WordPress in 2025
WordPress is much more complicated than it was when I last used it. I'm afraid that's not a compliment. There are many, many of preferences, which is a pet peeve of mine, especially when sensible defaults would have sufficed. It really seems like WordPress is trying to be everything for everyone. That's unsurprising given how many people use it as a general-purpose content management system, but I wouldn't recommend using it that way. Drupal is a better CMS, with more power and greater flexibility.
Even still, some features that WordPress provides are nice, like search, the “Related posts” that can appear below blog posts, and the ability to rename tags globally. Search is something I would really like, mainly because it would help me find my own posts. (Using Kagi or Google with my blog's domain as a site: filter also works, but the results aren't as helpful and they lag by a bit.) Related posts and global tag renaming are nice features, but they're not essential. I would probably use them, but their absence is not a deal breaker.
Playing around with WordPress just now has made me even more appreciative of WriteFreely, the platform that powers this blog. WriteFreely is elegant. Yes, it's missing some features I would find useful, like the things mentioned above. It's also true that the internal menu navigation often confuses me, and I wish development were more active. Nevertheless, compared to the behemoth of WordPress, with its endless options, overwhelming editing UI, and slow page loads, WriteFreely is a breath of fresh air. I always admire when a product focuses on the few things that really matter, and WriteFreely does: a simple editing experience, sensible defaults, and a beautiful design, including beautiful typography. I hope WriteFreely continues to be successful.