Why has this plugin been irresponsibly abandoned???

[victorkane]

This plugin was touted by many tutorials as a glimpse into the future of DX experience with the WP editor, as the only way of creating a workflow on the basis of an "everything in code" approach which makes possible a single source of truth (instead of some in the DB and some in code). It had its problems every now and then, but always came out with regular updates and grew steadily in functionality.

Now it is dying, hasn't been tested with current stable version of WP for some time (says the WP Admin).

I feel this is irresponsible, and a new stumbling block for those of us trying to embrace WP as the powerful democratizing platform WP dot org has been made out to be.

Or is WP dot org just a wonky test tube for WP dot com?

Disgraceful, I call it.

[jeffikus]

Hi @victorkane - thanks for starting a discussion about this.

Work hasn't stopped on the plugin, but it has slowed down while a lot of us have been working on implementing the font management feature into WordPress core for the 6.4 release.

About the "tested up to" question, we did update the plugin code here in Github but haven't released a new version yet with that commit. There's been a few other commits since then that we do need to release, so thanks for calling that out. We'll get that rectified soon!

Are there any specific things in the plugin you are referring to other than the "tested up to"

[victorkane]

@jeffikus Thank you for answering me so promptly. The question is that this is a very very delicate plugin, it's not just "another feature" since it can only be used in the context of great trust (i.e. for fear of losing one's work, etc.). The main question is, will this plugin be abandoned, because if so, a lot of us using it will have wasted considerable energy in having adopted it as a given as part of our daily workflow. For example, I have no idea if it is safe to use at this point, nor do I have any idea of when it will be safe to use. This plugin has the possibility of being a historical system of support for DX in using the WordPress editor. Thank you.

[jeffikus]

@victorkane can you help us understand where in your current workflow the plugin is currently failing?

[victorkane]

@jeffikus As I am trying to explain, the issue #456 is not a question of a slight fail here or there, or of losing an hour of interactive work I am trying to serialize into code so that it can be re-used, shared, etc (which has happened but that is not the point, since problems like that were always quickly solved with this plugin). If you are trying to say that unless I have a concrete operating issue I shoud STFU, I disagree. The issue is that I installed this plugin in a recent new project, only to see that it has not been tested with 6.3 (official warning). So as a responsible developer I cannot depend or trust this plugin when my current workflow (everything in code) depends upon it. The issue is: will care be taken with this plugin so that it is always trustworthy, since adoption was promoted community-wide? There used to be a new release every week, now two months had passed and none, so the issue is are we playing around here in a playpen or is the plugin going to be abandoned? (Abandoned means no release for two months despite major WordPress release). So the fail is a question of confidence in use, a question of whether or not I have to change my whole workflow?

[jeffikus]

Hi @victorkane,

I want to address the "not tested with 6.3" comment, that is definitely something that needs to be addressed as I mentioned previously. Thank you for reporting this, we need and appreciate this kind of feedback from you!

Regarding your main question "The issue is: will care be taken with this plugin so that it is always trustworthy, since adoption was promoted community-wide?" - the answer to that is that it is a community plugin where anyone can contribute. That's what makes the WordPress community so great. It's important to remember the intention of this plugin, "After being tested in this plugin, some of the features included here may be moved into the Site Editor itself." - that's what happened recently where most of the contributors to the plugin were working on contributing the Font Management feature into Gutenberg and Core. To answer your question though, yes care will be taken.

Lastly, we would never silence community members as long as they engage in a constructive way and adhere to the WP code of conduct. Using offensive language like STFU is not acceptable, so for future communication, I would ask you to please adhere to the WP code of conduct.

[jeffikus]

"Tested up to 6.3" as well as new features released, has been resolved in the latest release here https://github.com/WordPress/create-block-theme/releases/tag/v1.13.3 Marking as resolved.