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Erick Danzer I know this decision is well intended, but I’m not a fan and I think if it sticks it’s likely to backfire. First, the customizer isn’t that great. I personally dislike it, and I know a lot of other devs and users do as well. And I think that’s probably the main reasons adoption hasn’t been as quick or thorough as some had hoped. – I also don’t think it’s flaws can be “fixed” with more dev attention, as they’re baked in to the design and philosophy of the customizer. Second, the customizer reflects a single theme development philosophy. So imposing is really like imposing a single theme development philosophy on all WordPress themes. In my view, one of the strengths of WordPress has been simple core with lots of choice when it comes to themes and plugins. There are so many popular theme frameworks that take different approaches and appeal to different kinds of users. Third, I think the attempt to impose the customizer is also an effort to reduce “options growth” in themes and theme frameworks. That’s a big part of the philosophy. But because many market segments *want* options, developers will find ways to provide the options. That means we’ll just end up with huge and complicated customizer implementations. Fourth, for those who think this is only about themes in the repository, I’d really question that. The fact is that once something is deemed “best practices” even if the initial basis is arbitrary, premium developers or others outside the repository tend to be held via community pressure to the same standards / approach. – So I think this really risks undermining the attractiveness of WordPress to devs and users by reducing theme choice and diversity and forcing everyone to use a development framework and user interface that many dislike to begin with. Again, I know the theme team genuinely thinks this will improve the user interface for WordPress by making it more consistent. But the trade off is that you reduce flexibility and choice. If you are going to take away choice, you better be extremely sure what you impose is awesome. And the customizer just isn’t there in my view.
Erick Danzer
I know this decision is well intended, but I’m not a fan and I think if it sticks it’s likely to backfire.
First, the customizer isn’t that great. I personally dislike it, and I know a lot of other devs and users do as well. And I think that’s probably the main reasons adoption hasn’t been as quick or thorough as some had hoped. – I also don’t think it’s flaws can be “fixed” with more dev attention, as they’re baked in to the design and philosophy of the customizer.
Second, the customizer reflects a single theme development philosophy. So imposing is really like imposing a single theme development philosophy on all WordPress themes. In my view, one of the strengths of WordPress has been simple core with lots of choice when it comes to themes and plugins. There are so many popular theme frameworks that take different approaches and appeal to different kinds of users.
Third, I think the attempt to impose the customizer is also an effort to reduce “options growth” in themes and theme frameworks. That’s a big part of the philosophy. But because many market segments *want* options, developers will find ways to provide the options. That means we’ll just end up with huge and complicated customizer implementations.
Fourth, for those who think this is only about themes in the repository, I’d really question that. The fact is that once something is deemed “best practices” even if the initial basis is arbitrary, premium developers or others outside the repository tend to be held via community pressure to the same standards / approach.
– So I think this really risks undermining the attractiveness of WordPress to devs and users by reducing theme choice and diversity and forcing everyone to use a development framework and user interface that many dislike to begin with.
Again, I know the theme team genuinely thinks this will improve the user interface for WordPress by making it more consistent. But the trade off is that you reduce flexibility and choice. If you are going to take away choice, you better be extremely sure what you impose is awesome. And the customizer just isn’t there in my view.
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