this seems to be the best place to start it out at http://www.fossfactory.org/ plus we’d need a person or team to manage it.

Yeah, that too. I have made this for my GD bbPress Attachments plugin, so that when reply or topic are deleted, attachments are deleted too. I added options to control it, but this is something that can be part of the core.

One very logical feature missing in core is auto delete of attachments. Since at the moment you can’t attach an image to 2 posts at once, they are still kept in the Media Library even if you delete the post. I just came up with a small plugin on WPORG last week that does it by default but I see no reasonable explanation on this.

Thanks for the comments Mario. Media Library structure must be flexible, allowing user set folder for images. And anything dealing with data must be in the core. Plugins for relationships and indexing exist, but that needs to be in the core because other plugins need to rely on that. I understand that WP core developers find it easier to wok on some visual elements that take less time, but there are many big features WP core needs and that plugin authors and users want to see in the core.

What is to be added in a media library, except for the multiple attachments? I can’t think of many options that could be extra added, not to mention some basic image manipulation functions that are already in the media edit section.

For the search part, the best I’ve found so far is http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/relevanssi/ . It needs some manual indexing, but at least it’s heard of the term ‘custom field’

Just FYI, the latest Types versions have some Post Relationship mechanism – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/types/ – it’s 1:M for now, but looks much better than having no options for this at all. However the lack of any metadata for taxonomies (like image and other custom fields) is something that I can’t understand at all.

I’m CRAZY about this idea!

We as a community need to take a further step and move from want lists – which are great – to how are we actually going to support someone coding this and getting it into core. It’s not that core developers are averse to any of this, it’s more a matter of business focus for them. So if we code it up in collaboration with core developers it will happen.

I suggest we use an existing crowd funding service to propose some of these great ideas to the WP community and see which ones get funded, then hire a quality team to build them.

Wp Pro version is already out there in a different form.
I have no grudges for WP is great software given away free.

After version 2.8 sites have becom S L O W and getting S L O W ER

At the same time Automattic invests few millions in WPENGINE hosting service whose USP is we would get your site FAST and FASTER without all those plugins

Of course the solution is damn costly and limited to pay by number of hits in case of overuse

There is no conspiracy. Automattic made an expected and commendable business move.

But this whole package in place of a professional edition defeats the ‘freedom’ concept touted by WordPress, and one of the big reasons why many of us switched over in the first place.

I’ve not really had issues with the search function. But, it seems that it should definitely be modified to include custom fields, either by default or as an option.

I would love to see a new strategy for images. In some ways, the date thing makes sense. But since images with the same name are appended with a number anyway, it seems redundant.

As to templates, I would love to have two default templates with each release. A fairly complete one like Twenty-Twelve and a skeletal/clean one that designers could build from scratch.

And, I’m all for improved posts management.

I am not for adding complex features like forms or shops and things like that into the core: most people will not use that, and having multiple options for these to choose is a good things. As for the theme customizations, it is too late to change things, and spending months of development on that was not good use of the core developers time.

My reaction was mostly geared towards ppl asking for built-in contact forms, gallerie thingies, e-commerce shops.
I agree, basic functionality like posts2posts linking should be core indeed (and won’t take up that much space too imho)

Theme settings etc.. I hate practically all “custom” solutions with their own fancy UI’s and own logic.. A good base standard I’d surely welcome, but it’s too little now to make real good use of it.

I agree that core should be slim, but there are features that must be in the core, features that are essential to the CMS: posts relationships, terms meta data and many other things. And Matt’s explanation fails on the new WP 3.4 that is adding bunch of useless stuff to handle themes settings when 99% of themes do that already. WP core doesn’t need that, but it does need things that deal with data and to allow better data management.

Don’t get me started on smartphones, there’s a whole bunch of stuff on mine I’d like to uninstall but can’t.

Here’s a link to the philisophy page that explains that 80% principle

http://wordpress.org/about/philosophy/

Matt explained that many times already. There are a gazillion APIs, hooks etc. for this, they want to keep core as lean and minimal as possible .

It’s like a smartphone with only the essential apps, rest is in Market ..

It’s the most sensible approach.

That you both very very VERY much!

I’m a little late to the WP game, only having been using it for a little more than 2 years. But where is the WP Bible that says that certain features should be left to 3rd party plugin developers?

A contact form or shopping cart seems like a pretty fundamental feature. If they want to add it, I don’t think many people would be upset – except the 3rd party developers who already built plugins.

Apart from the obvious Search deficiencies, this is the one feature that I feel is truly missing for just your average bloggers.

I hate having to manually link up posts together, and I never manage to get the formatting the same across all the related posts.

The WP CMS runs in a database for crying out loud, so the ability to create related posts only seems natural.

This is the way I do as well, but, honestly is not soo “automatic”.

And there is no easy way to sync content dev-stag-prod on a heavily used production server.

But this may really not be a “core” issue / problem / requisite .

Download this zip, extract it to the root of your WP folder: http://www.interconnectit.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/searchreplacedb21.zip

it’s from these guys: http://interconnectit.com/124/search-and-replace-for-wordpress-databases/

How to migrate:
Upload all your files to the production environment;
Upload the searchreplacedb.php to the root dir;
Export your database and import in to production;
Access http : // yoursite.com/searchreplacedb.php -> fill the inputs
Then access your http : // yoursite.com/wp-admin (log in)
Go to Options -> Permalinks and click save;

That’s it!

Oh no, no, no… not a pro version. I remember when that happened to NotNetNuke and it was the kiss of death for ‘fun’ projects. It divided the community into the group of hard core developers who could take a chance, and the suckers (everyone else) who had to buy. Add ons were soon focused to the pay-platform and usability drifted apart.

I’m gonna call out again for the staging area since I’m not in the last few steps of the projects and with all the tweeks we’ve done -everywhere- I have a huge problem getting it over to my production site. I still haven’t resolved it really and look forward to stomach-aching testing at late hours.

I’ve been thinking alot lately on this, and I think it’s time to fork this thing already, make a “WP PRO Version” and use something like backpress to still rely on the good parts of it (code essentially). I know it’s a pretty bold call, and I dont have all the dev expertise needed, but who knows who else more jumps on board.

Major issue with good search is that it needs to modify database scheme to include full text index, to add extra indexes. Whatever deals with database structure needs to be in the core. And to be honest making good search doesn’t take a lot of code. I made something like that for a client a while back as a part of custom WP plugin, and it was all in 500 lines of code (including color coding results).

You’re right! From what I see, Automattic judges a lot of suggestions by their 80/20 rule, so if THEY think it’s not useful for at least 80 percent of users then they reject it.

I hope they will be more brave again in the future and just implement the stuff that’s needed: take the search functionality for example – wasn’t touched since 2.x releases and it’s really outdated. There are awesome plugins like “Relevanssi” for that but this is a purpose of core. They need to add something like a little search API for easily add CPTs, plugin-specific stuff etc. This way it keeps lightweight but still flexible!

And I think that’s bad, because (my opinion) the majority of users of WP.org is people like me, webdevs that sell sites to clientes and need a truly CMS, and not a “powerful” software for blogs.

Thanks for stopping by Max. This whole comments thread proves that WP users want substantial features in WordPress even if they take longer to make. It was awhile since anyone in WP Core Development Team asked plugin developers and normal every day users what they actually need in WordPress. It is about time they listen to us all.

Thickbox had to be taken care of long time ago – it has been abandoned by the author in favor of better libraries for quite some time now. The plugin became conflicted since WP 2.8 if I’m not mistaken… instead of declaring it obsolete we were patching it up… I don’t understand why the core team is dragging their feet on this item.

I totally don’t understand the purpose of creating a brand new default theme with every release – it’s confusing to everyone and a waste of time. While new users will look for help from the community on how to use the new theme – the mature users have moved on to something more familiar/advanced and stable, and simply unfamiliar with the new “default” theme. New information and instructions will be needed and for how long? Till the next release? I’d rather see a single default theme with exceptionally polished code, well commented and grown into a showcase of all features that WP supports. New iterations of updates will make it stable. It will be utilized as base theme by many developers because of the code samples, community involvement and abundance of information available for it. It’s very shortsighted for WP core team to limit their default theme’s lifespan to a lifespan of a single release.

Thanks for the comment Anna. Some features must be in the core, so that developers like myself can make better plugins and don’t worry about the WP core. And with this short development cycles only cosmetic changes can be added, and that is something on WordPress.com can use for its own purposes. WP 3.4 will bring a single important change that in all fairness is not something most developers will need (theme API).

Actually, I really don’t understand what’s the benefit of this so-called “short development cycle” if everything we get is only some cosmetic changes… all these adminbars and screen options… when every item from your list is REAL improvement…

What’s wrong with the only one new version in the year but with real improvements?

When site on WP should go a bit further than personal blog every developer, I’m sure, needs to find one or another solution to deal with nearly each of mentioned items… of course there are number of plugins for that… but incorporating such things into core provides a standard, the solid foundation for others developers to do things

You have to be careful when thinking about what WP core should have, vs. what you would love to have a plugin for. Shopping carts and contact forms are perfect for plugins because *some* people want / need them, but the vast majority don’t.

There’s no way the core devs would tackle a shopping cart. That’s plugin territory all the way. Remember, a core WP install doesn’t even have a contact form.

The jigoshop and Shopp plugins have this covered for me.