You may have noticed — if you use their “block editor” — that suddenly, there’s no search box to let you locate a photograph. In their new, “better experience default view,” they think NOT being able to find existing photographs will improve your experience.
That’s like removing the steering wheel on your car so you don’t have that annoying wheel thingy in your way every time you get in your car. Never mind that without a steering wheel, you can’t drive from point A to point B. In your new “better experience” car-minus-a-steering-wheel, you’ll have so much more room. Who needs to go in particular direction when you can just floor it and keep rolling until you crash?
| Vince P. (Automattic)Jan 21, 2022, 18:56 UTCHi there,Thank you for contacting WordPress.com support. You’ve eliminated the search box so now I can’t find any pictures that aren’t from the past two months. I’ve been blogging for 11 years. I’m NOT out of room having used less than a third of the space I PAY FOR. You’ve destroyed the media center. I AM A PHOTOGRAPHER. What is WRONG WITH YOU? Why are you doing this? Is is intended to drive me away because I guarantee you, this WILL drive me away — and many more besides me, too.. Apologies, we hear you! It’s possible to switch back to the old view which also has the search box. Here’s a screencast of how to switch to it:  If the screencast didn’t load, click here: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1hZwIAx6aELDOUAxSiBysMRL3tjIdvqWxFor more information about the new redesign and switching to the old view, please refer to our WP Admin Dashboard guide.Hope this helps. Regards, Vince P. Support Agent | WordPress.com |
This email is a service from Automattic.
And there you have it. They’ve fixed it again. They need to fix this of it will be the end of the road for me. This isn’t merely “different.” It’s incredibly stupid, Did anyone consider that some of their customers (we ARE customers, though you’d never know it) are photographers and artists? That for some of us, pictures and graphics MATTER?
If what they really want is to be a business platform only, why don’t they just say so already? There may not be a lot of blogging platforms, but there are many business platforms and most of them have more experience and offer better tools than WordPress.
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Categories: #Blogging, #Photography, #Writing, Anecdote, Media, WordPress
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
GEEEEZ … too many people with nothing to do down there.
Thanks for the Heads Up.
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I have a Classic Editor plug in and avoid the Block Editor. It’s horrible.
Once in a while I’ll give it a try as I’m sure that eventually they will make my plugin incompatible with the WP platform. A little bit of practice will be helpful for when that day arrives.
Even with the plugin I noticed that the media screen changed and didn’t show all of my photos like it used to.
I’ll have to see if I can change the view back to classic or what ever they call it. How about, useful?
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I have not been able to recall the original version of the media library and I can’t find many of the photographs I KNOW are in there — somewhere. Their NEW BETTER EXPERIENCE media library has no search box. Exactly how do you use a database — which is, after all, what the media library is — without any way of searching it?
They keep changing things because if they stop, they won’t have jobs. I don’t think they have a reason why they are changing things. NO strategy. no long term goal. It has nothing to do with customer satisfaction — obviously They never ask customer what WE want or need. As far as they are concerned, their problem is WE are old-fashioned fuddy-duddies who refuse to use their cool new software. They actually TOLD me that I was too “old-fashioned to use anything new.” Wow, is that terrific customer service, or what?
WordPress’s developers also aren’t sure what I mean when I point out a database without a search engine is trash. I am not sure they know that their “media library” IS a database. They really ARE that stupid.
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I’ve been to a few of the Boston Wordcamps and they are always full of techies and web developers. Very few people like you and I.
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And none of them have ever actually blogged to anyone but other techies. They really don’t GET it. They don’t know good writing from bad and worse, they don’t know good DEVELOPMENT from bad. I had much better teachers than they have had. I was very, very lucky in having had some seriously amazing mentors. They clearly were not all that lucky. They learned how to do stuff, but not why. They learned to write code, but now how to write GOOD code or how to clean up the BAD code — or correct mistakes. Or learn anything. And they think they are VERY hot shit.
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Has anyone found anything remotely more suitable, or are we doomed to stay with WP?
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There is ONE other. It’s called substack.com and I think it’s free and it ISN’T a clone of WordPress. I’ve got one friend who is using it. It doesn’t have the audience of WordPress, BUT it isn’t WordPress which is a big plus in its favor. I was planning to check it out, understanding that I will lose pretty much my entire audience. But honestly, I’ve HAD it. This is such an idiotic move, it’s hard to find a way to excuse it and I’m not sure I want to excuse it.
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I know what you mean, and I don’t understand why they do it…
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marilyn! I cant believe them! They keep messing with things! Its so ridiculous!
I hope you could get back to how it used to be. Dont disappear, I love your blog! Xo
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I may move to a much less popular and mostly unknown platform called “substack.com” where at least one person I know is using it. He just couldn’t deal with WP anymore and I’m not sure I can, either. He has had to completely rebuild his base, but on the other hand, it ISN’T WP and it isn’t a clone of WordPress, either.
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It’ll be sad if you go Marilyn but I understand your reasons
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I am going to have to upgrade to business status soon as my media file is about full. I presently use the old editor.. Is this still possible in Business or will I have to use block?
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You don’t have to upgrade when you run out of room on media. Deleting old images from years ago (usually other peoples) will provide extra room.
And that’s another thing, why do WP insist on saving every darned image?
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If I don’t save them, won’t they vanish off the posts? Don’t want that.
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No, they will remain in the posts. Also, you can upgrade the amount of space you have without upgrading to Business, which you absolutely DON’T need. I’m thinking of changing platforms. I’ve pretty much had enough and yes, I’ll lose almost everyone and have to start over. Even so, that might be better than battling the morons on WordPress.
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I’ve already upgraded my space to the max. Why even have a media file if you don’t need it to post? There has to be some reason it goes to the media file even if you drag the photo to the original post.
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Yes. It makes them more money. Deleting old photos is a problem. You’ve also got a huge blog and whenever I try to delete more than a handful of pictures, it crashes. Just a warning: the business version is IDENTICAL to the “premium” version you are using. It includes business tools you don’t need, but the format issues are the same. I have heard from others how disappointed they were that the were just paying more money for the same thing.
I tried to remove a few of the early years, but they won’t let you. There is essentially no viable way to delete a lot of photographs. They don’t WANT you to delete them because as you fill up your space, they can get more money from you. I make my pictures as small as I can which is how come I have 29,000+ photos, but only used 32% of my space.
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I want it to be just like my present version. I am not interested in anything but printing my photos and writing black on white. I hate the blogs that print on colored backgrounds. I cannot read them. I’m still using the classic editor and like it as it is.
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I don’t think it will last much longer. For reasons I totally do NOT understand, they are herding us to use a style of writing we mostly don’t want. I was having serious problems cutting and pasting and getting anything like readable text. I gave up. I use color in headlines of pop-boxes, but never for just text. I can’t read it either. It’s also why, if I use color (which I do mainly when I don’t have any pictures to include and need something visual), I also use BIG printing. My eyes are permanently strained. They will never recover.
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If it’s not one thing, it’s another. On going saga of WP glitches
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This isn’t a glitch. It’s stupid development by people who haven’t a clue what their customers need and even when it is explained, are too stubborn and bone-headed to just admit maybe it wasn’t a good idea after all. Personally, I’ve pretty much had it.
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Totally agree with you Marilyn. It’s the community that keeps us here.
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This is why I stick with Classic Editor. Image search remains the same. I see you can get there with Block Editor, but only through extra unnecessary steps. Improvements are sometimes a step (or two) backward.
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Unfortunately, you can’t switch back. They won’t let you. I’m really beginning to hate this.
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I have been able to use either one. I go to the list of posts and then at the top where it says Add new I hit the drop down and pick Classic. If I hit add posts on the side panel, I will get Block Editor by default. You can change it back to Classic once you start, but it is a pain in the neck process.
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I can’t use the block editor on my Mac. For some reason, Chrome on my Mac won’t let me use anything BUT the classic — and the only one I can use on the PC is block. So I have to decide between LR (PC) or DR (Mac). I finally do NOT have a computer in the bedroom. Just as well. No temptation to buy something from Amazon in the middle of the night.
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I have a Dell desktop so it might be different because of that. I bought a Chromebook last October I was going to set up and take to France. It is sitting on a desk still waiting for me. Where does the time go?
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My PC is also a Dell. But it’s Alienware, the subspecies designed for games — or graphics. My problem isn’t the computer — it’s WordPress and their bone-headed, dimwitted developers.
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They do like to make “improvements” that are one or two steps backwards.
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And you know what? They don’t know whether they are going forward or backward. They are without a strategy, so changes are just changes.
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It happens at many companies. They make change for the sake of change and do not consider the impact the change has on other processes.
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I do not use the block editor. I still use the old classic editor buy watch in alarm when these sorts of “feature improvements” appear. Great post. Marilyn
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The block editor was okay until they fixed it. NOW nothing works. And they don’t get it. They think it’s just FINE.
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Maybe they’re counting on their new product – Full Site Editing – as the solution?
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You still need a search engine to use a database. Without a search engine, a database is a useless pile of garbage. I am SO PISSED OFF.
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The Classic Block is what I use, so picture access is easy for me. The downside to Classic is that whether I copy and paste text from Word or just type directly onto the soon-to-be post, everything is double-spaced. I do not want to use Block because I’m nervous I will be stuck with it. Yeah, call me chicken…
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I was okay with this until they began to “fix it” again. They just can’t leave well enough alone. They have to keep fixing it until it stops working.
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I had a lot of spacing issues with the “classic” editor. it double-spaced, or it made the post really super narrow and essentially unreadable. I gave in because I needed to be able to copy and paste and still end up with a readable post. I use classic for simple edits, but I can’t copy and paste anything . When I try, It throws a nutty and I wind up completely redoing it.
What is more, I was warned BY WordPress to NOT convert a classic format to blocks because mostly, it doesn’t work. Swell!
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Well, there goes any hope I had of trying blocks to avoid the double-spacing. Thanks for the info, though, Marilyn.
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This comment was denied, so let’s try it again:
I just made a post and wanted to simply paste in a url, and it leaped and freaked so badly that I had to nuke that draft and type it in myself. WP is so jerkily unusable that I have shopped around for different sites but have not found anything that I want to follow up on but will someday. Boo! Good luck to all–
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Yes, it did that to me last night. I had to dump TWO separate attempts because it went wacko. And it’s just getting worse. I’m beginning to wonder if this is really worth the effort. They are so STUPID over there. They told me they couldn’t see any reason why NOT having a search box would be a problem. I actually asked if he was really that stupid because any time you are using a database, it’s unusable WITHOUT a search function. They can’t REALLY be that stupid — can they?
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Software developers can be a myopic, and stupid, variation on humanity. If they took a closer look at their customer base, better still the actual needs of those customers, they might learn a thing or two and provide a better product. Contrarily, they seem to dwell, maybe prosper, on frustration, and the stress levels of same…, all we can say is WHY??. For example; recently, every time I want to add comment on your blog I have to do a login. In the past my info was stored for, what I thought was permanent, and what, I thought, was just a simple click on how I was answering. WTF?
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Oh, that login to comment thing is a real PITA, isn’t it? After about a week (a very long week), it stopped, as quickly as it began. The HEs were less than helpful, so I just let it go and eventually it cleared itself. Not even gonna ask why/how it happened in the first place.
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My “Login” BS is still going on. hopefully it, too, will go away ARRRRGH!!
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Ugh. So sorry.
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I have had that happen too from time to time. I don’t understand why. I also can’t “like” comments unless I am in the Reader and not even then if the writer has multiple posts.
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I couldn’t even use a paragraph format last night. It was a total MESS. I don’t know what they are doing and it’s clear that THEY don’t know either. Argh!!
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One of the reasons I upgraded was to fit more of my own photos!
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Yeah, well, good luck with that. That was one of MY original reasons too. No search box? Really? Seriously?
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Thanks for sharing!
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I’m at a complete loss on this one. How can NOT having a search box be a “better experience”? For anyone?
This is going to get ugly. I can feel it.
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The search box was there when I used it yesterday but searching for pictures is harder than it used to be and sometimes, I feel that not all are being displayed. At one time I could also search by date. For example, if I wanted pictures from our New Zealand cruise I could search for photos from March and April of 2016 and know most of them would be there. Now the only way to do that is to scroll. Luckily, I do tag photos but it is becoming unnecessarily hard to use the photo archive.
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Be careful because if you use their “default” version, there IS no search box. I didn’t do anything. Their “default” format sort of popped in out of the blue and I just lost it. Their whole media library totally sucks.
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I normally don’t use the default setting to write posts I use one of the workarounds. Even with that it is not as easy as it used to be. As I pay for extra storage space I’ll be very annoyed if I lose access to my older photos.
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