WordPress announced that it is reconsidering its proposal to roll out automatic WebP image generation because of the passionate opposition received for the new feature. The announcement noted that they will formally research the suggestions put forth by the WordPress community in order to make a better decision for the next steps.
Enabling WebP by Default
WordPress initially announced a proposal for adding 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 was to make it easy for publishers to upload images to WordPress and allow WordPress to output optimized WebP versions. The new WebP format would help reduce file size and increase the performance of every WordPress website.
Concerns quickly arose about the new WebP feature because many determined that some sites would quickly run out of disk space for archiving as much as a million additional images.
Some in the WordPress ecosystem suggested that the feature not be shipped as an automatically turned on feature. They said it would be preferable for the feature to be turned off by default.
Clash With WordPress Design Goals
The suggestion of shipping the new WebP feature in a default off state ran counter to the WordPress philosophy known as Decisions, not Options, which is a design goal of shipping product that works out of the box with minimal configuration.
WordPress outlines five major design goals in their formal philosophical statement
They are paraphrased below:
- Functional Out of the Box
- Designed for the Majority of Users
- Decisions, Not Options (Developers Make Decisions on Behalf of Users)
- WordPress Core Features Must be Needed by 80% of Users
- Simplify All Tasks
The Decisions, Not Options philosophy was specifically cited by WordPress to justify making the WebP feature default to “on” and to not ship with a user interface for turning it off.