Matt sounds just as off the rails as WordPress. Keep fiddling. WordPress was better 10 years ago. One person could set it up, add content and have a working site. I was there, I made my own sites and fixed the odd glitch, myself solo, just me. Those days are long gone. Keep adding more clutter, more complicated balderdash... requiring more plugins, FSE that doesn't even make sense, and taking anything useful out of the core so it can be marketed. Good going. I changed from Movable Type to WP when it was new. I moved on from WP now and I won't be back. Its like watching Rome burn itself into the ground. It didn't need to happen.
This is my comment from Reddit - Continuing the trend: Matt Mullenweg Says “The Wheels Have Fallen Off” in Wide-Ranging WordPress Critique
Being a WordPress fan/ user/ seller forum, they might not leave it up very long. Most people in that forum are using WordPress to con people into thinking they can't put up and run their own site. They can't - with WordPress.
It's designed to break, to be over complicated, and make money for WordPress developers who can't develop anything outside of WordPress itself. There is a whole cosmos of WordPress professionals who will be out of a career if WordPress became as unpopular as it should be.
People who want a site up for themselves or a business do not know what a mess WordPress is versus almost any other CMS. If they knew how simple most other CMS's are, they would desert WP in masses over night. But, a lot of people are making a great deal of money selling WordPress. Predators and parasites - preying on people who think WordPress is the only answer and making their plugins and themes a necessity because WordPress can't even work with anything simple and do-able any more.
That may be a bit harsh, but essentially its true. If you're in doubt, dump WordPress, pick another CMS and find out for yourself. You can make and run your own website, if you stop using WordPress.
WordPress can't even find the rails at this point. I began using WP when it was new, earliest versions. It was pretty easy once you got the hang of the basics. Now... What a damn mess. I use Chyrp Lite for my own site now. It's not fancy, uses markdown, and is so easy to use its almost silly.
I can still make my own basic site with HTML but I can not even figure out where to start with a theme for/in WP now. Themes and plugins used to be good and actually WORK. Imagine that! Now they all have their hands out (I don't blame them for trying to make a buck, but at least offer something that is worth having).
I'm helping a non-profit update their site. Its a mess of extra images, pages leftover from plugins. Plugins that no one knows why they are there. But, they do not want to change from using WP because that's what they have been told to use. "Everyone" uses WordPress. But they don't really. They hire people, they buy plugins and themes and then pray it somehow works. Its not working. The site looks misshapen and broken. The original theme is long outdated and does not work well with WP as it is now. Plugins are like a nest of tangled snakes, so twisted that its hard to get them to work. They are on top of each other.
I loathe content blocks. Why does anyone need to add more useless code to a website? Especially code that only works to make WP more complicated. Why does anyone need all that junk? Does it make your site faster, no way. Does it make your site easier to create or maintain, no. ClassicPress is a fork from before the content blocks. It works without having to understand this FSE quagmire. You can type in your content, save it and be done. In WordPress I spend more time dealing with content blocks that do a really great job of blocking me from posting anything. Super frustrating for no reason.
If the general public weren't so sold on WordPress being a must have, I'm sure they would find it drastically easier to use almost anything else. Blogger/ blogspot is all but mothballed but is far easier to use and get a site up in a few minutes. Most businesses/ people do not need a complicated site with features they can't really understand. Anyway, good for you Matt and WP. You created a bloated monster, over due for a big crash.
