Comments on: Time To Say Goodbye To Dolly?

By: Poll Results: Goodbye Dolly | Digging into WordPress

Poll Results: Goodbye Dolly | Digging into WordPress — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:58:29 +0000

[...] There were also some great comments posted at the discussion on this topic over at WPTavern. [...]

By: Jeffro

Jeffro — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:31:12 +0000

Hmm, out of all the comments here, I do think Dan makes a lot of great points. The next time I have Matt on the air for an interview, I’ll have to ask him about Hello dolly being bundled with WordPress. So far in that poll, 76% of people say it should be removed.

By: K FLYER - Mobile Royale

K FLYER - Mobile Royale — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 09:52:49 +0000

I really like the plugin. When you are working on the site alone, it helps you feel you’re not lonely.

By: Datamafia

Datamafia — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:16:12 +0000

Keep the dolly. Great reference for people learning plug-ins. Although it is hardly a “real” plugin, it does help open up the admin side to users growing in skill.

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:36:30 +0000

More deserving plugins would be better off being bundled with WordPress. Hello Dolly is a novelty and does nothing useful.

Maybe on each WordPress release they could add the current top 5 downloaded or rated plugins to a release. Add a bit of variety to the package.

By: Dan Cole

Dan Cole — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:53 +0000

The arguments for keeping this plugin are quite weak. Developers don’t benefits from this plugin, they benefit from the codex and the plugin repository. This plugin doesn’t help WordPress users improve their site. The only people that benefit from it are people who like “Hello, Dolly!”… The rest of us are stuck deleting it (every upgrade) or ignoring it. People clam it’s easy to delete, so that’s why we should keep it, but you could also argue that it’s easy to install. There are a lot of other plugins that are more deserving to be in core than this one. I don’t think this plugin represents all that WordPress stands for and even if it did, I don’t think that’s a reason to have it as a default plugin. This plugin also wastes a lot of people’s time… I think it would be funny if someone tracked how much time it wasted the WordPress community. I think a reasonable max estimate would be something like 22 years for WordPress 2.8 alone, lol.

I personally don’t like the cultural bias in WordPress, it’s definitely a turn off.

By: Epic Alex

Epic Alex — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:00:51 +0000

To be honest, when I wrote my first plugin, Hello Dolly was the last place I looked. There are so many tutorials that will teach you how to write a far better and more useful plugin than that plugin.

If a plugin is included to help developers, then maybe it should be one that at least ads an options/settings page, and stores some options to the database, then it might be a useful resource.

By: Dgold

Dgold — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:44:07 +0000

Someone professional needs to pretend they are a n00b installing their first WP, and do a total overhaul of the wording that you see on your first install. Hello Dolly is one example, and its description like the previous commenter said. The references to the “famous 5 minute install” is another example. These are legacy jokes left in, probably from Matt in early versions. Should be re-written to provide simple, clear, non-confusing guidance to new people, and be efficient to stay out of the way of experienced users.

By: Chip Bennett

Chip Bennett — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:30:15 +0000

I remember, after my very first-ever install of WordPress, seeing “Hello Dolly” being listed in the plugin list, and being very, very confused. (It didn’t help that the plugin had some incredibly grandiose but terribly uninformative description, as I recall.)

I had no idea what the plugin was, or what it was supposed to do; whether I should activate/deactivate it; whether I could safely delete it.

It is for those reasons – that it serves no useful purpose for a WordPress *user*, is intended specifically for a WordPress (plugin) developer, and is/can be confusing for a new WordPress user – that I support removing it from the default install.

Of course, Jeff, why not advocate a custom *developer* install of WordPress, which could rightfully and meaningfully include Hello Dolly?