Photographers be aware, WordPress may convert your JPEGs to WebP soon cdevroe.com
@cdevroe The fact this image format by Google is being forced on the internet should raise a lot of questions.
@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 isn't that important.
@JMaxB Progress for Google’s continued efforts to control the entire internet experience, yes. That’s a ridiculous workflow to get images back into a universally supported format.
@cdevroe This is a daft move on WordPress's part. I think we need a blog/CMS platform to replace Wordpress. Unfortunately I don't see one right now.
@bradenslen @cdevroe This is exactly the reason why I ignore web metrics that slap your hand for not using “modern image formats like webP”.
Nice try, Google.
@pimoore Anything invented and pushed by Google is suspicious by default and probably only benefits Google.
@odd @jemostrom I'm way out of date on Joomla.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 CMS's each version update is like Russian roulette.
@bradenslen I see. I think I have forgotten about how Joomla just took more effort, and wasn’t 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 didn't 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 I've been hopping between WP and various static systems. From what I'm seeing WP is moving in a direction I'm not interested it. So at the moment I'm 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, I've got a couple of projects that I'd 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 don't trust WP.
@cdevroe Me too. I've looked at almost every blog platform out there until I can hardly see straight and none do quite what WordPress can do. The "light weight" are all missing one or more important feature. Of the heavy weight's 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.. 🤨
@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 it's not widely accepted. All browsers and all modern image editors support it.
@pcora I've tried that but it didn't work at all for me, I've tried some gallery plugins but it's still crap. WP and photos are a bad combination. In my opinion WP is really, really bad for managing media.
@jemostrom @pcora I really like Glass for photos, and it’s easy to share back to Micro.blog as well. I don’t think WP was ever truly geared toward heavy photoblogs, and I don’t see this change helping with that.
@pimoore @pcora yep, Glass is nice and I use it to share a photo or two. But personally I don't want to "burden" 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. I'm using Smugmug for galleries, or for events I'm 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 else's. 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 "Appreciations" I started posting less.
@jemostrom @pimoore It can be done through a site like smugmug or even wordpress or squarespace, but I'like to be able to at least map to my domain.
@cdevroe There are a lot of responses on this… some I don’t 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. I’m 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 don't 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 don't 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 don't 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. I'm 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
