Split from [BETA] Fork of Elementor with ClassicPress support - #14
It’s getting interesting: Elementor has raised a $15 million Series A, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners
Going to be very interesting to see what happens:
I expect to see a fully hosted version of site building capability powered by Elementor, where WordPress is (at least partially) hidden from the view of the user. they are currently hiring for their “Cloud team” for purposes of “building, maintaining, and supporting the company ‘Cloud Hosting SaaS Solution’.”
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I see a very direct competition to the Gutenberg & WordPress.com project.
So glad ClassicPress just forked it.
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I think this makes a lot of sense for them.
They should use ClassicPress as a base for the new platform 
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Fully hosted solutions are designed to make money for the parent company. You trade freedom for convenience. It seems to me that they are producing a generation of website owners that have no idea how their sites work and who couldn’t even care.
There is no incentive to learn new skills and you can only change what they let you. People are lazy enough already and want to simply sign up and have everything magically work for them.
I know my two sons have no desire to use anything that is not plug-and-play and only use popular social media platforms to interact online.
Maybe CMS’s are going the way of the dinosaur and the realm of geeks. Why go through all the drama of registering a domain name, paying for hosting and having to install and maintain a CMS when you can simply drag out your credit card and have it all done for you - instantly.
When I look back at my adventures through FrontPage, Dreamweaver, GeoCities and then onto WordPress, that is over 20 years of hard work and learning by trial and error. People nowadays don’t want to do that sort of thing, which is a real shame.
The feeling of pride and satisfaction you get when you build your site from scratch and get it just the way you want it, is something special, and you don’t get that with a hosted solution. Dumbing things down might seem like a good idea, but it also dumbs down the user, who ends up being the loser in the long term.
We are becoming a throwaway society that only buys packaged products. Heaven forbid you should have to think for yourself. I know - I’m old and out of touch.
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I agree this is unfortunate. However this is what many people want, and it is a valid business case.
For me the main reason is because if you only ever post on Facebook/Instagram (and to a lesser extent, other hosted platforms) you do not own your work, they do.
I think this applies to learning new skills in general. When I’ve created something myself, and I know that I understand how it works, and can maintain it and keep it working the way I want, then it’s truly mine. This is a good feeling.
I don’t think so. Think for yourself, learn how your food and products are produced and choose accordingly… I’m not that old, but if such a philosophy makes me “out of touch”, I’m fine with that.
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Who is going to rule the world? The ones that make it magically work…
Devs are the most important thing.
Users/customers always want things for their money. It’s ok. As long as there are people with the expertise.
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One of the things that comes with age is plenty of years to look back on. Australia used to make everything from white goods to cars, but not anymore. Just about everything you pick up is stamped “Made in China”.
When I pop the bonnet on my car, there is a red handle to check transmission oil, a yellow one for engine oil and a green one for radiator overflow. There is nothing you can adjust. I can’t even change the oil because the car is so low to the ground it won’t go up the steel ramps.
My 31 year old son has no idea how a car works.
I am an electronics technician by trade and there is little you can fix now because the manufacturers don’t sell spare parts. There are only two stores in Australia that sell components such as resistors, capacitors, chips, etc.
Consumers are just that - buyers of a company’s products. They are not allowed to fix or modify the product. Consequently, people aren’t developing any skills and are becoming increasingly dependent on “experts” to fix any problems.
You could argue this is a natural part of progress due to the complexity of modern devices, including websites, but at what price? If Elementor decides (down the track) to cut their plugin and make it a SaaS only system, there is another tool lost.
I have a very comprehensive toolbox I’ve built over the years, but most of it I no longer use because there’s nothing I can repair. Website design skills also require a “toolbox” and if you can’t use them, then people won’t acquire them.
CMS’s are a rich area for people to learn new skills that help them understand and create their websites. If the preferred option is to use a hosted service, the opportunity is lost. We end up with a generation of people who, like with their car, have no idea how it works.
This stifling of incentive is a tragedy, orchestrated by greedy companies, under the pretence of “helping” the user. It is projects like ClassicPress that keep the incentive alive and I hope the younger generation can see this and take the opportunity to get their hands dirty and actually learn something for a change.
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OK, in my town (Kaunas) we have more such shops, than in all Australia.
The tendency you write about, I call iPhonization. Apple started it all.
On the other side, despite every phone is equipped with the camera, the prosumer camera market is doing very well.
The same with websites - there will be Wix, Gutenberg, Elementor, but there will be complex custom solutions, end everything in between. And yes, in Saas you are (mostly) not making money for himself, you are making money for the platform.
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I think @Aussie is right on a particular point.
If third world war strikes, technology is going to die. And if you know how to do things like code from scratch or fix a car you can survive.
But the push now is “you do not need to learn. Just buy a package that works”.
But I think people however need to do something. We as humanly are made to explore. And these two tendencies can balance themselves in a way.
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Lesson #1. How to start a discussion about a fairly trivial business venture and end with a discussion on a hypothetical third world war.
Let’s be cheerful out there. Please. 
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Wars aside, I don’t think Elementor’s decision is trivial. There are millions of users utilising their plugin, which is most likely on a server owned by a hosting company. They may also be paying for support for their site to maintain it.
If the SaaS model becomes reality, those accounts will migrate away from hosting companies, who are already reeling from the price restructuring by cPanel, which has thrown the whole hosting industry into chaos.
If Elementor then cans its free plugin, or makes it a very basic one, then users with advanced requirements will have no choice but to move to the SaaS option. That could mean the difference between a hosting company just managing to survive, to where they no longer have enough customers to carry on.
Being cheerful is warm and fuzzy, but burying our heads in the sand is not going to make something go away. Unlike the likes of Wix, Squarespace or any other CMS, we are not talking about minor competition, but millions of users jumping ship. And that includes ClassicPress users.
There is more to this story than meets the eye and the ramifications are certainly not trivial.
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I see the opposite. I think people are getting increasingly tired of these constant changes all in the name of “advancement” (which really means keeping you captive so they can squeeze out a little more money).
That’s why ClassicPress has struck a nerve… it offers stability. And if we get a fork of Elementor happening that will be a real option for those users who just want something that works the way it did last month, and will next month and the month after.
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We can only hope.
Reasons to be cheerful, part 3: As far as the web is concerned, no it’s not trivial. As far as world wars are concerned, it doesn’t even register. That’s all I was getting at. 
I remember having discussions about ASP or Application Service Provision about 20 years ago. SaaS is just ASP evolved but I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m pretty sure that’s the way WordPress is heading.
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We can’t control what other people do, but we can do much more than hope: we can create the future we want to see.
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…By not giving up, even at hard times.
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A new article and predictions, what will be next.
It seems, that the future can be Gutenberg (on wordpress.com) vs. Elementor vs. Wix vs. Squarespace.
If ClassicPress remains alive, I’m fine with that battle. In fact, ClassicPress becomes more important as more and more platforms going to the drag-and-drop page builders. Just we need to solve problem with attracting core developers, because progress to the CP v.2 is so slow.
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Well, me thinks devs are going to find CP.
Because going drag&drop galore following WP means investing money, businesses are handling coronavirus recession and money is tight. CP is a natural choice in terms of survival for many businesses out there that are going to be affected by all these revolutions
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