Ideas

Implemented: Revamp the default blogroll

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  1. notthatugly
    Member

    In the light of the recent furore about sponsored themes, it may be worth considering whether the default blogroll links to selected developers have had their day.

    Yes, it was a nice way of rewarding people for their contributions back when there was no other way of rewarding them (other than user donations, which as we all know are a rare thing indeed) but the project has changed a lot in the past couple of years. Some of the individuals on that list are now fortunate enough to be able to make a living out of WordPress. Others stopped actively participating some time ago. There have been various other people who have made substantial contributions to WordPress in the meantime, yet are not honoured by the inclusion of a link to their personal blog in the default install.

    The developer links reinforce the impression that WordPress is the work of an elite inner circle, rather than the combined product of the hundreds of people who have coded plugins, reported bugs, contributed patches, provided support, written documentation and designed themes over the years. I also find them ever so slightly reminiscent of the way every new MySpace user gets assigned Tom as a friend. ;)

    I propose that these personal links be replaced by links to community resources such as the development blog, the codex, the plugin repository, the support forums and the theme repository. If credit for the developers is desired, then a link to the Copyright Holders page on codex would be a fairer way of acknowledging them.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  2. sunburntkamel
    Member

    if widgets do indeed make it into 2.2, perhaps there could be a 'credits' widget, that purely holds the honored developers (perhaps updated for present committers and maintainers?)

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  3. andiz
    Member

    As I wrote in an upcoming post:

    - Replace the default links of the Blogroll with useful links (codex etc) , or leave it empty.

    The added value of linking to some 'random' blogs is zero. Instead remove all the links or link to useful links.

    You've got a valid point here.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  4. Root
    Member

    +1 on this.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  5. ceejayoz
    Member

    I like andiz's suggestion of more useful links like the Codex, Theme Viewer, etc.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  6. notthatugly
    Member

    Matt was good enough to send along a link to where he shot this idea down last month.

    No explanation, but the guy has a PR of 8 on the strength of those links so I guess we don't really need one ;)

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  7. clazh
    Member

    +1 on this, none of the other Popular Opensource Products like Drupal, Joomla etc do this. Linking to the Developers site is blatant self promotion. The Dashboard is another example of free traffic being sent to them.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  8. spencerp
    Member

    +1 from me. (Not like my vote and opinion matters, but I'll post it anyway. LOL!)

    I'm not taking any side(s) here, but I can agree with andiz's suggestion. IMHO, I think it would be far more useful to everyone (globally) to have links to the Codex and other useful information sites, rather then the Dev blogs and so forth.

    No offense to those listed on the blogroll by default, but, most of those folks are already in the Dashboard. If anyone really wants to read their material, they know where to find it or how to get to it. Actually, a link to Podz's guides, the Codex, the Theme viewer, the plugin section of the Codex, and other more important sites should be there.

    However! There already is links to the support forums, codex, and the like, built into the wp-admin pages... Either way though, it's getting tiresome seeing the same old set of links in the sidebar after installation is complete!

    /Me thinks, time for a change!

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  9. markjaquith
    Moderator

    +1 for directing people to WP resources rather than the private blogs of a selection of current (and past) contributors.

    There is some concern that some of the contributors might feel slighted, so those waters should probably be felt out with care.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  10. spencerp
    Member

    Okay, I'm back with another suggestion. While keeping the contributors in mind here, why not just make a little section in the Dashboard dedicated to the contributors?

    And then replace the default Blogroll with "WP Resources", and then have links to useful/helpful sites? Because after one gets through an installation, their next thoughts are usually: "Finally, the install is done! Now I need to find a theme!" Or, "Finally, the install is done! But this Default theme is going to need adjusted! What do I need to do, to edit it?!"...

    And having Resource links right there, smack dab on the index page (after install) is going to help tremendously! Rather then them seeing (no offense of course) Dev/contributor blogs that don't even point to anything "useful".

    Also, please don't forget! There is of course this page here: http://wordpress.org/about/ besides the Dashboard itself that holds a good number of reads from those already in the default Blogroll.

    It's not like the Devs/Contributors are not getting the PR "love". Again, like I said above here, if you really want to have a little section for Dev/contributor credits, make a little section in the Dashboard! Okay, I think that's about it for now... :) ;)

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  11. notthatugly
    Member

    There is some concern that some of the contributors might feel slighted, so those waters should probably be felt out with care.

    True, but I'm sure that they're all more than aware that WP is GPL software and doesn't have to link to any of them. Besides which, there are enough residual links around that the PR drop shouldn't be too precipitate. I do understand that some might experience a drop in income if they lost pagerank (I know Alex King sells ads on his site, I'm not sure about the others), but it might be possible to set up some kind of donation fund to recompense them, if they really felt it necessary.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  12. FolioVision
    Member

    Useful links. Much better idea.

    A link in the blogroll to a full credits page is in order.

    That way later contributors will get recognition as well.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  13. sweetdeal
    Member

    Sad fact: most people, when they figure out how, delete those links anyway. In most instances, those links are not relevant to the site where WP is installed.

    I'm with everyone else who said it would be more worthwhile to provide a link to the helpful WP resources (for the novice user) and, if so inclined, a link to the about page of WP where the list of contributors can be actively maintained.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  14. sunburntkamel
    Member

    you'd have to think the default blogroll was more trouble to the developers than it was worth, anyway:

    http://alexking.org/blog/2007/04/25/actions-of-morons

    http://alexking.org/blog/2006/12/17/dear-yahoo-answers-visitors

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  15. ozh
    Member

    blogroll might have had their use a few years ago. I +1 the idea of putting more worthy links in the dashboard.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  16. drmike
    Member

    +1 but we all know that even though Matt says he listens to developers and volunteers, we all know that that isn't true.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  17. matt
    Key Master

    Implemented in 2.3.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  18. notthatugly
    Member

    Replaced with footer links to Matt's personal blog on wordpress.org and wordpress.com, thus slimming the 'elite inner circle' to a population of one :)

    Posted: 1 year ago #

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