Sometimes Desperate Measures Must Be Taken Back

Note to my readers: As some of you already know, I got frustrated with WordPress the other day, because during a series of comments and replies with another blogger, I had an inspired moment that resulted in a free flowing and imaginative reply that was totally spontaneous, funny and really fun for me to write. But even though my reply was part of an ongoing thread, Akismet filtered it out as spam and caused my reply to vanish.

This wouldn’t have irritated me as much as it did, if it was just an isolated incident. But as most of us here at WordPress know, during an ongoing series of numerous upgrades of the site across the last several weeks, there have been many glitches and problems, and more than a few bloggers have been getting frustrated as a result.

The result of my irritation was to write a satirical post aimed at WordPress, with a sarcastic theme about the numerous problems caused by the repeated attempts at innovation.

I wrote a parody that portrayed WordPress as a pair of hyperactive and bratty four year old boys, who constantly go around the house and break things, by taking them apart and then trying to put them back together in new ways, with the end result being that the things taken apart and reassembled, no longer work as well as they did before, or don’t work at all.

Now, after a couple days of distance from how I was feeling when I wrote the post, I realize that it was rather harsh, heavy handed and excessively negative. So today, I’m rewriting my post in an effort to still make my original points, but in a less mean spirited and more positive way.

The “view” of the author while writing his post on May 30th

No one from WordPress is twisting my arm to do this. I’m doing it because I want to, and because I think it’s the right thing to do. One of the things that has really impressed me during my six months here at WordPress, is the lack of negativity and mean spirited behavior here, that is so common throughout most of the online universe. Instead, here at WordPress, there is an online culture that is very positive and encouraging, and treating each other with respect is universally valued, almost without exception. I’d rather be a part of this positive culture, than to work against it.

After six months here, I can honestly say that blogging on WordPress has been my most worthwhile writing experience in the 11 years that I’ve been writing online.

There are so many truly talented, profound and also delightfully funny bloggers here, and after reading many of their posts, I’ve seen a lot of improvement in my own writing – because as I’m reading, I’m also learning. Bloggers here at WordPress have raised the bar much higher for me, as they define the standard for genuinely high quality writing, giving me higher goals to aspire to, for improving my own writing.

There’s also a lot of people here who are just a lot of fun to clown around with, and I’ve really enjoyed trading back and forth lots of fun, laughter, and yes, occasionally a little bit of harmless flirtation, without any real intent.

And there is no denying that WordPress is a quality product that is the best kind of bargain, since we can use it for free.

But now having said all this, I’ve also been getting increasingly frustrated with the frequent techno-tampering here at WordPress, that often does not result in improving our blogging experience, but instead, it frequently makes it harder for us to be creative, when tools and functions that were previously working just fine, no longer work as well as before, or even work at all.

When WordPress is running smoothly, it’s a great experience. Which makes it all the more frustrating when the site isn’t running smoothly, and we don’t get to have that great experience, because we know how great it can be, when things are working properly.

Another casualty of the constant drive to fix what isn’t broken to begin with, and then breaking it, is the collective closeness and companionship of the WordPress community. It’s hard to keep in touch with the blogs that we follow, and hard to interact with our followers, friends, and readers, when the blogs that we follow and also our followers frequently vanish, along with vanishing comments and replies.

There is just so much that is really good and very positive here at WordPress, which makes me all the more frustrated when the code cutters screw it up for no good reason, and lately this seems to be a problem that is getting increasingly worse. Maybe the engineers should slow down the pace of the upgrades, and give WP bloggers a chance to post for a while, without interference from the technical problems that seem to inevitably come with the upgrades.

The world of high tech in general seems to be obsessed with speed and a need to do everything faster. There is also a constant drive to change existing technology to more advanced technology, in a never ending procession of upgrades. Often the upgrades result in real progress. But what also frequently occurs, is that the rapidly changing and more advanced technology becomes more complicated and less user friendly.

New versions are usually plagued with bugs; sometimes to a moderate degree, and other times to a very serious degree to the point of being dysfunctional. Everybody remember how much fun we had with Windows Vista? I wish that the powers that be in high tech would practice more moderation and common sense with their drive for innovation and change. I think that if there was more moderation with the rate of change and less rushing to create new versions to be released ASAP (often before they’re ready) that there would be less “upgrade fatigue” for the people who use high tech products.

But now that I’ve voiced my criticism, I still can say that there’s no other blogging platform I’d rather be working with than WordPress, because I have had experience with some of the other options out there, and they were clearly inferior to what WordPress has to offer.

But what I value most of all in my WordPress experience, is my interaction and friendships with the coolest, classiest, most talented, imaginative and skilled bloggers I’ve ever had the pleasure to be associated with. Most of you also have an excellent sense of humor and your posts are genuinely funny. And there’s more than a few of you who are outrageous and crazy, which makes a guy like me feel right at home.

Peace, WordPress. And for those bloggers who are so inclined, let’s continue to have fun by keeping everybody laughing.

The author as he appears in the dreams of many women – in Animal Spirit Guide Form