Ideas Forum Update
I went on a tear and obsessively went though every single thread in the ideas forum. It went from having about 2900 threads when I started a couple of months ago, to having about 1700 when I got sucked into it this week, to about 120 now. It’s very close to being useful again, and I just need some help on the last round of threads that are a bit over my head technically to know the right way to resolve them. Using the more tag here so that this won’t take over wpdevel, but if you want to help, click through, please!
Okay, so I closed all the duplicates, all the things that we’ve talked about to death and remanded to plugin territory, etc. I’m left with about 120 threads that I need people with more expertise to comment on/decide the resolution. If everyone takes 5 or 10 to just open, scan, and leave a comment about it, it would allow us to declare the Ideas forum open for new business. We could move the should we/shouldn’t we feature and UI debates out of trac and into Ideas, where more people can weigh in, and let Trac be more focused on bugs, accepted improvements, and debates on how to do something rather than going through 3-4 release cycles debating if it should be done at all. It would reduce Trac emails and allow the committers to get through tickets faster.
Anyway, grab any of these if you can help. If your comment will indicate that the thread can be closed, please add the modlook tag to it so I can take care of it (and I’ll cross it off the list here). Thanks!
Asking for a hook, tag or function:
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/display-category-title-tag-just-like-post-title-tag
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/pre-loop_start-action
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/admin-footer-filter-for-branding-admin-pages
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/enhance-the-list_authors-tag
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/add-to-wp_list_pages-ability-to-show-parent-page
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/display-tags-as-a-list-rather-than-a-cloud
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/child-themes
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/filter-to-modify-default-new-post-properties
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/add-parameter-for-exclude-a-particular-custom-field-key-from-the_meta-output
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/custom-body-id-tags
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/enable-order-by-comment-count-in-get_posts
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/exclude-categoryies-by-name-from-bookmarks-list-blogroll
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/comments_popup_link-template-restore
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/more-flexibility-with-wp_get_archives
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/add-depth-parameter-to-the_category
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/add-is_tree-function-to-core-of-wordpress
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/default-rss-hook
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/hook-in-wp_new_user_notification
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/options-for-before_content-and-after_content-in-sidebars
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/do_actionbefore_sidebar-do_actionafter_sidebar
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/uniform-get_the_category_listget_the_tag_list
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/get_tags-needs-slug_like-it-now-only-has-name_like
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/posts_nav_link-add-the-in_same_cat-parameter
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/add-a-filter-before-strip_tags
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/import-export-hook
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/add-the-depth-parameter-to-get_categories
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/exclude-a-class-from-post_class
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/tag-for-listing-attachments
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/improved-wp_get_archives
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/an-action-called-get_body
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/add-a-filter-to-wp_unique_filename
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/howdy-hook
Code stuff I don’t know about:
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/global-functions-for-global-variables
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/modular-error-pages-a-way-to-override-wp_die
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/remove-the-colon-from-the_meta-function
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/a-safer-and-shorter-function-for-is_email
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/get-rid-of-illegal-id-and-name-tokenshttp://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/add-useful-description-of-missing-temporary-folder-message
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/use-uri-templates-for-permalink-configuration
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/wp-cronphp-is-creating-problems
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/plugintheme-upgrade-should-ignore-svn-files
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/remove-wp_get_archives-from-header-of-default-templates
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/block-requiredincluded-php-files-stand-alone-execution
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/allow-back-same-category-slug-name
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/conditional-tags-for-if-pings-or-if-trackbacks
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/don%E2%80%99t-use-wptexturize-in-links
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/password-protected-xml-rpc
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/better-hooks-for-adding-custom-rewrites
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/less-draconian-htaccess-rules-for-pretty-permalinks
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/stop-hard-setting-guid-and-assign-dynamically
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/make-postname-a-standard-option-in-permalinks
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/random-order-list
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/use-html-doctype-not-xhtml
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/track-incoming-links-and-pingbacks-to-homepages
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/non-latin-characters-need-love
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/simplify-comments-html-from-wp_list_comments
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/unattaching
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/relative-path-for-imagesuploads/page/2
i18n:
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/optimize-i18n-for-plugins-and-themes
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/digit-localizationtranslation
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/multiple-charset-and-translation-support
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/adding-more-languages-to-tinymce-editor
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/multi-char-thousands-separator-french-russian-czech-etc
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/rtl-and-tinymce-wysiwyg-editorhttp://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/support-aou-in-spellcheck
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/show-localized-reademe-at-wporgextendpluginshttp://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/non-latin-characters-need-love
Features I’m not sure about:
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/include-threaded-comments-support-in-import-function
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/exporting
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/stop-directory-listing-by-default
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/add-relnextprevious-attribute-to-the-generated-link-tag
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/customize-all-the-permalinks
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/only-show-admins-the-update-alerts
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/extend-media-api-ouside-of-posts?topic_resolution=updated
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/import-from-livejournal-community
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/fix-the-xmlrpcphp-for-allowing-scheduled-posts
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/deprecate-get_sidebar-and-sidebar
Feeds:
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/proper-use-of-relalternate-for-feeds
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/when-rss-widget-fails
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/the_content_rss-fault-in-treating-caption-on-img
Accessibility:
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/make-an-accessible-backend
Iqbal, 
Matt 5:43 pm on March 25, 2010 Permalink
This is epic. I am reminded of when Hannibal crossed the Alps.
Jane Wells 6:03 pm on March 25, 2010 Permalink
It looks longer than it really is? Okay, yes, it’s kind of epic, but figured I might as well put them all up at once rather than putting up a handful every day.
bentrem 8:36 pm on March 27, 2010 Permalink
When I talk about “industry strength tech_docs” or mention MIL-SPEC folks’ eyes sorta glaze over. But yaa, Hannibal and the Alps. “Go from point A to point B. And don’t leave the elephants behind” kinda sums up “correct, complete, and comprehensive”. (Gotta giggle at the cartoon: Hannibal watching someone nail jello to the wall while someone else is trying to herd cats.)
Iqbal 7:25 am on April 16, 2010 Permalink
hmm yes agreed
aarondcampbell 6:19 pm on March 25, 2010 Permalink
I had a few minutes, so I went through the first few coding issues:
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/global-functions-for-global-variables <– Not sure on this one. Global variables *are* generally bad practice, but they're also pervasive throughout much of WordPress (and would be easier to replace when we require PHP5 and can use static class variables and true singletons)
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/modular-error-pages-a-way-to-override-wp_die <– left comment, it's fixed in 3.0
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/remove-the-colon-from-the_meta-function <– left comment, this has a filter that works fine to solve his problem
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/a-safer-and-shorter-function-for-is_email <– left comment…The suggestion is good, but requires PHP 5.2+, so until then we need to keep what we have.
Jane Wells 6:34 pm on March 25, 2010 Permalink
Thanks, have struck through on list.
Denis de Bernardy 8:30 pm on March 25, 2010 Permalink
There are cases where using globals makes sense.
It’s like… whether to use $GLOBALS['wp_filter'] or wp_filter::get() or WPFilters::get()… In all circumstances, we’re really doing the same thing. There’s a good case against using $post and so on as the like, but for services it’s questionable at best.
Unless, of course, WP wakes up to good coding practices and looks into using dependency injection… I can’t see that happening before a couple years, though.
By the same token, singletons are also bad coding practice. If you require a singleton in your code, you have an architectural problem somewhere.
demetris 6:43 pm on March 25, 2010 Permalink
Thanks for this, Jane!
I’ll have a look this coming Weekend (if there is anything left by then for me to help with).
Ryan McCue 11:36 am on March 26, 2010 Permalink
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/when-rss-widget-fails – This is invalid, as WP uses SimplePie now.
Ryan McCue 11:40 am on March 26, 2010 Permalink
Also, http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/the_content_rss-fault-in-treating-caption-on-img appears to no longer exist, as shortcodes appear to be parsed in feeds now.
Paul Gregory 1:29 pm on March 26, 2010 Permalink
It’s great that the Ideas forum is more usable now.
Do mods get to see when the most recent rating occurred? It strikes me that could be useful.
demetris 8:33 pm on March 28, 2010 Permalink
These two can be considered fixed:
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/add-relnextprevious-attribute-to-the-generated-link-tag
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/use-html-doctype-not-xhtml
This one was wontfixed in trac:
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/wordpress-performance-improvement-that-does-not-require-a-plugin-simple-fix