So – I’ve been a bit “ranty” lately.
It started with a simple question: “Is There a Proliferation of Subversive Plugins on WordPress.org?” And if the 6Scan plugin mentioned in that post wasn’t enough, I then stumbled across CodeGuard – a “free” plugin available on WordPress.org that doesn’t actually offer any free functionality. You have to sign up for a paid plan in order to make any use of it.
Not a happy bunny.
Moving On…
However, the above has little to do with WordPress, per se.
The underhanded tactics of a minority of plugin developers and a lack of appropriate checks and balances over at WordPress.org isn’t going to dampen my love of WordPress. The fact is, I think that WordPress is as awesome as it has ever been. It essentially defines what I do for a living – whether it is writing here on WPMU, for other clients, or on my own blog. It’s all WordPress, baby.
In light of my recent series of rants, I thought now would be a nice time to shoot off on a tangent and shine a light on our favorite content management system.
What Do You Love About WordPress?
If you ask a hundred WordPress users what they love about it, you’re likely to get a variety of answers.
Those answers will typically relate to major focal points, such as its functional or aesthetic extensibility (i.e. plugins or themes). But one of the best things about WordPress, in my opinion, is all of the little things (if that makes sense). The tweaks that make using it just that bit easier.
And those are the kind of things that I want to expose today, with your help. All of the little-known benefits of using WordPress that a lot of people wouldn’t know about.
It could be anything from a keyboard shortcut, to a code snippet, to a plugin. What matters is that it makes using WordPress easier, more enjoyable, more efficient, more productive, and simply better.
What I Love About WordPress
As a writer, I spend more time composing in WordPress than I do anything else. With that in mind, anything that makes the process of writing easier is a win in my book.
With that in mind, my favorite thing in WordPress is the Distraction Free Editor (DFE). Whilst it is not perfect, it is a wonderfully sparse environment in which I do my best writing.
As you might expect, I am using it right now. I can’t imagine why anyone would choose to use the visual editor after having tried the DFE:
Over to You!
Right guys – now it’s your turn. Tell us what your favorite thing about WordPress is. Don’t think big picture – think about the kind of stuff that other people may not have discovered – the little nuggets that make using WordPress even more enjoyable.
Fire away in the comments section!
Favourite feature… not sure wether it counts but i’d have to say the codex/support section!! As someone who is currently teaching himself PHP I regularly need answers to questions of a more specific nature and 90% of the time I need go no further the codex
Also agree with this. WordPress is a great platform for which to learn PHP :)
Anything goes! Good suggestion though, and WordPress does well in supporting the learning of PHP. Which is a good thing, because the success of WordPress is based largely upon the support of open source development!
I love the fact that me – as an average coder – can spend my time making plugins, without worrying too much about validation or security issues, as WordPress out of the box functions handle them. :)
It just leaves you to do the fun stuff, right? ;-)
I love the fact that even people with not so much coding knowledge (even those who have none) can build a personal website without spending too much money on web designers or programmers. You have all the needed resources online ( easy-to understand tutorials, vids, easy-to-use theme editors, like Lubith, plugins etc.) all the needed feedback, excellent flexibility and administrative power.
From someone who learnt HTML and CSS from scratch as a teenager just to build a little website for myself, I’m with you on this!