I know I said I would never update my old extensions, but I had a request from a user that tugged at my heart. A young man wrote to me pleading for an update to my MonstersGame: Vampires vs Werewolves Menu addon. Apparently his brother is stationed somewhere overseas and has access to the internet; they both play MG and have been keeping in touch that way.
What could I say except, “Ok, just for you two … ” 
Updating the extension proved to be a little more work than I first thought. So much has changed from 2.x to 3. After wrestling with it for the last couple days, I’ve finally got a working version to upload to AMO.
The skinning isn’t working, so that’ll have to wait until the next release. But for now, my addons rest in the capable hands of the AMO reviewers and editors.
Just an FYI for anyone using this plugin…
I have moved my Blank Target Replacement plugin to WordPress.org for better version tracking and visibility — and not to mention auto-updates for those using it. (not that I don’t want my users to come back to my site often, but even *I* have to admit that WP auto plugin update thingy is NICE!)
Version Change
If you are using this plugin, please download and install the latest version (1.0) via the link below at your convenience. All previous versions are also available there (for those of you who aren’t using WP 2.5x).
Proceed with caution; and as always, feedback and bug reports are ALWAYS welcome here!
Download
Link: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/blank-target-replacement/
Via BloggingPro, I was reading Raj Dash’s recent post explaining why he hates WordPress 2.5 with a pretty in-depth list of reasons. I have to admit, many of those he listed I can identify with and offer some sympathy … to a point. While there are still a handful of things that I’d change if I had my way, I feel Automattic worked in their users’ best interests, taking in many requests, most of which I’ve seen with my very own eyes on the forums, and now see reflected in these recent — however dramatic — changes!
Raj began to close his post with the following:
Automattic, you seriously dropped the ball on this. WordPress 2.5 is an enormous disappointment in the simplest of features. As an experienced (but retired) programmer, I can say with confidence that you don’t release significant interface changes in mid-version software. People that are expecting minor fixes might be shocked. V2.5 should have been renumbered to V3.0. If it had, more people might think twice before making a “big jump” from 2.x to 3.0. I’m so glad that I didn’t install WP 2.5 on a production site, but I do have to use it on several client sites - something I don’t relish.
You’ve now lost one of your most active WordPress evangelists…
He’s certainly entitled to his opinion. In the comments, he notes that power users ‘like him’ will hate the new WordPress. What’s more, new users seem to like WP 2.5 — wait, isn’t that a good thing? 
My two pennies on the matter
I certainly can’t speak for anyone else, but I like to consider myself a WordPress “power user” and while it took me a day or so to learn my way around and where everything is in the new layout, I’m finding that I rather like it and now prefer it! On top of that, the dashboard is everything I have wanted for SO LONG! Almost every single one of my most frequently visited options/configurations/things-needing-changing are right there and I don’t have to click 2 or 3 links deep to find what I want. (something that used to piss me off to NO end!)
Isn’t this what progress is supposed to be like?
So what I want to know now is…
What do you think? Is Raj right? Has WordPress screwed the pooch on this one? Or is he over-reacting?
