Move author setting into Publish metabox

[paulwilde]

Currently setting the author for a post is hidden in a metabox away from the typical WYSIWYG/save post workflow. The author metabox also looks ugly as it's a small select input in a huge horizontal metabox (assuming you don't move it inside the sidebar context).

This patch removes the author metabox and moves it into the "Publish" metabox. It still retains no-Javascript compatibility.

[obenland]

Is changing the Author really something >80% of WordPress users do so frequently that it would need to be in the (already cluttered) publish box?

[paulwilde]

CSS fixes for mobile.

[chriscct7]

Replying to obenland:

Is changing the Author really something >80% of WordPress users do so frequently that it would need to be in the (already cluttered) publish box?

Yeah I agree with Obenland here. It's not that common of an action. Further there are many plugins that would break because of this. For example, my own plugin Enhanced Author Dropdown which redefines the authors metabox to use Select2 to make it more efficient for larger sites, and the Multiple Authors plugin.

The only way this wouldn't feel so cluttered is if visibility + status were combined (maybe make a protected publish status?), and then removing the published on feature (which I wonder how many people actually use that to adjust dates on a published post, versus using it to schedule a future post). Maybe somehow reworking that logic and UI. But again, breaking changes.

[helen]

My dream is to remove or at least declutter that metabox, not add more to it. There are active efforts looking at alternative flows like a split button. I would not do this, especially not right now.