WordPress News and Events widget: WordPress.org/news posts only show one at a time

[hlashbrooke]

In the WordPress News and Events widget, there is only ever one post shown at a time from the WordPress.org/news feed. This same rule doesn't appear to apply to other sources as I often see more than one post from WP Tavern, etc. displayed at a time.

I'm guessing this was done because w.org/news only ever contained release posts and having more than one of those shown at a time was just unnecessary and potentially confusing. These days, however, w.org/news has more varied content - Month in WordPress posts, general announcements, etc.

To give a practical example of where this has caused a problem - a few months ago the Month in WordPress post went out the day before a point release post, which then pushed the Month in WordPress post out of the widget. That month the views for the Month in WordPress were about 80% less than other months. Unfortunately, both of these types of posts are time-sensitive. Month in WordPress needs to be on 1st/2nd of the month and the release posts obviously need to be posted when the release goes out.

I think it would be good if we removed the limitation that is placed on w.org/news to avoid these kinds of conflicts in the future.

[iandunn]

That happens because the list is actually a juxtaposition of two separate feeds. The first feed is w.org/news with a limit of 1, and the second feed is planet.w.org with a limit of 3.

Some rough ideas:

• Bump the w.org/news limit to 2, for a total 5. I don't love this, because it adds more visual clutter. Keeping the total limit at 4 would be best, IMO.
• Bump w.org/news limit to 3, but then merge both feeds and sort chronologically. I kinda like this, but I think important news like security releases would fall out of the feed to quickly.
• Maybe merge the lists like above, but add some conditional logic, where w.org news in the releases and security categories stick permanently, and w.org posts in all other categories stick for ~10 days?

Maybe there's a simpler solution, though?

[iandunn]

Another idea would be to conditionally add a 5th item, when there are 2 w.org posts published within a week of each other. After a week, the limit would go back down to 4.

Or maybe keep the total limit at 4, and reduce the Planet limit to 2 in those situations. I think I like that idea the best.

[iandunn]

WIP attempting comment:3 - not elegant

[iandunn]

43441.diff​ starts to implement comment:3, but wp_dashboard_primary() and its related functions feel fairly convoluted to me. I don't see a way to make those changes in a straightforward and elegant way.

A simple compromise would be just bump the feed to 2, for a total of 5 items, but I still worry about the added clutter.

I'm tempted to want to refactor wp_dashboard_primary() so that it works in a more straightforward way, but that would probably have some minor back-compat implications, like the markup no longer being generated by wp_widget_rss_output(). That could break CSS changes from plugins. Or, if the new function mimiced the same markup, it would no longer be DRY, so could break in the future if the RSS function changes.

cc @valentinbora, @tellyworth in case you have any thoughts.

[tellyworth]

Given the added complexity from other methods, bumping the feed to 2 seems to me like a fair compromise. It's easy to revert if there's negative feedback about clutter.

[iandunn]

Yeah, fair point 👍🏻

These days there are often 2 posts published close to each other, like a release announcement and a Month In WordPress post. When that happens, the earlier post is often pushed out of the widget before many people have had a chance to see it.

Ideally, the number of total items would remain at 4, to reduce visual clutter. Implementing a conditional item would require a significant refactor, though. Increasing the total number of items to 5 is a practical compromise.

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/43441

[iandunn]

In 49114:

Dashboard: Show 2 w.org news items to preserve clustered posts.

These days there are often 2 posts published close to each other, like a release announcement and a Month In WordPress post. When that happens, the earlier post is often pushed out of the widget before many people have had a chance to see it.

Ideally, the number of total items would remain at 4, to reduce visual clutter. Implementing a conditional item would require a significant refactor, though. Increasing the total number of items to 5 is a practical compromise.

Props hlashbrooke, tellyworth.
Fixes #43441.