Since I’ve been diving deep into the WordPress depths for about a year now, I’ve been considering how things are going and if it’s still the match for me. There’s quite a few issues and bumps in the WordPress experience that need to be designed better for what I’m doing. Some of them are:

• Better Gutenberg editor with at least some resemblance of modern design and development practices such as
  • True components. I’m talking variants and many more editable overrides. Right now there’s no variants (as far as I know) and overrides are painfully basic. They’re only available for a couple things. The “patterns” are meant to be like components, but they don’t work very well in my opinion.
  • Easier to customize themes that don’t require a separate plugin or difficult workarounds. I’d like to be able to create a theme much more easily and without a plugin. It’s also frustrating that I accidentally saved my theme and now I have templates and things that are locked in and I can’t do anything about them unless I start coding (which I’m not going to do). It needs to be visual and simple.
• I really want to be able to integrate with the Fediverse so that I can use my digital identity to connect across the web. It’s decent, but I can’t do basic things like interact with others content or manage my own content with an interface that’s better suited to the concept of the Social Web.
  • I don’t want to worry about using a Mastodon account for micro-blogging and a Pixelfed account for sharing photos, and another for something else.
  • I want to have a central place that’s branded and designed by me but connected to the broader ecosystem. Like maybe all my photos still show up on Pixelfed so that people who prefer using separate apps for content can find that, but it’s all coming from my account and main feed.

Is it possible? I’m not sure at this point, but I really hope I can figure it out and that I can connect with other people who are interested in the same thing.

I’m frustrated that we seem to be stuck with so many archaic digital solutions and that we’re not evolving and innovating more quickly with all the resources and energy being put into technology. Unfortunately those resources, imo, are being invested into much less impactful areas. I think they would be better used on creating a more solid foundation for digital experiences that improves digital identities and all the connected systems to work together more seamlessly and openly. A space like the Fediverse, but much more refined, polished, and personalizable for all things digital/tech and for all people.

Wouldn’t that be cool? I feel like we could totally do it! Maybe I’m simplifying too much. I don’t know, but it sounds like a great system to work towards and all great things are built on solid systems and foundations. It’s painfully obvious that the current foundation we built for tech is pretty flimsy and fractured and we desperately need a new one.

I don’t know where to get involved with conversations like this, and I’m also nervous that I’l have to sign up for yet another account or special app for coordinating with people who are talking about these things. Which I would be willing to do in the short term to help build this, but it’s so weird to me that everything is so fragmented and disjointed and that to build a better system we have to use (and in a way support) that broken system first.

Anyway, here’s hoping I can figure this out! 🥂