I was reading Wordfence’s Mark Maunder’s post about Thursday’s pending release of WordPress 5.0 (often referred to as Gutenberg) and thought it was really on point for the ecosystem at large, and particularly for organizations who have had their web sites built in WordPress but that’s about all they know about the software environment:
Once Gutenberg and WordPress 5.0 have stabilized, they will provide long term benefits to WordPress users and the community. But in the short term, this change may introduce challenges for some WordPress site owners.
Go read it, it is worth the few minutes it will take.
There is no rush to get to WordPress 5.0, and we’re not going to rush to it. We’re going to use December to get there. We’re going to keep the Classic Editor within client sites for the time being until there is a reason to change for our clients. Gutenberg offers some advantages now and will offer so much more later as the plugin and theme markets begin to really roll with it, but with that will come challenges. Sites will need reconsidered, restructured, redesigned. People will need to be retrained with the new tools that will be available tomorrow and those that will be available next year and the following year and so on.
There will be learning curves for all of us. There are going to be some mistakes made, some conflicts that will need resolved, and some understanding that this change isn’t likely to be as smooth as any other WordPress upgrade you’ve seen before. But we’ll all get through it together with a more flexible and dynamic online publishing tool in the long run.
So… for our clients, you are our priority and we will move forward with your site’s WordPress version, editor version, and site reconnaissance as it makes sense for you, but with the recommendations from our experience that you expect. We’ll be deliberate with your work.
For prospective clients, you will benefit from that experience. But realize that if, for some reason, your web site is hobbled from the upgrade, it may take a while for any web site company to schedule your site’s short term fixes and long-term design benefits. There are going to be people surprised by WordPress 5.0. Some will find easy solutions. Some will likely have to be more patient. Sometimes that is the way it has to work in this web ecosystem.
If so, realize you are not alone, and that any problem is temporary in the big scope of things. And it might help to bookmark Maunder’s article.