It took my a long time to get on board to use WordPress. At first it was not customizable enough for me as a designer, but eventually, I gave it a try for one of my own websites. I then saw how the templates/themes could allow one to keep a consistent look with some speed and convenience.  Previously, I used to make custom coded websites using a self made CMS and PHP includes; it was a very manual process but I had control of every pixel at every screen size.

Using WordPress, I lost a tad of my pixel control, but I felt the editing abilities for my clients were worth that cost.

This control then was scaled back when I finally started to use page builders; now, I by no means need a page builder, but I started using them for the ease of my clients. Page Builders allowed my clients to have more columns in their designs and edit background colours, without the need for column short codes or CSS. I definitely lost pixel-by-pixel control as the Page Builders collapsed into responsive mode, at their own break points, but again, I thought the power it gave clients to maintain their own content would be worth the cost.

Now, I am not sure how much more I can take of this. With the WordPress Gutenberg release, I had to add a plug-in (Classic Editor) to roll back the UI to the UI that I signed on-board to. Recently, the Widgets feature of WordPress converted to blocks as well. Again, I had to install a new plug-in (Classic Widgets) to get the UI that I expect. My themes are all coded around these constructs and frankly, I like how they work.

I just don’t know how long a developer can expect their theme to last with such core changes like this. I don’t know if it is breaking my client sites (even though I do tell my clients that it is impossible to future-proof any theme). These core changes to WordPress, and whatever other changes the geniuses at WordPress are trying to push (like removing infinite scrolling, so now I have to modify my functions.php for a work-around), are making me re-think how long I can continue to use it. How much loss of control of the design can I endure? My clients are not designers; that is why they hired me. When I see regular folks try to design something in their website, it often does not turn out too well; that is why I liked WordPress: the designer could lock down the template/theme, keeping the UI looking per branding standards, and the client could post their timely content.

WordPress seems to want to give clients full control to edit everything through the browser, but I am not certain they all can handle that power. If the regular population was any good at design or development, why the heck would they need the to use WordPress as their content management system?

Maybe these evolutions of WordPress can break-off into a separate sitcom, and we can stick to the version of WordPress core that we all fell in love with?

So, I guess the break-up may be in the future, but I just don’t know when it will occur. I am trying to keep an eye open to different options, but I probably have a few more years. The irony is I am publishing this to my WordPress site, but using my Classic Editor UI and I am wanting to update my theme this year (I do have to clean up some aspects that are depreciated, yet core to my portfolio section).

I guess one perk would be the recurring plug-in fees for Page Builders, Form Builders, and various other functions might not be something I need to fund in the future. Maybe I will try to go back to static websites… after all those were the most secure?