Justin Tadlock published a piece yesterday titled, Be thankful WordPress gets updated which got me thinking about the way WordPress is evolving.

The comment that got me thinking was:

I’m usually of the opinion that all advancements are good, even if they’re really bad. What I mean by this is that the software is continually evolving and we’re trying and experimenting with different concepts to push the system.

Justin Tadlock

I’ve never really though of the changes that WordPress goes through as evolution; however, now I think about it, evolution is a perfectly valid description.

What is evolution?

The process of evolution is fairly simple. As each new generation of a species comes about the traits of that species will vary between individuals. Where the variations of some individuals are better placed to react to the environment, those individuals will tend to prosper, while others who are less well suited will be less likely to prosper.

Over time the beneficial variations of those traits will be retained while the unhelpful versions will become uncommon or even be removed completely.

In this way the organism will change to suit the environment, or it will die out because it fails to do so.

How does that apply to WordPress?

Software in general works in this way, but perhaps WordPress more so.

When version 2.7 is released several things will happen. Users will install it and test out the features, developers will take it and begin to create and innovate with it. But the one thing that is virtually certain is that no two sites will be the same.

Each installation will use a different theme, different plugins, and different widgets. In the transition some of these things will be cast aside. Threaded comment plugins may or may not die, themes may be discarded if they don’t support the new features, etc. Others will be picked up and may become the next big thing.

The popularity of each theme, plugin, or widget will have a direct influence on the future development of WordPress itself, with the successful traits being brought into the core, and the unsuccessful being left to die.

That’s not quite the end of the matter though. WordPress has selection pressures beyond simple popularity. WordPress, in the shape of WordPress.com is also a commercial product for Automattic. Features they want or need for commercial reasons are likely to get greater development time and will compete with those features that would normally succeed through popularity alone.

You also need to consider which groups of users are likely to be most vocal, and more importantly, most persuasive. Are the non-technical users most persuasive because they tend not to have a voice, or are the technical minded users that get stuck in most likely to win out because they present solutions, instead of problems?

All these areas are pressures on the features that are ultimately selected.

Reversion

One very important factor of biological evolution that is often misunderstood is that progress isn’t always forwards. Evolution is simply adaptation to the environment, changing to cope with different pressures. That might mean that traits are more beneficial if they revert to previous versions or even reduce the functionality of certain components, both of which have been known to occur in fish.

The point is that WordPress can evolve into better software by reducing the complexity, or even removing entirely, components that are holding it back. There are people calling for this and so you should consider whether their suggestions will improve the product.

You should also remember that evolution is never a permanent change. Evolution will favour components that are in everyday use by more people than not, if you remove a component, or move it to a plugin, it will become part of the core again if it is needed. Consider what happened to draggable boxes between 2.5 and 2.7.

Sum

There are two important points to think about here:

Firstly, the people out there who don’t like the changes should not be dismissed. They may be right in the long term, but overridden by stronger selection pressures in the short term.

Considering their point of view may be the very thing that WordPress needs if it is to successfully adapt in the future.

Secondly, when things happen that you don’t like you need to seriously consider whether WordPress is adapting to the wrong pressures, making it less likely to survive, or whether it is evolving perfectly for its environment but that it is you that is outside WordPress’s chosen environment. If it is the latter then perhaps WordPress isn’t for you any more.

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