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SlickRemix Responds to the AWP Gutenberg Interview with Joost

Slickremix responds to AWP Gutenberg Interview Series with Joost de Valk

EDITOR’S NOTE: We’re asking AWP Members to write formal responses to each interview of this series. See here for the full series list. The interview is embedded here first, then see the response below.

The Interview

The Response

Recently, Advanced WordPress members got the opportunity to listen to Matt Cromwell of GiveWP interview the founder of Yoast.com, Joost de Valk. The interview is part of an AMA style series which is focused on Gutenberg, the future editor for WordPress. There is so much to learn from these two as they are closely knit into the WordPress community. We at Slickremix agree with Joost’s positivity towards the Gutenberg editor. The interview has helped the SlickRemix team set into motion the development of Gutenberg blocks for two of our existing plugins Feed Them Social and Feed Them Gallery.

At the beginning of the interview, Joost says that he feels positive about Gutenberg’s progress so far. On that account, we feel that we fall right in line with his thoughts. We personally believe Gutenberg is going to be bringing a more modernized editor experience to WordPress’s core. We think that WordPress’s current editor has begun fall behind other platforms’ simplicity and style. Gutenberg will clean the editor experience up while still leaving developers the ability to customize it as needed. As a community, this will give us a leading edge on other proprietary platforms who are trying to achieve the same experience but don’t allow a community to contribute to it.

Interestingly, Joost and Matt discuss some of the issues that may arise with the implementation of Gutenberg into the core. The WordPress community seems somewhat divided about this. We completely agree with Joost’s statement:

“The WordPress community needs to start looking outside of it’s own bubble and look at other people building cool things”.

We think to move forward we are going to have to adapt if we want to push WordPress to new heights as a platform. If we never try to progress things such as the Editor, WordPress may fall to the way side of others.

Another great topic Joost and Matt spoke about was how React.js is getting added into WordPress’s core. This changed our view to hear about how the stability, and how much of a modernized interface React.js is. There may be a steeper learning curve for new plugin and theme developers but we believe that with the right documentation and learning tools the community will come together to get through it.

In conclusion and along with the overall feeling of the interview, we at Slickremix are positive about the future that Gutenberg will bring to the WordPress community and its users. As Joost stated,

“I think the community at large is ready for this”.

There may be some things that still need to be worked out in Gutenberg but if the WordPress community can come together and contribute even a small amount of time to Gutenberg it will take WordPress to a whole new level not thought possible.

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