Project Gutenberg is the code name for a redesign of the WordPress post editor. It’s an ambitious change set to ship next month in WordPress 5.0. Taking inspiration from Medium and appealing to web authors who use WordPress more like a CMS than a blog, Gutenberg features a block-based design for visually laying out the text and elements of a web page.
As I test Gutenberg, I keep coming back to one question: is it good for blogging? The goal with Micro.blog is to make blogging easier so that more people will have their own site instead of delegating their web identity to a social network. Gutenberg is more flexible than today’s WordPress, but it’s also more complex for someone who just wants to type in a few sentences and hit publish.
I’ve been talking about this with Daniel on our podcast Core Intuition. Many WordPress users will love Gutenberg, but there will be a significant number who just want a simple posting interface for blogging. This is where a traditional native blogging app like MarsEdit or the focused UI around microblogging seem like much better fits.
Put another way, as WordPress matures I think it moves further away from the ideal blogging interface for someone who wants to write every day. Even as we add features to Micro.blog — domain names, themes, full-length posts, photos, podcasting — the core platform will always be rooted in the simple idea of a text box and a timeline.
