Crash test dummy blog for Gutenberg.

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crashtestdummy

I don’t learn well by following instructions or watching someone else do something.  I’m one of those people who has to actually try a new thing myself before it sinks into my brain.  That’s just the way I roll and it always has been.   That’s not likely to change at my age.

I hate Gutenberg.  I hate the idea of having to use it.  I feel like it’s a terrible editor for actual writers and is going to interfere with the entire writing process, even if I should ever master it.   The writing process is holistic (at least for me it is), and Gutenberg is anything but holistic.   It’s like building a freaking Lego building.  Blocks are fine, even fun — but they’re not friends to writers.

legoblocks

The Lego block version of the sort of post I might write using Gutenberg “blocks.”  

So I decided to start a dummy blog.  Yes, a crash test dummy blog just to practice Gutenberg and see what I really think of it.   Hey, it can’t hurt.  A dummy blog cost me nothing, and I can practice using the dreaded new editor without totally fucking up my current blog.

You can’t see my dummy blog.  It’s set to private.  It doesn’t even have a proper name.  I called it “My Dummy Blog.”  How creative is that?  I wrote one blog post so far using Gutenberg. The post I wrote is sheer nonsense, word salad really, and you wouldn’t want to read it.   I still hate Gutenberg.  But at least I got sort of an idea about the feel of using the thing.  Do I think I could actually master it?  Yes, eventually.  But I can already tell it’s astronomically unlikely I’ll ever like using it, and as a result, I won’t be motivated to blog.    I’ll keep practicing and see if that ever changes but I doubt it.

If you’re curious about trying Gutenberg but are like me and afraid to try it on your real blog because it might wind up FUBAR,  start a dummy blog like I did, and just play around with it.  If you completely make a mess of things, it won’t matter.

 

14 thoughts on “Crash test dummy blog for Gutenberg.”

  1. I accidentally turned on Gutenberg on my blog and I hated it. Apparently it’s not made for writing directly and then formatting. It’s better to write somewhere else and then paste it. Luckily I managed to revert to classic editor. I hope WordPress will give us the choice in the future.

    Liked by 2 people

    • I’ve heard others say the same. They just copy and paste from a Word document into a block.
      I’m sticking with Classic Editor for as long as I possibly can. I hope they don’t retire it after 3 years.

      Liked by 1 person

    • We have three years. Even when they roll it out here at WP.com, you’ll be able to switch to Classic Editor, until 2022 (when they plan to retire it). I really hope they change their mind about that, as I’m sure a lot of WP users will be defecting if that happens. They really need to listen to their users, but they seem to be wanting to become more of a developers’ and page builder’s CMS rather than one that caters to writers.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Since mine is self-hosted, I copied my site onto my computer (“locally hosted”) and used that to test out Gutenberg. Some of it was okay, and they fixed some issues I was concerned about. But then I discovered I couldn’t color two words in a paragraph differently than the rest of the words. Somebody brought this up to an admin, who said that you “shouldn’t” do that. Well, who is he to say what a blogger shouldn’t do?

    I also just got a comment deleted. The same admin was being nasty to a website professional who complained about Gutenberg, so several of us came in to object–and he deleted the posts. Typical.

    Liked by 2 people

    • When I was reading the comments complaining about Gutenberg a week or two ago, a huge portion of them addressed the inability to color individual words within a block, and seemed to be a major problem for many people. Obviously, it;s something they need to fix. Even if they fix everything though, it’s just not intuitive and I don’t think the clunky, block oriented way it operates jibes well with the way most writers think.

      Liked by 1 person

    • Hmm, sounds like LuckyOtter’s test blog is not the real “dummy” in this situation. It’s phenomenally stupid behavior by the admins. If they keep acting like that, some people will leave for other platforms just because they don’t like having their concerns brushed off like that, quite aside from the problems with Gutenberg itself.

      It’s really weird that they’re doing this. It sounds like some big shot’s pet idea that he can’t admit was a mistake.

      Liked by 2 people

        • Well, a corporation is definitionally an oligarchy, not a democracy, but the smartest ones realize that they need popular support.

          Only user-supported platforms like AO3 or Pillowfort can approximate democracies, because it’s only those who are paying for the platform that have a voice.

          Not sure how WordPress generates revenue — ads? But I’ve seen cases in the corporate world of fads and bosses’ pet ideas being pushed and pushed even when they were hurting the bottom line. This Gutenberg thing and the way the admins are reacting to complaints definitely feels like that.

          Liked by 1 person

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