7 Golden Rules to Split and Destroy the WordPress Community

1) Set the Focus Exclusively On New Users, Not On Existing Ones

“Out with the old stuff, in with the new”, that’s the motto.

We don’t need the millions of existing WordPress users, they’re just slowing us down. To bring WordPress to more than 30 percent market share on the global web, they were useful. But now they have done their duty. We are looking for new users.

After all, new brooms sweep well. Take heart with this. The old brooms, who still know where the dirt is, only stop them. They need time and care. But we need these resources for the new.

2) PHP Is the Middle Ages, JavaScript the Future

Don’t give a damn about plugin and theme developers who still want to stick to PHP, they’re betting on a dead horse. JavaScript is better in every way. In addition, many developers (still) have problems with JavaScript, so it is faster and better possible to create an elitist circle of coders. Nobody wants all the PHP hobby plugin programmers in the WordPress universe anymore anyway. Just whistle on these idiots, PHP tststs…

And if someone can’t handle React, or even refuse to learn it, those won’t have a place in the WordPress community anymore. Period.

3) The Gutenberg Block Editor Is the Only True Tool, the Classic Editor and Page Builders for the Mentally Poor

If someone rejects the block editor, it merely reveals spiritual poverty, because this person simply does not understand Gutenberg’s superiority over the previous battle-tested system, which has existed for 15 years.

It is uncool to write down a text in a single editor window and then insert a few headings and images. Who please, does (still) do something like that?

Children already love playing with blocks, it’s child’s play. Gutenberg has such a superior user interface and a unique user experience. Almost dizzyingly simple, cool, just so heavenly wonderful.

And, what serious developer would develop with or for a Page Builder? “Decisions, not options” should be much more of a motto. Nobody really needs detailed visual customization. Admonish users to implement customizations via code. Only Gutenberg should provide a few options and settings. Important: Everything has to be kept very simple so that no one gets stupid thoughts.

Make sure that the millions of comfortable Page Builder users finally leave the WordPress community and look for new tools. These “implementation experts” were only a nuisance and a burden anyway.

4) Increase the Speed of Development So No One Can Follow Anymore

Create a bubble where a lifted circle self-referentially advances the development. Block yourself from feedback from the WordPress populace. It wouldn’t do any good anyway. These users live in yesterday and don’t understand the new time.

Once the pace is really up, nobody can follow anymore, the participation will decrease. That makes people get frustrated bit by bit. This is exactly what we want: to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is inevitable.

5) Be Careful About an Authoritarian Leadership Style and Prevent Transparency

It is not desired that the users and the community see through what is going on. Transparency hampers the whole project, so avoid it wherever possible.

It’s much better to create confusion so that people go astray and fewer people get involved. This strengthens the circle that wants to drive the new course forward.

Authoritarian, lonely decisions behind closed doors are always preferable to the democratic model. It goes faster and it saves complex justifications and communication. Good leadership is like a dictatorship with a feel-good factor: lull people into it and distract them with bread and games. That’s how it should be, then everything fits.

In keeping with this, many functions and offices should be filled in personal union and an interwoven organisational structure should be created that is no longer transparent. This prevents uninvited “guests” and other ambitious people from getting involved and rising up.

6) No Thanks to Volunteers – They Should Throw the Towel Exhausted and Frustrated

The hosts of volunteers from the WordPress community are the useful idiots: they do unpaid hard labor to help others or solve problems. You don’t have to thank them, the thanks of the users are sufficient. – Say a ‚Thank you‘? Say ‚You are worthy‘? Holding up their legacy? Why – they have chosen their own destiny. Why turn the nameless into heroes? Not at all!

The best thing is when they have done their duty and then completely exhausted, tired and frustrated throw in the towel. This is the most elegant way to finally get rid of them. Then there is room for unspent, new people. See Golden Rule Number One.

7) Don’t Fix Long-Standing Bugs, Just Get Over Them

Should the problems of yesterday and the day before yesterday stop us? By no means! These month- and especially year-old Trac Tickets have to be closed. Nobody will get their hands dirty and get into problems of five years ago anyway. Who else needs something like this? It only binds resources that we don’t want to (any longer) use for it.

Therefore: Close these tickets, best in batch processing to hundreds, better thousands. So you can quickly sweep out the old garbage. Let’s concentrate on something new. Again, see Golden Rule Number One.