Photographers be aware, WordPress may convert your JPEGs to WebP soon: cdevroe.com
@cdevroe I was surprised by the push for WebP in WordPress. Some file formats (HTML, JPEG, PNG, MP3) are universally supported and should last forever. Replacing them just isnāt that important.
@cdevroe This is a daft move on WordPressās part. I think we need a blog/CMS platform to replace Wordpress. Unfortunately I donāt see one right now.
@bradenslen Is Joomla going anywhere these days? That was the first DIY CMS that I used. @jemostrom
@pimoore Anything invented and pushed by Google is suspicious by default and probably only benefits Google.
@manton the push for Webp appears to follow SEO recommendations related to page loading speed.
@odd @jemostrom Iām way out of date on Joomla. The beauty of WordPress is once installed a non-tech person like me can run it. Most people never have to mess with CSS, Php or directly edit themes. And it can be extended pretty painlessly with plugins. Most other blog platforms just are not as smooth as WP. The other problem is hosting support - every host pretty much has WP hosting perfected but with the other CMSās each version update is like Russian roulette.
@bradenslen I see. I think I have forgotten about how Joomla just took more effort, and wasnāt as obvious. My domain host do offer both, but as you say, may not be as reliable with Joomla.
@bradenslen @odd I installera Joomla many, many years ago but I didnāt like it, it was full of bugs and general ugly (this was before 2010) so I used Drupal for a year or two. It had some features that I really missed when I switched to WordPress. The last 10 years or so Iāve been hopping between WP and various static systems. From what Iām seeing WP is moving in a direction Iām not interested it. So at the moment Iām using Blot, Micro.blog and BBEdit.
@manton I need to dig in a bit more, but this change must benefit large hosts like WordPress.com than it does individual WordPress users.
@jemostrom @odd @pimoore This is the thing, Iāve got a couple of projects that Iād like to start but WordPress is not moving in the direction I want to go. I question if Wordpress will still be usable for me in 5 years. So I end up starting nothing new because I donāt trust WP.
@cdevroe Me too. Iāve looked at almost every blog platform out there until I can hardly see straight and none do quite what WordPress can do. The ālight weightā are all missing one or more important feature. Of the heavy weightās B2evolution might be best but there is a lot to learn.
@cdevroe that is bad.. I was playing with the idea of hosting a photoblog on wp.com instead of building something custom for microblog.. š¤Ø
@bradenslen I canāt see myself returning either. Have you tried some of the static site builders?
@JMaxB Yes, and I meant to write static site generator, not -builder. Still a site, but generated by tools.
@cdevroe I get the notion but WEBP is a good format, even if itās not widely accepted. All browsers and all modern image editors support it.
@pcora Iāve tried that but it didnāt work at all for me, Iāve tried some gallery plugins but itās still crap. WP and photos are a bad combination. In my opinion WP is really, really bad for managing media.
@pimoore @pcora yep, Glass is nice and I use it to share a photo or two. But personally I donāt want to āburdenā people in general with my photos, I wanted a place where I can upload and only the people who are interested need to look at them. Iām using Smugmug for galleries, or for events Iām asked to photograph.
But I would love to have a CMS that would handle everything.
@alexink +1 for ClassicPress, although whether it will stay the course and mature is by no means certain yet.
@cdevroe WebPoop format sucks! Went to a site yesterday (using Firefox) and images are all WebPoop. Shifted to Safari and the images are now JPEG. Is there a plug-in that ditches WebPoop for other format?! :)
@alexink I agree, and was one of the first to offer concrete support via Open Collective. It needs a more reliable income stream than that though, like hosted WP.com but I have not yet seen that being discussed.
@jemostrom @pimoore, I like Glass, but I want to publish on my own site, not on someone elseās. And I want to be able to post photo stories or some galleries from time to time. Glass is supposedly going to work on that in the future, which will be nice, but it will still be their site, not mine. And to be honest, ever since they started having āAppreciationsā I started posting less.
@jemostrom @pimoore It can be done through a site like smugmug or even wordpress or squarespace, but Iālike to be able to at least map to my domain.
@cdevroe There are a lot of responses on this⦠some I donāt see due to how Micro.blog works. But I will try to get to them all!
@yurymol What notion? I hope my post does not make it seem I am against this change. Iām simply saying people should be aware. My opinion is not fully formed yet.
@alexink I will say, Gutenberg is amazingly good. I can see why some would turn it off. But for what it does, it is currently best in class. (And this coming from someone that spent $1M and 2 years building a WYSIWYG web site editor).
@cdevroe LOL! I donāt have an opinion on the format either and I do know that many webmasters upload way over bloated images for display on the web. They just donāt know any better. But if I upload a .jpg or a .gif file to my hosted, paid Wordpress instance, I expect it to stay a .jpg or a .gif. I donāt expect it to be changed into a different format without a by-your-leave. I consider that a hostile act. Unless WordPress is going to start paying my hosting fees.
That said, on WordPress.com it might make sense.
A lot will depend on the UI. If we can just check a box that says No WebP(oo) images and forget it then it might be okay.
@alexink Thanks. I think there is a future for the ClassicPress fork. Iām seeing more and more WP plugins that only work with the block editor and I think that many more bloggers will migrate to ClassicPress as WP continues to morph into a marketing CMS.
@bradenslen So much of the US Government is on WP 5.9.1 and will not be moving on any time soon. Classic editor will be with us for a long time