One-hundred and counting. All these hours and all the new individuals from one (1) obituary. The bulk of the ancestry is already in my database. It was a matter of connecting “this marriage,” and document “that source.”  Nancy is my sixth cousin.

“Ancestry made me do it.”  (No, it wasn’t the Devil.) I’ve had major problems for several days. There is an enormous change in the way we prepare our blog messages. Another blogger shared a “back door” but WordPress is saying they will close and lock that door. “I don’t want to learn the extremely complicated program!!”  I put that message on the WordPress Forum and there have been more than one-hundred messages from others as disillusioned as I am. Staff—with WordPress—regularly chime-in saying “get used to it.”

To compound my frustration, my “tree”—on Ancestry—refused to respond to my commands. I contacted Ancestry and a supposedly-knowledgable-person exchanged conversation with me (internet “chat”). She looked at my database and said I had “too many duplicates.” I told her the story that they are not duplicates, they are cousins. Then I reached out to a “tech-savvy” cousin and he scrutinized my database (my tree). One problem: “Ancestry doesn’t like commas.”  Today I deleted most of the records that documented the date I reached another one-thousand-individuals in my database. I’ve been able to document an obituary (today) and dozens of “up” and “sideways” family members. I have to “sneak around” to enter the data.

WordPress and Ancestry make me feel like a criminal for “sneaking around.” I’ve paid mega-bucks to belong to those companies!! There is no fee to belong to FaceBook but “they” are part of my communication problem. I thought I unsubscribed from FaceBook years ago but “tech-savvy” cousin found that my Ancestry information is forwarded to Facebook. A second cousin confessed that I had been “hacked” (on Facebook) and he reported it twice (but he didn’t tell me until last night).

Five-thirty on a Sunday evening and I’m still in my pajamas. I’ve been watching and listening to TV-Church while struggling with WordPress, Ancestry, and Facebook. Mental gymnastics!!

Another voice? Would you like to hear what another blogger is saying? This is just one of about fifty messages in response to my message on the WordPress Forum. The title of my message is/was “I don’t want the new editor.”  WordPress foisted the new editor on us and it is “default” so to prepare this message, I had to be a magician. Another blogger (more savvy than “yours truly”) told readers the sixteen steps (more or less) to get to this familiar editor. The word is: This will be buried–and unavailable.

Thanks for your reply but I was being facetious in the midst of my ire at losing the classic editor to this new “thing”, going from the welcome sigh of the familiar layout to what was essentially a confusingly minimalist one.

I should explain that not only am I slightly older than your average blogger but I am also Autistic, meaning I am slow on the uptake and I don’t adapt to change very well, especially when it takes me out of a routine that has become of comfort to me.

Therefore, to see something that is user friendly, handily laid out, easy to navigate and work with, and does everything I want it to without confusing my addled brain disappear, replaced by something empty, confusing, hides everything, makes it harder to do simple things, and has eliminated some of the functions I use that suit my needs, adding more unnecessary time to my posting experience, is like replacing a human care worker with a robot.

No doubt these whizz kids who do all their posting via mobile phone who want less clutter and more flash will be in their element, and more power to them, but for us older desktop PC users, this is not of any use to us. I know there is a concession to use the classic editor functions an basic layout in this new but that is still only part of what makes it so useful for many of us.

Currently, it takes me five minutes to add a new post (I write mine in Word then copy it over) but under this new editor, with having to faff about switching from this to that, trying to find things that were once laid out for me, or fiddle with because the function has changed, I’m looking at maybe two or three times that and for what?

Change is inevitable but in cases like WordPress where the editor is arguably the most vital facet of the entire platform, there are some things that need to be kept simple or at least rooted in the familiar framework, as not everyone can adapt to slick new procedures or fancy new tools with ease, nor do they have the time to
play about with them.

If we have to be redirected to tutorial videos on how to use the new editor then I propose there is a flaw in the plan if the changes are that drastic, it requires a complete overhaul of our understanding of how to make a simple post. Gradual change for a smoother cross over is one thing, this is akin to replacing a Morris Minor with a Ferrari.

The amount of negative responses on these forums and beyond (i.e. social media) to me shows this is an ongoing battle between WP and its users – it’s not the first time the new editor has caused a kerfuffle and I doubt it will be the last, but I do object to the arrogance of WP in not making these changes optional for its users rather than mandatory as not everyone will be so well equipped to handle these changes.

Sorry for the old man rant but I needed to get that off my chest.

….

Postscript @ 11:30 AM: I received a reprimand from WordPress because of one of my responses to a message on the forum.

“Playday” for Lorraine. From some of the messages I’ve read, “Classic Editor” will soon be history, and a magician cannot wave a wand and make it appear. This is a “playday” because “yours truly” searched for descriptive clipart and inserted in a “Classic Editor” message.

“Hello October” but so far it has been chaotic for “yours truly.” (Remember, I’ve tried to refrain from referring to myself as “the old lady.” I don’t like the perpendicular pronoun so [for today, at least] it’s “yours truly.”) My world has been turned upside-down. Thanks to instructions from another blogger, “yours truly” is preparing this message in the way it has been done for eight-plus years. However, “yours truly” left “editing” to check the date of first blog on WordPress (17 Dec 2011) and, upon return, was thrown into the new format. Frequently, “yours truly” declares she loves a challenge (especially on Ancestry.com). Learning a new “editor” is unacceptable!!