Over the past week or so, I’ve been looking at each of the pillars of the WordPress Philosophy – many of which I think that we, as developers and designers, have completely ignored in our work – and have been talking through what is says, what we’ve done, and potential ways that we can correct it.

Up to this point, I’ve covered:

• Out of the Box
• Designing for the Majority
• and Decisions, Not Options

There’s obviously more to come since the philosophy encapsulates more than just those three. So I’m going to continue moving forward with “Clean, Lean, and Mean,” which is arguably one the pillars that’s talked about the least.

I say that because when you talk to other people about WordPress or building things for WordPress, they are generally familiar with some of the ones mentioned above (and some not mentioned yet), but this is not only one that you don’t hear much about, but this is one that I’ve think many of us have just completely disregarded.

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Over the last few posts, I’ve been sharing my thoughts on the WordPress Philosophy and how I generally think that many of us who build things for WordPress are ignoring the philosophy that drives the application for which we build.

So far, I’ve talked about how I think we do a bad job of making sure everything works out of the box, and I’ve also talked about how we do a better job at designing for our peers than we do designing for the majority.

If you’re not aware of anything that I’m talking about, then make sure to read the WordPress Philosophy and it will bring you up to speed as to exactly what these posts are all about.

With that said: The third point, Decisions, Not Options, is arguably my favorite point in the philosophy, but it’s the one that we’ve trashed the most.

And that’s a sad thing because I think that if we’d paid more attention to it, then we wouldn’t have so many of the complaints about so many different themes, vendors, marketplaces, and so on as we do today.

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Earlier this week, I shared my thoughts on how I believe that many of us who are participating in the WordPress economy are practically ignoring the WordPress philosophy.

There are a number of different pillars on which this philosophy sits, the first of which is Out of the Box. But there are more each of which I want to share my thoughts on as it relates to building themes an other things for WordPress.

If you’re unfamiliar with what I’m talking about, then be sure to check out the WordPress Philosophy first; otherwise, much of this likely won’t make sense.

With that said, on to the second point: Design for the Majority.

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If you head over to the WordPress.org homepage and click on the About link, you’ll be taken to a page that, y’know, tells what WordPress.org is all about, what the software can be used for, some history, and so on.

Then, there are also links to various WordPress-related collateral such as logos and graphics, fan art, the GPL, the project roadmap, and the philosophy.

Wait, what? A philosophy?

Exactly. WordPress – a piece of software – has a philosophy. It’s a really, really neat page that I think everyone who is involved with WordPress – be it designers, developers, or users – should read. It’s not technical, it’s easy to understand, and it helps inform us what the software is all about.

As far as developers are concerned, there are a number of things in the philosophy that I believe we give excellent lip service, but we don’t actually practice, abide, or behave in such a way that we support the philosophy.

That’s a longer post for another time.

Anyway, though there’s a number of things in the philosophy that could be discussed (and probably ultimately will be :), one of the many things that we’ve forsaken is the “out of the box” philosophy.

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