In reply to Central Geek.

@centralgeek I'm not sure you are picking up the obvious what Drew tried to convey, even with your 20+ years of experience. All the people involved in contributing to WordPress core are doing so with the intent of making it better. It is community driven. Users don't like feeling like they are not listened to but, but I'm sure none of the people contributing directly like being treated as nasty hobbits that just don't get it.

There's a difference between bringing up discussion around issues and being critical of the people doing the work. It is convenient to mentally separate those driving the project and those that are mere users. What this does is enforce the idea that users are at the whims of an 'elite' group as some have called it. It also makes some users act like customers who've gotten a bad deal. But we're not customers.

Users are community members and every community member is a potential contributor. All contributors come forward because they want to see WordPress become better, that's the dynamic that we have. That's the driving force. It doesn't mean everything will be perfect. Lots of points raised have a lot of merit in my opinion.

How WordPress gets better is not through sideline criticism of its contributors efforts, it's because people feel motivated to make the project better and contribute. If there's something about the project that sorely needs improving, the dynamic that needs to happen is for contributors to step in. I'm not describing some moral plea, I'm describing the actual mechanic of the project that has been working all these years. This is not about whipping the current contributors into shape, as if its a staff under employment.

So it's community driven and that also means its not perfect. I for one, think that WP could use a community relations team. And maybe it's time to think about bring site backups as a core feature. But that's just me.

I just think it's far beyond silly to castigate those who are currently contributing because a choice was made aimed at prioritising security over convenience. A choice that will attract criticism regardless of what you prioritise. (Mind you I'm in favour of allowing users to disable or buffer updates through a UI). But part of buying into WordPress is about buying into the process that makes WordPress. That model has got us this far. The figures say it works, overwhelmingly.

There, I channeled my inner Gandalf.