Cancel

Jeff Chandler

The Ability To Anonymously Complain About WordPress May Soon Disappear

Kvetch is a Yiddish word defined as a nagging complaint. Introduced to WordPress.org in 2007, the kvetch form provided users an opportunity to anonymously tell developers what it was about WordPress that ticked them off. Each time the page is refreshed, a new entry is displayed. If you read several of the submissions, it becomes clear that the complaints are from a by-gone era of WordPress history.

The Kvetch Submission Screen
The Kvetch Submission Screen

It’s funny to read some of the responses and know that the current version of WordPress has many of the features users griped about not having a few years ago, such as auto updates.  Take these entries for example:

  • “Must have auto-save!”
  • “Matt can just delete things from core without debating it on the mailing list for no clear reason, whereas it takes a lot of time and effort to get anything into core, even with a clear and needed reason.”
  • “Updates are too hard to install. I get scared that I will delete everything or something will go wrong. So I don’t bother. Then I feel guilty. Then I get scared someone will break through the vulnerability in my old edition and delete everything. So I get scared. Either way I’m scared. Make me less scared. Make updates easier to install/ auto install and have a back-up wizzy-hoop feature.”

Eleven months ago, Drew Jaynes submitted a ticket to Meta trac suggesting context be added to kvetch entries. The context would consist of the WordPress version number being complained about and the date of submission. Samuel Sidler responded to the ticket with information provided by Scott Reilly.

According to Reilly, only 147 entries were approved to be displayed on the site. The entries were from January 9th, 2007 to January 11th, 2007. Meanwhile, the queue contained 31k entries not approved, 4k of which were from the last six months. After sharing the data, Sidler recommended that the ability to kvetch be retired.

I Still Think It’s A Good Idea

Being able to anonymously gripe about WordPress is a great idea. I understand the desire to possibly remove kvetch from WordPress.org but I think it would have provided some interesting data had it been maintained over the years. It was an easy way to discover pain points users were experiencing with WordPress. Sure, there are ways that data can be discovered now thanks to Twitter, forums, and blog posts but it’s not the same.  Then again, there was no guarantee that submissions would be read and addressed anyways.

What Do You Think?

Is it time to remove kvetching from WordPress.org? Have you ever submitted a complaint through the form? Can you remember what it was about WordPress that upset you so much? Tell us about the one thing in WordPress that ticks you off, using the comments below, but keep it clean!

Category:
Tags: , ,
22

22 responses to “The Ability To Anonymously Complain About WordPress May Soon Disappear”

  1. I am against Anonymous complaints/reviews/etc….

    What’s to stop a competitor from your plugin/theme from going bitch crazy?

    I have my photo as my gravatar, my twitter/facebook/wordpress.org/instagram/etc…all have my photo and my name on them.

    I have ZERO trust on anonymous opinions.

    Create forum topic from comment

  2. Seriously? Stuff from ONLY 2 (TWO!!!) DAYS, from MORE THAN 7 (SEVEN!!!) YEARS AGO is floating on this area on the .org site and has top level menu item in that case… Really? Almost unbelieveable.

    Reading that 31,000 entries are hold back, and never got moderated – or even read/seen/reviewed? – is a bit shocking to me! Why this area at all, if it is untouched for over 7 years? Maybe I don’t get it or oversee something?

    Anyway, I assume that most users have already moved on and put their complaints in the forum or their personal blogs maybe…?

    I suggest to remove that section as soon as possible, don’t understand why there is a new ticket needed for that. Isn’t the existing ticket already enough?

    Create forum topic from comment

  3. I’ve never used Kvetch, but can see the benefits of it; just your comment that some of the approved comments are now over matters integrated into the core makes it a useable asset. I cannot imagine, though, that there were really tens of thousands of comments which didn’t make it through simply because they were spam, or gibberish, or whatever. Was someone there approving the comments all the time? Didn’t the comments get run through Akismet to remove the trash? Even anonymous comments have their benefits; it prevents people from having to invent a fake name, for one thing!

    Create forum topic from comment

  5. Why can’t kvetch move to the Dashboard Welcome page after a WP core update (or as small unobtrusive link in the Dashboard on the footer…when clicked, activates a modal from WP.org)? You’d have the username, Website URL, a time stamp, WP version, etc. from the submission form. Then, you have actual user/developer feedback from active installs. On network installs, the feature can be present for subsite admins if the Super Admin OKs it in the General Network Settings. Of course, there would be issues regarding roles. Example, if a user is a subscriber, would they see that little link in the Dashboard area?

    Create forum topic from comment

  7. An idea for crowdsourcing the moderation: Kvetches can still be submitted anonymously, but are then upvoted/downvoted/flagged by users logged into WordPress.org accounts. Similar to how platforms like UserVoice handle user complaints or feature requests.

    Create forum topic from comment

    • That’s an interesting idea. I’d like to browse a site like that just to see what that one thing in WP is that is making people so upset. Outside of forum posts, ideas, blog posts, and Twitter there is no method to just outright make an angry complaint against WordPress.

      I think the data could be valuable as long as the Kvetches reset after a major version or two of WP is released so they are relevant.

      Create forum topic from comment

  8. It is a good idea, but only if they are checked. When they say they are not moderated, does that mean that they were never checked? If so, that entirely invalidates the point in the system.
    I agree that a better solution would be a way to suggest changes and have them upvoted or downvoted so that it could be seen how popular a change would be. That way you have a community voice instead of just one person.

    Create forum topic from comment

  9. It would be cool if Kvetch was fazed out of WordPress.org and moved to the Dashboard where it’s noticeable after an update. Additionally, a link at the footer that brings up a modal with a kvetch form would be pretty cool. The form could log the username, WP Website, timestamp, etc. That way WP gets that input, and the responses are tied to an actual install. My theory is that it would improve the quality of the submissions.

    Create forum topic from comment

  10. There are plans to add such a feedback form to the WordPress Beta Tester plugin where such functionality absolutely makes sense. But an anonymous kvetch form in the backend isn’t very helpful. I think people would mix it up with a support request.

    But an external website for anonymous complaints with a voting mechanism? Why not!

    Create forum topic from comment

    • But Kvetch served one purpose. It wanted to know the one thing in WordPress that ticked people off. Feedback about plugins, themes, and beta versions of WordPress are all out of scope. That’s why I think Kvetch could contain valuable data under the right circumstances. However, I’m not volunteering to moderate the queue :P

      Create forum topic from comment

  11. So where is the appropriate place for a million people to make the point that embarrassing things like “Howdy” make WordPress seem like it’s made for American hillbillies? When Matt can just ignore all of that by saying “WordPress has personality”, there’s something really wrong.

    Create forum topic from comment

You may also like

Newsletter

Subscribe Via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.