Draft posts not in Write screen any more
I use draft posts to keep track of posting ideas, safe in the knowledge that when I go to the Write screen, all my posting ideas are there waiting for me.
Not any more - they’ve ‘fixed’ this in 2.5. Why? Did the two lines of draft post links really confuse people that much?
Link tool borked in rich editor
Perhaps the scariest thing occurred as I started to write this post. I went to insert a link, and saw this:
The blank spot in the right hand side of this graphic is where I would once have entered the URL link. It’s blank now. I haven’t disabled JavaScript or done anything that affects the way that all my other blogs handle this particular widget. Maybe they didn’t test it on FireFox under OSX?
The graphic upload SNAFU
Now this is scary. WP 2.5 decided that the above graphic should be 300×147 pixels in size. I originally had it set at 500 pixels wide, but WP2.5 knew better.
When I decided that no, I really did want my 500×256 pixel original to be the graphic displayed, I tried uploading it again - and this is what I saw:
Again, my 500 pixel wide screen capture has been resized. Of course, I clicked on the graphic icon to manually set the size - and was not surprised when I saw a blank screen much the same as the one in “Link borked in rich editor” above.
I know that I can go into the HTML source and change it - but I am not going to - because this dumbing down of WordPress was supposed to make it easier. Someone tell me how it is easier, I’m dying to learn 
Do you have any WordPress 2.5 stories?
AndrewBoyd is a consultant by day and blogger by night. He loves good food, good wine, and discussing faceted classification schemes with friends.
Email this author | All posts by AndrewBoyd
Perhaps too much beer was the problem in the first place?????
What are faceted classification schemes and why is the autofill greyed out on your blog and numerous other WP blogs. Tres annoying. Only really interested in the second one and as for WP, serves you right for using such a poopy blogging system. Only joking. It does amaze me that things like that would not be fixed early on given that there are a lot of very persnicity users, who immediately set to work to write posts like this. Interesting.
Hi Lightening,
thank you for your comment.
I think that beer was involved, if not hashish, or possibly LSD
Best regards, Andrew
This may sound trite, however I am finding the widget management area rather strange. The widgets in use are parked over to the left of screen while the widgets available take pride of place in the center. Since I tend to use few widgets and load as much into text boxes as possible, being able to concentrate them is more important. I would have thought the widgets in use would take prime importance.
Overall I am not to fussed with the new interface. It is quicker, albeit marginal. Like all things in that go through change - it takes time.
I am only going to upgrade my blogs one at time until I am totally comfortable with the upgrade routine and the stability. I will leave my primary blog until last.
cheers
les
Hi Colin,
faceted classification is looking at things from different angles - you are a South Australian, a Scot, a blogger, a father - all of these things. In combination they define a number of characteristics about you. Being able to distinguish between all other South Australians, Scots, bloggers and parents to find the one Colin Campbell is the beauty of faceted classification.
I’m not sure what autofill is - can you fill me in?
Persnickicity is a trait universal - pity that it is not more evident, for surely then we would have more testing
Best regards, Andrew
Its here, its queer, it wants a kick up the rear…
Go with Symphony Andrew, it’s Australian made, and it’s all standards based. Alas, I don’t think they have a drafts feature though.
Hi Les,
thank you for your comment.
Some of the errors above are bugs - and no doubt there will be a 2.5.1 release that will fix the obvious bugs.
More insidious, and harder to fix, are the design flaws - like the Write screen re-shuffle, and the widget management tool (and thanks for pointing this out, I hadn’t looked at it yet).
I agree - I guess that we really will adapt to the design flaws in time - human beings are very adaptable, and poor designers have used “they will get used to it” as an excuse since time immemorial.
Best regards, Andrew
Hi Kelley,
thank you for your comment. Someone wants a kick up the coit for this one - the trouble is that the Happy Cog crew are universally well-respected and connected in the IA world, so criticising them will likely win me very few friends. But someone has to speak up for the people who actually have to use this thing.
Best regards, Andrew
Hi cannboys,
thank you for your comment.
I will look at Symphony as soon as I can. I think that the time is ripe for an alternative to WordPress - there is a lot of angst out here
Speaking of alternatives, I am also looking at Majestic from Injader.com.
Best regards, Andrew
I thought perhaps it was just me. Seeing as I’m not too heavy in the technologocal department.
My first problem is trying to understand WHY I keep getting error messages when trying to trying to upload. I keep failing some test or other. It’s been a long time since I had to sit any test but, back then, at least I know what the test was about
[…] forum 1 Wordpress.org forum 2 Wordpress.org forum 3 On blogging Australia (yes, I also do not like the new admin interface). YellowSwordFish […]
Hi Susanna,
thank you for your comment.
There is some information on the upload test error over at the WordPress forums under Visual Editor in 2.5 - not that it is very helpful at all
It is said that software is always tested - before release or after release, but it is always tested.
There is a thread on this topic at the Aussie Bloggers Forum - please see It’s available.
Best regards, Andrew
[…] a good web citizen, I reported the issues I was having with WordPress 2.5 (as discussed in WordPress 2.5: Its here, its queer, it wants another beer!) to the WordPress forums in the thread Visual Editor in […]