When WordPress 4.2 dropped a couple of weeks back, we noticed and commented on a rather large WordPress 4.2 Issue; you’ve lost easy access to “Title” tags. This reduces SEO efficacy, eliminates those little pop-up windows describing links, and forces you to re-jigger the way you handle one legal issue.

No big deal, right?

[clickToTweet tweet=”The WordPress Ecosystem can be a complicated beast” quote=”In the WordPress Ecosystem, there are lots of places where little things can become big things”]

Problem is, it is a big deal, or at least can become one if you’re trying to do enough things the right way to make a success of your WordPress-based site; the WordPress Ecosystem is a complex beast, and taming it can require you have quite the bag of tricks to pull from. Inserting those title tags is clumsier now, and unless you add a plug-in to do the job, the WordPress 4.2 Issue is a WordPress 4.2 PROBLEM.

Dealing with the aftermath of the WordPress 4.2 issue has kept us busy; not everyone agrees with our opinion on the matter. And in chasing this around today we happened across a piece published here several months ago on the matter of WordPress Image Handling. We’re contrarians here, as well. We believe the WordPress Media Library is a terrible tool; it isn’t as though it helps you back up images very well, after all, and as an integral part of The WordPress Ecosystem the WordPress media library should be more useful than its design renders it.

That’s both the beauty and the curse of The WordPress Ecosystem. There are tools available—many of them free—that let you do amazing things. But the tools all have an impact on every corner of your WordPress installation, and it’s starting to feel as though the powers that be at WordPress are losing site of that fact.

Tell us what you think.