WP Changes – an Appeal to Reason.
To help move things forward in seeking remedy, below is my recent response to Matt Mullenweg’ s comment on About WordPress Changes and What We Can Do .
“Present feedback has been mostly complaint or attempts to tweak the new UI to meet desktop needs. This is surely not helpful to the new [Mobile] enterprise.
Conversely, relieving users of their concerns would certainly result in feedback that will help the new UI rather than compromise its purpose. Co-operation between us and the restoration of a community spirit, being a lot more productive than a conflict that nobody wants.”
and continues:-
“One of the issues that has caused a lot of consternation has been assertions, by staff on the forums, that the old stats pages will be “phased out”.
I think it has been fairly assumed by some, from your statement “I can say that the wp-admin interface will also be there for you or anyone else who navigates to it directly or bookmarks it”, that this includes the continued existence of the old stats pages which are part of that interface.
Perhaps it has been a been a simple glitch in communications that has caused a large part of the consternation . Such things do happen even in the best of organisations. A simple confirmation would, I’m sure, restore a more amicable, co-operative and productive approach.”
At this stage, I think it is in the best interests of WP users if I allow time for reason to prevail. But, I will be back on this in 4/5 days.
Addition: The response from CEO M. Mullenweg being unsatisfactory, there will be more activity on Sunday 8th February 2014.
Freed From Time 
Hi Graham,
Maybe I can provide some insight into why there have been so many changes at WordPress.com lately. The WordPress Dashboard – what we call WP Admin – hasn’t changed for years and years and it has some shortcomings. For instance, customisation isn’t that great. If you want to move elements around the page then you need to delve into CSS code which is tricky for many WordPress.com users and not very user-friendly. We want to improve this aspect of WordPress.com without being limited by old technology and so about a year ago the new Dashboard area began to take shape. It’s still a work in progress and there are more changes yet to come and many of these will be in response to the feedback we get from users like you. It might seem like we’re purposefully trying to drive everyone nuts but we’re really not 🙂 We just want to build a world-class platform for bloggers and website creators.
You can still access WP Admin and all the features of the old Dashboard directly from the homepage of your site. Click on My Sites at the top left and choose “WP Admin” from the menu. This area is not going to disappear so feel free to continue using it for as long as you like. However if you do decide to give the new Dashboard a try, it would be great to have your feedback. If there’s something specific that you don’t like about it I’d be happy to pass it on, so feel free to let me know. But be specific; feedback like “I don’t like it”, isn’t very helpful.
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February 2, 2015 at 19:15
To move elements on the Dashboard/WP-Admin just pick up and move with your mouse.
Nobody wants to go via the “Home” page to get to the full facilities on the Dashboard.
It was launched too soon and, whilst staff my have known what was going on, the rest of us were left in confusion and the sense of being coerced by the removal of navigation links.
I don’t wish to say any more just yet and risk spoiling the opportunity for reason to prevail.
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February 2, 2015 at 19:30
Graham said:
This isn’t really what I meant. There are some pretty cool things in store for WordPress.com which will be unraveled over the course of the year and beyond. People are completely free not to use the new tools, as WP Admin will still be available, but I definitely recommend checking them out from time to time.
I agree that we could have done a better job of communicating the changes to our users and also with testing before releasing new features. We’re working on improving these things.
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February 2, 2015 at 20:38
I have of course checked them out. But, reserve further comment. As “completely free not to use the new tools”, that is only so long as they are willing to put up with the removal of navigational links. That’s not free that’s penalised.
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February 2, 2015 at 20:44
Which links in particular are you missing? I’ve always accessed WP Admin from the home page of my site.
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February 2, 2015 at 20:52
1/ On the Dashboard/WP-Admin page, the black drop down menu beneath one’s Gravatar, once included links to one’s other sites and and had a pop out menu offering four destinations on each blog.
2/ The Reader once had a white drop down menu which included a link back to one’s Dashboard, Without it one is trapped and must return via the new UI.
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February 2, 2015 at 20:58
If you click on My Sites in the black menubar at the top left and choose “Switch Site”, your full list of sites is visible there including links to WP Admin for each of them.
For the Reader, you’d have to go to My Sites (top left again) > WP Admin which is probably an extra step to what you had before. Sorry about that! The Reader is part of the new system so it would be difficult to separate it from this part. However the links to WP Admin should at least be consistent in both menus under My Sites now. So if you go to My Sites from the black menubar on your home page, you can see your full list of sites and links to WP Admin. The same is also true if you click on My Sites in the Reader: you should see your full list of sites with links to WP Admin there also.
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February 2, 2015 at 22:04
Thank you for that. Unfortunately, I don’t think many people know this (communications ?). On first trying this, sometime ago, it didn’t have all these links.
I’m sure people will be pleased and it will no longer be necessary for people to use bookmarks. (Funny that Matt Mullenweg said to go on using Bookmarks, when the answer must have been there for a while ?)
It’s a pity because they could have told us this on forums
However back on this topic. The Stats links on the left go to the new UI. People remain concerned about the loss of the old Stats Page. If we can get a confirmation that it will remain, then hiatus over. Then, I’m sure that there will be some glad to focus on refining the new UI
Thanks again
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February 2, 2015 at 23:15
Correction hiatus not quite over until somebody does something about the Notifications. I don’t think think it would difficult to restore the originals on the Dashboard/Wp – Admin page and refine the new ones for the new UI.
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February 2, 2015 at 23:20
Yes, I did get your notifications but I went to bed so I didn’t get them until this morning 🙂
I agree that communication could be much better. I’d personally like to see more warning given to users of the bigger changes and also some announcements when we make changes in response to feedback. For instance, many people were upset about the removal of the link to the old stats so they’ve put it back. If you go to the new stats page and scroll down to the bottom there’s a link to the old stats there. As far as I’m aware the old stats page is not going to be taken away so you can continue going to https://wordpress.com/my-stats/ for as long as you like.
The changes to notifications also generated lots of feedback and so this is currently being discussed and changes will be made in response to it although not even I know what the changes will be. The biggest complaint I’ve had is that it’s no longer easy to tell which comments you’ve liked and replied to already which is a pain, I agree. Comments are important to bloggers so I’m pretty sure they’ll fix this.
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February 3, 2015 at 08:20
I’ve just realised. The latter replies to you, have gone beyond the thread level in settings. So you might not have recieived a notification. It happens.
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February 3, 2015 at 03:55
OK Thanks for your comment of Tues morn. Two things.
1/ Staff on the forums said that old stats page would be phased out. If that’s the old, old stats then it’s not so provocative, but if it’s my-stats that’s different. Confirming that my-stats will remain will cool thing down a great deal. What would be left would only be a few tweaks.
2/ Another person has had there comments turn off. It’s a comment by Yvonne at PetsPeoplenLife and can be found at the end of:-
https://freedfromtime.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/wordpress-navigation-links-improved/
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February 3, 2015 at 08:33
Thanks, Graham. I’ve just replied to Yvonne so hopefully we can fix the problem she’s having.
Regarding the old stats, do you mean this page – https://wordpress.com/my-stats? As far as I’m aware there are no plans to phase this out. Obviously in ten years it probably won’t be there but the new stats probably won’t be around in ten years either as this is a long time in the technology industry and things never stay the same for that long. But for now they are staying and people are free to continue using them. However they’re no longer going to be updated and improved upon so as new features get added to the new stats page you might find the old stats start to lose some of their appeal.
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February 3, 2015 at 08:47
Because of the statements made on the forum, the continuation of wordpress.com/my-stats needs a more definite confirmation before anybody will be satisfied. See what you can do. If you can get it guaranteed for the foreseeable future then you will be everybody’s hero.
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February 3, 2015 at 08:52
Stats aren’t part of the original wp-admin dashboard so we can’t promise that old interfaces will continue to be around, at some point they’ll be retired and point to the latest stats interface.
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February 4, 2015 at 17:08
I wonder what the WP dashboard and reader will look like in another year… (insert shocked face at the thought).. (insert hopeful face at the prospect)… (insert owl because heck why not)… 🙂
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July 2, 2017 at 23:48
Insert pencil in Matt Maularug’s nostril. Well, it cheers me up. 😀
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July 3, 2017 at 01:32