Smilies debate going on

[Dan Schulz]

Or better yet, how the community can take part in WordPress' development. (For example, I for one would love to see WordPress switch to PDO - PHP Data Objects - to help secure the publishing system, use a single index.php file in each directory and run everything through that, and so on... but I'm pretty sure that under the current setup it won't happen.)

[Jeffro]

Someone should start a new forum thread to discuss whether or not WordPress is indeed a project run by the community instead of derailing the conversation here in that, new smilies were added without any way except through that ticket on Trac to provide feedback before the change took place. So I think Otto has a valid complaint here. I know I sure as hell am not backing down with my complaint against no UI to control Post Revisions :)

So please, lets talk about the implications of adding a visible change like this to the software without feedback first instead of deciding whether the project is community run or not.

[chipbennett]

Someone should start a new forum thread to discuss whether or not WordPress is indeed a project run by the community instead of derailing the conversation here in that, new smilies were added without any way except through that ticket on Trac to provide feedback before the change took place. So I think Otto has a valid complaint here. I know I sure as hell am not backing down with my complaint against no UI to control Post Revisions :)

So please, lets talk about the implications of adding a visible change like this to the software without feedback first instead of deciding whether the project is community run or not.

But, Jeff, I don't see how we can discuss the former outside of the context of the latter.

The underlying point is, if WP is not a community project, then we really have no grounds for complaint (with respect to the means of implementation of the change), but if WP is a community project, then we indeed have grounds for complaint.

That said, I agree with both you and Otto, that we need a UI for post revisions (which I disable using a plugin), and that smilies a) shouldn't be changed without input and b) should have plugin functionality for control of smiley sets.

[Jeffro]

Well, maybe we can talk about this subject in the newest listener poll :)

http://www.wptavern.com/listener-pol...ty-run-project

[davecoveney]

If trusted individuals can't make decisions without constantly referring back to the community (which will then need representatives on a committee) then nothing will get done quickly.

In some ways, that's good - WP changes very quickly at times and that may not be a good thing for the software any more... and sometimes things that should have been sorted out ages ago (a decent page ordering system in core... please) should be gotten round to.

[Jeffro]

I've published my thoughts on this matter here

http://www.wptavern.com/nothing-to-smile-about

But to get to the point, I'm pretty much on Otto's side on this one.

[Jeffro]

Well, Matt has since responded to that ticket in Trac and I think his idea is the best of both worlds.

[JohnM]

So the smiley plugin becomes the first confirmed canonical plugin ?

[chipbennett]

I'm glad to see that this is going to get resolved (and in a way that gives some much-needed functionality/configurability, to boot).

(And, as a KDE user, I detest the GNOME/Tango icons. They just look so... childish.)

What gets me incensed (who would've thought...) is this sort of sentiment from the (perceived) "core" people:

Might be worth bringing up this quote. :)

That "quote" is this:

As always, ignore the vocal minority...

Is that how we are thought of? Even when raising legitimate concerns? Just a "vocal minority", worthy of dismissal?

[Otto]

Okay, I'm happy with that. I just posted the info needed to fix core and to make such a plugin, so if the necessary filter gets put in soon, I'll create the plugin and load as many GPL smiley packs I can find into the thing.

Some help finding GPL-compatible smiley packs would be appreciated.