Easily Hide WordPress’ Blogging Features With the Disable Blogging Plugin

WordPress strikes a good balance by offering users the ability to publish dynamic content via posts and static content via pages. However, if you’d like to use WordPress primarily as a static content management system without the features related to blogging, check out a new plugin developed by Fact Maven Corp. and Ethan Jinks O’Sullivan called Disable Blogging.

Disable Blogging hides a number of features including:

Posts, Comments, and items related to blogging from the admin menus.

Comments from pages.

Blog related widgets.

Pingbacks, Trackbacks, and XML-RPC header links.

Biographical info and Admin Color schemes on the user profile page.

Press This Bookmarklet.

Posts via email.

Howdy, help tabs, and query strings from static resources.

To really get a sense for what it’s like to use WordPress without its blogging capabilities, I activated the plugin on a fresh install.

Disable Blogging Enabled on a Fresh Install

There are two things that immediately stand out during testing. The first is that logging in takes users to their profile page instead of the Dashboard. Second, the Dashboard and the link to it are gone.

I found the removal of the Dashboard creates a jarring experience that’s different from what users might expect. It’s usefulness to display widgets with site specific information, even for sites based on pages, is a huge benefit and therefore, its removal should be reconsidered.

The nice thing about Disable Blogging is that it doesn’t permanently remove features or data. Regaining access to WordPress’ blogging capabilities is as simple as deactivating the plugin.

Browsing, using, and navigating WordPress with the blogging features hidden is an interesting experience that I encourage you to try for yourself. I tested Disable Blogging on a fresh install of WordPress 4.5.3 and didn’t encounter any problems. The next time you or a client wants an easy way to disable WordPress’ blogging capabilities, give this plugin a shot.