Hello Dolly? Really?

Hello Dolly? Really?

Hello Dolly
This is what you are encouraging, WordPress.

<rant>

The very first time I loaded up WordPress, I started poking around and came across the plugins page. I was presented with two bizarre-sounding plugins:

Akismet
Weird name…sounds like it might be useful though. It comes with some instructions too – handy!
Hello Dolly
…what?

I don’t know if you can remember how you felt when you first started using WordPress, but I do – generally quite overwhelmed. Whilst I am technologically savvy and knowledgeable about website design in general, this was a whole new world. I nearly went straight back to trusty old Windows Notepad, with its comforting lack of options.

Hello Dolly had me stumped for a few moments. I barely even knew what a plugin was, and this new CMS I was using had seen fit to include Hello Dolly as standard. It sounded like it was completely useless, but if it was, why would they bundle it in?

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What really stumped me was the fact that it was actually some kind of zombie plugin that would rise from the dead every time I updated WordPress. What is it about this plugin that is so bloody important?!

Well, I now of course know that there is nothing important about Hello Dolly. This plugin that is so irritating to people that plugins have been made to remove it. That’s right – you install a plugin to remove a plugin. Such is the level of animosity.

Hello Dolly
Useful.

WordPress – why unnecessarily confuse newbies? Why include a plugin that is of no use to us whatsoever? You might claim it is a bit of fun – I claim it is a pain in the ass that I don’t need.

</rant>

Time to unleash the scorn of an entire community – what are your thoughts on Hello Dolly?

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Brian Moore

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