WordPress has announced that it is reconsidering its proposal to roll out automatic WebP image generation due to backlash against the new feature. The announcement states that they will formally study the proposals made by the WordPress community in order to make better decisions for the next step.
WebP enabled by default
WordPress initially announced a proposal to add a feature that would automatically generate multiple versions of every image used on a website, as well as WebP versions of those images.
The purpose of the new feature is to make it easy for publishers to upload images to WordPress and to allow WordPress to output an optimized WebP version. The new WebP format will help reduce file size and improve the performance of every WordPress site.
Concerns about the new WebP feature quickly emerged, as many believed that some websites would quickly run out of disk space to archive as many as a million additional images.
Some in the WordPress ecosystem advise against offering this feature as an auto-on feature. They say it’s best to turn the feature off by default.
Conflicts with WordPress design goals
Proposal to release new WebP features in a default off state goes against WordPress philosophy decide, not choosewhich is the design goal of delivering a product that works out of the box with minimal configuration.
WordPress outlines their five main design goals formal philosophical statement
They are paraphrased as follows:
- Out-of-the-box functionality
- Designed for most users
- Decisions, not options (developers make decisions on behalf of users)
- 80% of users must require WordPress core functionality
- Simplify all tasks
WordPress specifically cites the idea of decisions, not options, to justify having the WebP feature “on” by default and not come with a user interface for turning it off.
This is what the design philosophy says:
“These are the users we consider first when making a decision. A good example of this consideration is software options.
Every time you give the user an option, you are asking them to make a decision. This ultimately leads to frustration when the user doesn’t care or understand the option.
As developers, we sometimes feel that having options for everything is a good thing, you never have too many options, right? Ultimately, these choices end up being technical choices, choices that are not of interest to the average end user.
As developers, we have a responsibility to make informed design decisions and avoid focusing technology choices on our end users. “
The prospect of releasing a disruptive feature with no easy way to turn it off is a wake-up call across the WordPress ecosystem.
Adam Silverstein, a Google software developer who works on WordPress, cited decide, not choose Goals of the new WebP features announced on March 28, 2022 (WebP enabled by default).
This principle states that it is best for developers to make decisions about options on behalf of users, since creating a product with multiple options is burdensome.
This design goal is in line with the overall philosophy of making every WordPress installation work out of the box and provide functionality for most users.
Opposition from the WordPress community
In an unusually enthusiastic comment section on the proposal, most commenters expressed concern that publishers could run out of disk space and at worst encounter an inoperable website as well as having to buy more disk from their website. The host was shocked by the significantly increased cost of space.
WordPress announces it is re-evaluating WebP feature deployment
In today’s announcement, WordPress core developer Adam Silverstein acknowledged the concerns of the WordPress community and promised the next step would be to re-evaluate the proposal and return to a more satisfactory option.
He wrote:
“The performance team has listened to feedback and is taking the community’s concerns seriously.
With the help of the community, we will work on doing more data-driven research. Based on our findings, we will re-evaluate our proposed approach of enabling WebP by default. “
The statement said they will study the impact of creating additional WebP images on disk storage, with a separate focus on WebP compatibility with other features such as email clients, RSS readers and lazy loading.
this GitHub repository for research Impact of WebP features on disk storage status:
“This question was used to research and analyze concerns about the creation of too many files by default with the newly enabled WebP feature.
Many users are concerned that the proposal to double the number of image files will lead to increased hosting costs, exhaustion of disk space (or “inodes”), or backup failures. “
After completing the above research, WordPress committed to re-evaluate whether the WebP feature is turned on or off by default, and consider a user interface that can easily turn the feature on or off.
WordPress Community Response
The WordPress community welcomed the news with overwhelmingly positive reviews.
A typical comment:
“Thanks to @adamsilverstein for the update, as always, you have been very gracious in handling the feedback in previous posts, I look forward to what the performance team learns from this additional testing and research, and thank you for all the efforts to ensure WordPress is future-proof in the CMS space competitive.”
Overall, the WordPress ecosystem seems to have done an excellent job of making the right decision to re-evaluate the impact of the WebP proposal and not rush into decisions that could adversely affect publishers.
