Wordpress 2.5 Review
So, I’ve been on WordPress since January of 2006. I previously used Blogger, which was nice for a hosted solution (but I wouldn’t pick it today…I’d use WordPress.com) and then when I moved to my own domain, I used WordPress.
Last weekend, I upgraded my WordPress installation to the newly-released 2.5, which represented a complete overhaul of the administrative interface, designed by the fine folks at Happy Cog. There have been a ton of reviews. I’m not going to recount all of them, I’ll just share my experience.
The actual upgrade was easy (as usual).
WordPress is notorious for their 5-minute install or upgrade. I thought there might be a more extensive upgrade process than in the past since 2.5 actually changed some of the MySQL database tables, but it was extremely easy.
The admin interface is clean (but everything is really big).
I’m not sure about how Happy Cog chose to align the grid. I love the new comment bubbles, but getting used to a whole new admin interface is a little weird. I wish there were some tutorials on customizing the interface (there are, but I’m too lazy to look extensively for them), but one thing I’ve always disliked is the Dashboard. I like that I can customize it now with the feeds that I want to see.
I like the fullscreen writing feature, but the default fonts are a little big for my tastes. I’m tempted to go into the CSS for the admin, but I’m scared of it. I don’t want to mess with Stan’s code. I do like that the default font is now Lucida Grande…that I like. Much better typography.
My custom theme held up pretty well.
I’m very happy that my custom theme didn’t break, although one of the plugins I’ve used since the beginning doesn’t work in the sidebar anymore. (If you’re wondering, it was the plugin that showed the recently added comments.) It’s not surprising that it broke the plugin because it was originally written back at the tail end of 2006. For now, that little feature has gone away. I’m not nearly smart enough to write that plugin. Would love for someone to fix it though.
So far, it’s kind of slow.
There seems to be a bit of a lag with publishing posts and loading admin pages. Are any readers out there having speed issues? Maybe it’s just on the admin side…
Anyway, that’s my review. I really like the look of the interface, but it will take some getting used to. I realize that much of what I’m referring to has nothing to do with the readers, but for those that run WordPress, you’ll know what I’m talking about if you decide to upgrade. I know that The D has been experimenting with it and I haven’t seen any profanity-laced WordPress posts from him, so that’s always good.
10 Comments to “Wordpress 2.5 Review”
The D
None of my widgets broke. But there was a hold or something wrong with my statcounter.com. But on Monday everything was working.
Maybe you should just upgrade to a newer widget for your comments. Mine works just fine.
I was really worried about having to re-import my custom header. But it worked out just fine.
I also like the new upload files or images option. I don’t know if that was an option before but I never used it. But I have used it on all my pic so far and it works great.
Overall very satisfied!
- 11:09 pm on 04 01, 2008
Shane
I would like to upgrade the widget, but they don’t have it anymore. It’s no longer being supported, I don’t think. Oh well. Not a huge deal since most of my readers come in through the feed.
- 11:12 pm on 04 01, 2008
The D
I have a comment widget. It still works I’ll email you a link if i can find it.
- 11:16 pm on 04 01, 2008
The D
I’m confusing widgets with plugins! Mine is a default widget.
- 11:22 pm on 04 01, 2008
Shea
I’m pretty pleased with it as well. I’m reasonably tech savvy, but the upgrade seemed really intimidating until I actually did it and, in hindsight, it was a breeze once I got over the initial fear that I was going to accidentally delete my blog. If I can make it through the upgrade unscathed, anyone can. I’m not having any speed issues, though. My only criticism is that I’m not sure how I feel about the media uploading tool. It’s kinda clunky. Only one of my plugins is not working – the google analytics plugin. Overall, love the new UI and it’s definitely worth it to upgrade if anyone’s still o the fence about it.
- 11:40 pm on 04 01, 2008
Chimpo
As the D said, there is a general widget for recent comments you can use.
I’m still getting used to the new interface. I guess I need to make more posts to start learning the features.
- 8:49 am on 04 02, 2008
Shane
I know about the general widget, but I don’t like it as much as the one I was using, Brian’s Latest Comments.
- 8:53 am on 04 02, 2008
meesha.v
mine is doing fine,but feedburner stopped counting clicks,still count subscribers though.
- 10:06 pm on 04 02, 2008
Delor.es.Defacto
I still don’t know, Shane. The whole thing looks so different that I’m wondering if they’ll go back to the same `ol looks in their next version.
But, alas, I have to keep up with the modern times, right?
- 3:21 pm on 04 09, 2008
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