WordPress community superstar and regular web tools collection contributor Jeff Chandler (jeffr0) recently published a passionate article, “Stop Blaming The WordPress Team“. The article is about plugin developers blaming WordPress for too frequent updates without testing of popular plugins. His conclusion ends “So the next time you upgrade WordPress and realize your favorite plugin is broke, don’t blame the WordPress team, blame the source.” There are almost 200 comments on the article, and reading through them I imagine almost all perspectives are represented.
My hope is you don’t blame anyone. Maybe, it’s the core WordPress developers fault, maybe it’s the plugin or theme’s author, but that matters much less than everyone involved staying positively pumped.
The worse possible outcome is plugin developer and theme designer exhaustion. These people are as much the WordPress team as anyone is!
Thank contributors. For many that is all the compensation they are looking for, but don’t berate the contributor that is looking for more.
The blame game doesn’t help. Instead, if the plugins or themes you use are a gift to you (free), blog about, comment on forums, write the authors directly thanking them for the work that you miss because it isn’t working with the newest version of WordPress. Why wait till there is a problem, thank them today.
If you really need to blame someone, blame me. I can take it.
Comments (35)
Ok – i’ll blame you in the future!
Seriously, people just need to stop blaming! It’s amazing how much people believe they are owed by Automatic and the Wordpress community when for the most part they haven’t had to shell out a cent! (unless you are one of these premium pushers)
I like this concept. Can I blame you for a bunch of other, totally unrelated things?:)
In other words…if there’s anything I hate, I hate it when people complain without even trying to figure out what the problem is. If I have a broken plugin, I first try to check if there were curly quotes in the template code, if there’s a javascript error pointing to a certain line, etc.
Well said Lloyd. It is a rather pointless act to start throwing blame around, since it really just distracts the contributors from fixing whatever problem there may be.
As for the blame part, I’ve got your link … now
OK cool! now we have a community scapegoat. Just one question, can I blame you for other things, windows xp being crap, my dog chewing my socks, bad coffee, the weather – it would be really cool if you would take responsibility Lloyd.
On a serious note (similar to my comment on Jeffs post) people should just stop blaming! WP is the best thing since sliced bread and using plugins is like a trip to the deli – some of the stuff looks really cool but once you pack em in that sandwich they just don´t work or worse they make you want to barf, my point is: don´t blame the sliced bread for the crap you put in your sandwich.
If blame really is the first reaction they might as well go have a temper tantrum like a 3 year old.I find it much more satisfying to fix then to blame.
I must be very highly evolved indeed.
If they didn’t back up their stuff they only have themselves to blame!
you got some ’splainin’ to do
Blame yourself for using a stupid plugin that the developer doesn’t care for you… and immediately change to a newer plugin available…
I believe its a question of having certain discipline – before upgrading wp, plugins, do it on the local m/c (test blog/what’er) – and it’s always good to clone your production blog on the local.
Wordpress, I believe it too ‘user’ friendly and that causes all these issues.
End users just don’t want their blog’s breaking every time they upgrade to a new version, is that too much to ask? If there was a more sensible api then this wouldn’t happen.
Come on developers, blame anyone BUT your end users!
I’m with Jamie. Blame is just plain silly and too many people work on the blame and not fixing what bugs them.
(But I’m still saving link under “It’s all Lloyd’s fault”. I mean why take responsibility when Lloyd’s stepping up…?)
“Seriously, people just need to stop blaming!” maybe someone can write a plugin for blaming anyone! Wordpress Blame Widget!^^
Plugin authors and theme designers vary widely in their coding skill and community involvement. We could all name several of them who are very important to this community, indeed… but not all, and some release themes and plugins that are really hacked up.
Wordpress is great. WordPress is grand. WordPress is what it is. I love it. By definition I don’t see how anything is ever their fault, really. They have a product freely offered. If WP itself works, everything that breaks downstream is the responsibility of downstream folks (even if the problem originates upstream).
That being said… if the plugin and theme authors are also offering their code freely… then even though their code is their own responsibility… how can anyone complain? You didn’t pay for it! Who are users to put expectations on others?
And oh yes, there are many whining leeches who feel “owed” by WP and the community. Unfortunately it’s illegal to light these people on fire, or I would have already.
I agree with Jamie.
PS: Lets blame the aliens
Well said, well said. The blame game gets old.
I’ll blame anyone I want anytime I want. Then it’s their option to ignore, deride or address my complaint.
Yes, the use of WordPress is free but the use of a free product can impose a cost if your competitor is using a better product. Anyway it’s naive to believe that the core WP developers aren’t profiting from their work.
I for me blame it on the Boogie. That’s all!
Lloyd, a good-humored approach. Unlike many of the earlier commenters, I’m not skilled in working with PHP. I’ve tinkered with bits of WP code here and there, but not in any serious way.
I’ve had blogs for about three years. The thing that continues to amaze me is that any time I think, “wouldn’t it be great to be able to…,” someone’s made that feature possible, either in WP itself or through a plug-in. Not to mention the endless numbers of themes available for the downloading.
The WP team and the wide WP community have an influence far wider than they can imagine — not only among people who like to play with the code, but also with people who just want to communicate. A person with very little technical knowledge can have a blog up and running easily, at no cost. That’s a hell of a thing.
Lloyd, you want to work together and create a Blame Blog, like the one where people tell their secrets anonymously? Could be a big hit…
Damnit Lloyd!
Can I also blame you if the 97 plugins I’ve chosen to use aren’t all compatible with each other? ’cause we definitely need someone willing to step up and take the blame for that
Lloyd-
As a joke I was going to write, “Blame the Canadians”, as we Americans are often looking for someone else to blame, rather than ourselves. Then I checked and it would appear that you are Canadian…that kinda takes the thunder out of the joke…oh well. Still, we have to blame someone, don’t we. I mean, we can never blame ourselves, so I suggest blaming the Easter Bunny. He too (or she?) can take it.
I severely blame you for the breakage of at least half of my plugins in 2.7 when it’s released!
We don’t have too many problems (especially since we learned how to keep everything totally standard!) with WP upgrades, but it’s noticeable that with our GPL stuff the amount of thanks we get is probably just one for every thousand downloads. It’s not a lot, but we’re not bitter about it
I would have to agree that it is up to the user to check out their plugins and make sure they’re up to date, not blame the WordPress guys, good Lord.
Oh, it’s still your fault though.
Now this is the better of way of dealing with the “blame-the-wp-core vs blame-the-plugin-developer” debate. At the end of the day, what matters is that there’s a piece of plugin code that doesn’t work and the solution is to simply make it work like it was designed to. More likely, the plausible solution is to patch the plugin as opposed to modifying the WP core. It doesn’t hurt for us to inform the plugin developer or share any patch or hack you’ve made to make it work on your own weblog.
Now I have a suggestion that should help us identify possible plugin conflicts easier: Upon every WP release, a list of changes to WP hooks, filters and actions (things that plugins heavily rely on) should also be made available.
I appreciate your good natured response to this situation — and I tend to agree that no one should be “blamed” for anything. Compatibility situations are what they are. For better or worse, if a plugin is absolutely necessary to a person’s workflow and not working is a show-stopping issue, the blog maintainer needs to make sure that plugin will work with the latest version before upgrading. End of story. I do wish that the community as a whole would do a better job of making
I agree with Markku, it doesn’t hurt to inform the plugin developer or to share solutions with the community. It would be nice if some sort of loose framework existed for plugin authors, so that they could at least check a document to see if there are any changes to anything their plugin uses that might make it incompatible — but I don’t look at having that discussion as blaming anyone — I look at that as trying to come up with solutions to make the community better.
Unfortunately, as some of the comments in that article and other place prove, merely trying to come up with solutions or ideas to make something better is immediately taken as negative criticism and the person trying to add something to the conversation is yelled at for “not respecting that WordPress is free” — as if free makes anything beyond reproach. As Ubuntucat wrote recently, “free has to be worth something or nothing – make up your mind.”
I’ll just throw it out there, since you are willing to “take the blame” — thank you for all that you do to make WordPress better. Hey, if you are going to accept the blame, you should also be the recipient of some kudos too.
What I’ve discovered from that thread is that some people have formed totally incorrect ideas of what their responsibility is and what is the responsibility of WordPress and plugin authors, and they don’t appear ready to be moved from them.
The argument that I am butting against is the idea that people have been sold something that will do everything for them, and that if anything breaks, it is a personal infringement of their “right” to have a working solution.
The idea that some espouse that non-technical people should be able to operate their own self-hosted WordPress blog without worrying about the tech issues behind that is frankly bizarre to me. I don’t know how this idea ever took root.
I think perhaps that WordPress could publish a disclaimer that dissuades people of that idea before they adopt it.
A self-hosted WordPress blog does require technical expertise to effectively operate. Sooner or later some tech issue is going to crop up which is going to frustrate those who don’t know the first thing about fixing it.
This is the root cause of the complaint that led to Jeff’s blog post.
“Milli Vanilli told you to blame it on the rain,
But if you blame it on the rain – tell me what can be gained?
If all else fails you can blame it on me”
-Barenaked Ladies, “Blame it on me”
About the concept of “Blame”… I’m not sure where it all starts, but everyone seems to be blaming everyone else.
WordPress blames bloggers (WordPress 2.6.1 is available! Please update now.) for using outdated software that’s vulnerable to attack which in turn blemishes their reputation. WordPress also blames Plugin/Theme developers for not updating their plugins soon enough when beta versions of WP are freely available long before they are actually released.
Bloggers blame both Plugin/Theme Developers and WordPress for not working together more effectively which in turn makes them reluctant to to install the latest upgrade because the incompatibilities will probably break their blog.
Plugin Developers blame WordPress’s “hectic” update and release schedules for their inability to keep up with all of the changes. Plugin Developers also blame the blogger’s unusually high expectations of their freely rendered services.
It should be readily apparent that everyone shares some responsibility in this blame game, at least now we can acknowledge that there is a problem and hopefully we can start working towards a suitable solution. Whether you think WordPress is to blame or not, we can probably agree that they are in the best position to help solve this matter.
What can be done? I’ve heard discussion of 2 update tracks, 1 less frequent for new core features and 1 more frequent for security patches, that sounds like a pretty good idea. As a blogger, I’d like to see a “1-Click Update” process with an equally important “1-Click Revert” process just in case a vital plugin doesn’t agree with the latest WP release. And of course Plugin/Theme Developers could almost certainly use a little more funding to help make the process of updating their work more tolerable, if you can afford to, be sure to donate.
“One who smiles in crisis has got some one else to blame.” – Somebody
Hope, all developers continue to smile
My thought is that no one should ever be to blame when plug-ins stop working. I assume that the core wordpress team doesn’t go out of their way to break plug-ins, although if they do, my point is moot. That said, nothing can be static. Wordpress has to change to better suit the needs and wants of its users and to keep up with security issues. Meanwhile, plug-in authors have to accept that changes happen and they need to watch for them, if they want their plug-in to work. Love-hate relationship maybe?
Some good humor and something that has been much needed in light of some things that have been posted around in some other places here and there. Glad to have you around as self-nominated punching bag for all my future issues that do not work.
I am still a bit amazed though, as a couple posters here have alluded too, the number of people that think a self hosted wordpress blog is not going to require a bit of technical know on occasion. And I am further just contorted in laughter when I hear of folks not having a backup and wanting to tirade about some bit of something not working here or there and causing a data loss. Come on folks, almost everything tells you to do the backup as the first step, but even if not it should be an obvious first step anyway.
don’t know whyyyyy there’s no sun up in the sky, must be Lloyd’s fault, lalalala
Well I have to tell you…I switched my site over to a Wordpress Blog. I purchased a really kick ass theme from Revolution Themes. Then I downloaded some cool plugins that some really great people created. And I just have one thing to say…everything is good in the neighborhood!
Seriously, I am thrilled with everything. When I come across an outdated plugin or a theme I may want to use on a clients site…I just uninstall and look for another. If its one I really want, I keep checking back for an upgrade.
If you pay for something that doesn’t work…then you have a complaint. When people spend their time and talents to create great products and offer them for free…what complaint can you really have?
Who gets that upset about free software that they need to blame someone for frequent updates? I’m just glad wordpress exists so I can use it for free!