In Unity 3D, utilizing the Starter Assets package, I am trying to swap the mesh on the Starter Asset character that I duplicated in the scene. I unpacked a prefab so that I could utilize the mesh filter of the new prefab that I imported. I realized that there are several meshes on the (prefab/game object) that I unpacked and wanted to know how to layer them onto the skinned mesh renderer of the starter asset character? The new prefab contains multiple mesh overlays,(i believe the original is in underpants as Man_Body Mesh) and are they layered individually onto the game object?
I have attempted to add a mesh filter (Man_BodyMesh) and used the root which was different on the Man-BodyMesh from the Starter Asset Mesh.basically my object upon play looked like the vertices were jumbled resulting in The Thing from John Carpenter? Iknow the Armature on the Unity Asset has a skeleton, weighted and has a root. I was hoping to copy and paste until I was proven wrong.
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When copying text from a website to your device’s clipboard, there’s a good chance that you will get the formatted HTML when pasting it. Some apps and operating systems have a “Paste Special” feature that will strip those tags out for you to maintain the current style, but what do you do if that’s unavailable?
Same goes for converting plain text into formatted HTML. One of the closest ways we can convert plain text into HTML is writing in Markdown as an abstraction. You may have seen examples of this in many comment forms in articles just like this one. Write the comment in Markdown and it is parsed as HTML.
Even better would be no abstraction at all! You may have also seen (and used) a number of online tools that take plainly written text and convert it into formatted HTML. The UI makes the conversion and previews the formatted result in real time.
Providing a way for users to author basic web content — like comments — without knowing even the first thing about HTML, is a novel pursuit as it lowers barriers to communicating and collaborating on the web. Saying it helps “democratize” the web may be heavy-handed, but it doesn’t conflict with that vision!
We can build a tool like this ourselves. I’m all for using existing resources where possible, but I’m also for demonstrating how these things work and maybe learning something new in the process.
Defining The Scope
There are plenty of assumptions and considerations that could go into a plain-text-to-HTML converter. For example, should we assume that the first line of text entered into the tool is a title that needs corresponding <h1> tags? Is each new line truly a paragraph, and how does linking content fit into this?
Again, the idea is that a user should be able to write without knowing Markdown or HTML syntax. This is a big constraint, and there are far too many HTML elements we might encounter, so it’s worth knowing the context in which the content is being used. For example, if this is a tool for writing blog posts, then we can limit the scope of which elements are supported based on those that are commonly used in long-form content: <h1>, <p>, <a>, and <img>. In other words, it will be possible to include top-level headings, body text, linked text, and images. There will be no support for bulleted or ordered lists, tables, or any other elements for this particular tool.
The front-end implementation will rely on vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to establish a small form with a simple layout and functionality that converts the text to HTML. There is a server-side aspect to this if you plan on deploying it to a production environment, but our focus is purely on the front end.
Looking At Existing Solutions
There are existing ways to accomplish this. For example, some libraries offer a WYSIWYG editor. Import a library like TinyMCE with a single <script> and you’re good to go. WYSIWYG editors are powerful and support all kinds of formatting, even applying CSS classes to content for styling.
But TinyMCE isn’t the most efficient package at about 500 KB minified. That’s not a criticism as much as an indication of how much functionality it covers. We want something more “barebones” than that for our simple purpose. Searching GitHub surfaces more possibilities. The solutions, however, seem to fall into one of two categories:
The input accepts plain text, but the generated HTML only supports the HTML <h1> and <p> tags.
The input converts plain text into formatted HTML, but by ”plain text,” the tool seems to mean “Markdown” (or a variety of it) instead. The txt2html Perl module (from 1994!) would fall under this category.
Even if a perfect solution for what we want was already out there, I’d still want to pick apart the concept of converting text to HTML to understand how it works and hopefully learn something new in the process. So, let’s proceed with our own homespun solution.
Setting Up The HTML
We’ll start with the HTML structure for the input and output. For the input element, we’re probably best off using a <textarea>. For the output element and related styling, choices abound. The following is merely one example with some very basic CSS to place the input <textarea> on the left and an output <div> on the right:
You can further develop the CSS, but that isn’t the focus of this article. There is no question that the design can be prettier than what I am providing here!
Capture The Plain Text Input
We’ll set an onkeyup event handler on the <textarea> to call a JavaScript function called convert() that does what it says: convert the plain text into HTML. The conversion function should accept one parameter, a string, for the user’s plain text input entered into the <textarea> element:
onkeyup is a better choice than onkeydown in this case, as onkeyup will call the conversion function after the user completes each keystroke, as opposed to before it happens. This way, the output, which is refreshed with each keystroke, always includes the latest typed character. If the conversion is triggered with an onkeydown handler, the output will exclude the most recent character the user typed. This can be frustrating when, for example, the user has finished typing a sentence but cannot yet see the final punctuation mark, say a period (.), in the output until typing another character first. This creates the impression of a typo, glitch, or lag when there is none.
In JavaScript, the convert() function has the following responsibilities:
Encode the input in HTML.
Process the input line-by-line and wrap each individual line in either a <h1> or <p> HTML tag, whichever is most appropriate.
Process the output of the transformations as a single string, wrap URLs in HTML <a> tags, and replace image file names with <img> elements.
And from there, we display the output. We can create separate functions for each responsibility. Let’s name them accordingly:
html_encode()
convert_text_to_HTML()
convert_images_and_links_to_HTML()
Each function accepts one parameter, a string, and returns a string.
Encoding The Input Into HTML
Use the html_encode() function to HTML encode/sanitize the input. HTML encoding refers to the process of escaping or replacing certain characters in a string input to prevent users from inserting their own HTML into the output. At a minimum, we should replace the following characters:
< with <
> with >
& with &
' with '
" with "
JavaScript does not provide a built-in way to HTML encode input as other languages do. For example, PHP has htmlspecialchars(), htmlentities(), and strip_tags() functions. That said, it is relatively easy to write our own function that does this, which is what we’ll use the html_encode() function for that we defined earlier:
HTML encoding of the input is a critical security consideration. It prevents unwanted scripts or other HTML manipulations from getting injected into our work. Granted, front-end input sanitization and validation are both merely deterrents because bad actors can bypass them. But we may as well make them work a little harder.
As long as we are on the topic of securing our work, make sure to HTML-encode the input on the back end, where the user cannot interfere. At the same time, take care not to encode the input more than once. Encoding text that is already HTML-encoded will break the output functionality. The best approach for back-end storage is for the front end to pass the raw, unencoded input to the back end, then ask the back-end to HTML-encode the input before inserting it into a database.
That said, this only accounts for sanitizing and storing the input on the back end. We still have to display the encoded HTML output on the front end. There are at least two approaches to consider:
Convert the input to HTML after HTML-encoding it and before it is inserted into a database. This is efficient, as the input only needs to be converted once. However, this is also an inflexible approach, as updating the HTML becomes difficult if the output requirements happen to change in the future.
Store only the HTML-encoded input text in the database and dynamically convert it to HTML before displaying the output for each content request. This is less efficient, as the conversion will occur on each request. However, it is also more flexible since it’s possible to update how the input text is converted to HTML if requirements change.
Applying Semantic HTML Tags
Let’s use the convert_text_to_HTML() function we defined earlier to wrap each line in their respective HTML tags, which are going to be either <h1> or <p>. To determine which tag to use, we will split the text input on the newline character (\n) so that the text is processed as an array of lines rather than a single string, allowing us to evaluate them individually.
function convert_text_to_HTML(txt) {
// Output variable
let out = '';
// Split text at the newline character into an array
const txt_array = txt.split("\n");
// Get the number of lines in the array
const txt_array_length = txt_array.length;
// Variable to keep track of the (non-blank) line number
let non_blank_line_count = 0;
for (let i = 0; i < txt_array_length; i++) {
// Get the current line
const line = txt_array[i];
// Continue if a line contains no text characters
if (line === ''){
continue;
}
non_blank_line_count++;
// If a line is the first line that contains text
if (non_blank_line_count === 1){
// ...wrap the line of text in a Heading 1 tag
out += <h1>${line}</h1>;
// ...otherwise, wrap the line of text in a Paragraph tag.
} else {
out += <p>${line}</p>;
}
}
return out;
}
In short, this little snippet loops through the array of split text lines and ignores lines that do not contain any text characters. From there, we can evaluate whether a line is the first one in the series. If it is, we slap a <h1> tag on it; otherwise, we mark it up in a <p> tag.
This logic could be used to account for other types of elements that you may want to include in the output. For example, perhaps the second line is assumed to be a byline that names the author and links up to an archive of all author posts.
Tagging URLs And Images With Regular Expressions
Next, we’re going to create our convert_images_and_links_to_HTML() function to encode URLs and images as HTML elements. It’s a good chunk of code, so I’ll drop it in and we’ll immediately start picking it apart together to explain how it all works.
function convert_images_and_links_to_HTML(string){
let urls_unique = [];
let images_unique = [];
const urls = string.match(/https*:\/\/[^\s<),]+[^\s<),.]/gmi) ?? [];
const imgs = string.match(/[^"'>\s]+.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|webp)/gmi) ?? [];
const urls_length = urls.length;
const images_length = imgs.length;
for (let i = 0; i < urls_length; i++){
const url = urls[i];
if (!urls_unique.includes(url)){
urls_unique.push(url);
}
}
for (let i = 0; i < images_length; i++){
const img = imgs[i];
if (!images_unique.includes(img)){
images_unique.push(img);
}
}
const urls_unique_length = urls_unique.length;
const images_unique_length = images_unique.length;
for (let i = 0; i < urls_unique_length; i++){
const url = urls_unique[i];
if (images_unique_length === 0 || !images_unique.includes(url)){
const a_tag = <a href="${url}" target="_blank">${url}</a>;
string = string.replace(url, a_tag);
}
}
for (let i = 0; i < images_unique_length; i++){
const img = images_unique[i];
const img_tag = <img src="${img}" alt="">;
const img_link = <a href="${img}">${img_tag}</a>;
string = string.replace(img, img_link);
}
return string;
}
Unlike the convert_text_to_HTML() function, here we use regular expressions to identify the terms that need to be wrapped and/or replaced with <a> or <img> tags. We do this for a couple of reasons:
The previous convert_text_to_HTML() function handles text that would be transformed to the HTML block-level elements <h1> and <p>, and, if you want, other block-level elements such as <address>. Block-level elements in the HTML output correspond to discrete lines of text in the input, which you can think of as paragraphs, the text entered between presses of the Enter key.
On the other hand, URLs in the text input are often included in the middle of a sentence rather than on a separate line. Images that occur in the input text are often included on a separate line, but not always. While you could identify text that represents URLs and images by processing the input line-by-line — or even word-by-word, if necessary — it is easier to use regular expressions and process the entire input as a single string rather than by individual lines.
Regular expressions, though they are powerful and the appropriate tool to use for this job, come with a performance cost, which is another reason to use each expression only once for the entire text input.
Remember: All the JavaScript in this example runs each time the user types a character, so it is important to keep things as lightweight and efficient as possible.
I also want to make a note about the variable names in our convert_images_and_links_to_HTML() function. images (plural), image (singular), and link are reserved words in JavaScript. Consequently, imgs, img, and a_tag were used for naming. Interestingly, these specific reserved words are not listed on the relevant MDN page, but they are on W3Schools.
We’re using the String.prototype.match() function for each of the two regular expressions, then storing the results for each call in an array. From there, we use the nullish coalescing operator (??) on each call so that, if no matches are found, the result will be an empty array. If we do not do this and no matches are found, the result of each match() call will be null and will cause problems downstream.
Next up, we filter the arrays of results so that each array contains only unique results. This is a critical step. If we don’t filter out duplicate results and the input text contains multiple instances of the same URL or image file name, then we break the HTML tags in the output. JavaScript does not provide a simple, built-in method to get unique items in an array that’s akin to the PHP array_unique() function.
The code snippet works around this limitation using an admittedly ugly but straightforward procedural approach. The same problem is solved using a more functional approach if you prefer. There are many articles on the web describing various ways to filter a JavaScript array in order to keep only the unique items.
We’re also checking if the URL is matched as an image before replacing a URL with an appropriate <a> tag and performing the replacement only if the URL doesn’t match an image. We may be able to avoid having to perform this check by using a more intricate regular expression. The example code deliberately uses regular expressions that are perhaps less precise but hopefully easier to understand in an effort to keep things as simple as possible.
And, finally, we’re replacing image file names in the input text with <img> tags that have the src attribute set to the image file name. For example, my_image.png in the input is transformed into <img src='my_image.png'> in the output. We wrap each <img> tag with an <a> tag that links to the image file and opens it in a new tab when clicked.
There are a couple of benefits to this approach:
In a real-world scenario, you will likely use a CSS rule to constrain the size of the rendered image. By making the images clickable, you provide users with a convenient way to view the full-size image.
If the image is not a local file but is instead a URL to an image from a third party, this is a way to implicitly provide attribution. Ideally, you should not rely solely on this method but, instead, provide explicit attribution underneath the image in a <figcaption>, <cite>, or similar element. But if, for whatever reason, you are unable to provide explicit attribution, you are at least providing a link to the image source.
It may go without saying, but “hotlinking” images is something to avoid. Use only locally hosted images wherever possible, and provide attribution if you do not hold the copyright for them.
Before we move on to displaying the converted output, let’s talk a bit about accessibility, specifically the image alt attribute. The example code I provided does add an alt attribute in the conversion but does not populate it with a value, as there is no easy way to automatically calculate what that value should be. An empty alt attribute can be acceptable if the image is considered “decorative,” i.e., purely supplementary to the surrounding text. But one may argue that there is no such thing as a purely decorative image.
That said, I consider this to be a limitation of what we’re building.
Displaying the Output HTML
We’re at the point where we can finally work on displaying the HTML-encoded output! We've already handled all the work of converting the text, so all we really need to do now is call it:
function convert(input_string) {
output.innerHTML = convert_images_and_links_to_HTML(convert_text_to_HTML(html_encode(input_string)));
}
If you would rather display the output string as raw HTML markup, use a <pre> tag as the output element instead of a <div>:
<pre id='output'></pre>
The only thing to note about this approach is that you would target the <pre> element’s textContent instead of innerHTML:
function convert(input_string) {
output.textContent = convert_images_and_links_to_HTML(convert_text_to_HTML(html_encode(input_string)));
}
Conclusion
We did it! We built one of the same sort of copy-paste tool that converts plain text on the spot. In this case, we’ve configured it so that plain text entered into a <textarea> is parsed line-by-line and encoded into HTML that we format and display inside another element.
We were even able to keep the solution fairly simple, i.e., vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, without reaching for a third-party library or framework. Does this simple solution do everything a ready-made tool like a framework can do? Absolutely not. But a solution as simple as this is often all you need: nothing more and nothing less.
As far as scaling this further, the code could be modified to POST what’s entered into the <form> using a PHP script or the like. That would be a great exercise, and if you do it, please share your work with me in the comments because I’d love to check it out.
Alexander De Ridder, AI visionary and CTO of SmythOS, discusses the transformative power of specialized AI systems and the future of human-AI collaboration.
In the newest interview of our AGI Talks series, Alexander De Ridder shares his insights on the potential impacts of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) on business, entrepreneurship, and society.
About Alexander De Ridder
With a robust background that spans over 15 years in computer science, entrepreneurship, and marketing, Alexander De Ridder possesses a rare blend of skills that enable him to drive technological innovation with strategic business insight. His journey includes founding and successfully exiting several startups.
Currently he serves as the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of SmythOS, a platform seeks to streamline processes and escalate efficiency across various industries. SmythOS is the first operating system specifically designed to manage and enhance the interplay between specialized AI agents.
Stationed in Houston, Alexander is a proactive advocate for leveraging AI to extend human capabilities and address societal challenges. Through SmythOS and his broader endeavors, he aims to equip governments and enterprises with the tools needed to realize their potential, advocating for AI-driven solutions that promote societal well-being and economic prosperity.
AGI Talks: Interview with Alexander De Ridder
In our interview, Alexandre provides insights on the impact of AI on the world of business and entrepreneurship:
1.What is your preferred definition of AGI?
Alexander De Ridder: The way you need to look at AGI is simple. Imagine tomorrow there were 30 billion people on the planet. But only 8 billion people needed an income. So, what would happen? You would have a lot more competition, prices would be a lot more affordable, and you have a lot more, you know, services, wealth, everything going around.
AGI in most contexts is a term used to define any form of artificial intelligence that can understand, learn, and utilize its intelligence to solve any problem almost like a human can. This is unlike narrow AI which is limited to the scope it exists for and cannot do something outside the limited tasks.
2. and ASI (Artificial Superintelligence)?
ASI is an artificial intelligence that is on par with human intelligence in a variety of cognitive abilities, including creativity, comprehensive wisdom, and problem-solving.
ASI would be able to surpass the intelligence of even the best human minds in almost any area, from scientific creativity to general wisdom, to social or individual understanding.
3. In what ways do you believe AI will most significantly impact society in the next decade?
AI will enable businesses to achieve higher efficiency with fewer employees. This shift will be driven by the continuous advancement of technology, which will allow you to automate various tasks, streamline operations, and offer more personalized experiences to customers.
Businesses will build their own customized digital workers. These AI agents will integrate directly with a companys tools and systems. They will automate tedious tasks, collaborate via chat, provide support, generate reports, and much more.
The potential to offload repetitive work and empower employees is immense. Recent research suggests that around 30% of activities currently performed by humans could be automated with AI agents. This will allow people to focus their energy on more meaningful and creative responsibilities.
Agents will perform work 24/7 without getting tired or getting overwhelmed. So, companies will get more done with smaller teams, reducing hiring demands. Individuals will take on only the most impactful high-value work suited to human ingenuity.
4. What do you think is the biggest benefit associated with AI?
AI enhances productivity by automating complex workflows and introducing digital coworkers or specialized AI agents, leading to potential 10x productivity gains.
For example, AI automation will be accessible to organizations of any size or industry. There will be flexible no-code interfaces that allow anyone to build agents tailored to their needs. Whether its finance, healthcare, education or beyond AI will help enterprises globally unlock new levels of productivity.
The future of work blending collaborative digital and human team members is nearer than many realize. And multi-agent systems are the key to unlocking this potential and skyrocketing productivity.
5. and the biggest risk of AI?
The integration of AI in the workplace highlights and enables mediocre workers in some cases. As AI takes over routine and repetitive tasks, human workers need to adapt and develop new skills to stay relevant
6. In your opinion, will AI have a net positive impact on society?
I will be very grateful to present a campaign to improve the general good of the world by making sure many people become aware of and exploit the opportunities within Multi-Agent Systems Engineering (MASE) capabilities. That will enable the implementation of AI agents for benevolent purposes.
In the future, non-programmers will easily assemble specialized AI agents with the help of basic elements of logic, somewhat similar to children assembling their LEGO blocks. I would advocate for platforms like SmythOS that abstract away AI complexities so domain experts can teach virtual assistants. With reusable components and public model access, people can construct exactly the intelligent help they need.
And collaborative agent teams would unlock exponentially more value, coordinating interdependent goals. A conservation agent could model sustainability plans, collaborating with a drone agent collecting wildlife data and a social media agent spreading public awareness.
With some basic training, anyone could become a MASE engineer the architects of this AI-powered future. Rather than passive tech consumption, people would actively create solutions tailored to local needs.
By proliferating MASE design skills and sharing best agent components, I believe we can supercharge global problem solvers to realize grand visions. The collective potential to reshape society for the better rests in empowering more minds to build AI for good. This is the movement I would dedicate myself to sharing.
7. Where are the limits of human control over AI systems?
As AI proliferates, content supply will expand to incredible heights, and it will become impossible for people to be found by their audience unless you are a very big brand with incredible authority. In the post-AI agent world, everyone will have some sort of AI assistant or digital co-worker.
8. Do you think AI can ever truly understand human values or possess consciousness?
While AI continually progresses on rational tasks and data-based decision-making, for now it falls short on emotional intelligence, intuition, and the wisdom that comes from being human. We learned the invaluable lesson that the smartest systems arent the fully automated ones theyre the thoughtfully integrated blend of artificial and human strengths applied at the right times.
In areas like branding, campaign messaging, and customer interactions, we learned to rely more on talent from fields like marketing psychology paired with AI support, not pure unsupervised generative text. This balancing act between automated solutions and human-centric work is key for delivering business results while preserving that human touch that builds bonds, trust, and rapport.
This experience highlighted that todays AI still has significant limitations when it comes to emotional intelligence, cultural awareness, wisdom, and other intrinsically human qualities.
Logical reasoning and statistical patterns are one thing but true connection involves nuanced insight into complex psychological dynamics. No amount of data or processing power can yet replicate life experiences and the layered understandings they impart.
For now, AI exists best as collaborative enhancements, not wholesale replacements in areas fundamental to the human experience. The most effective solutions augment people rather than supplant them handling rote administrative tasks while empowering human creativity, judgment, and interpersonal skills.
Fields dealing directly in sensitive human matters like healthcare, education and governance need a delicate balance of automation coupled with experienced professionals. Especially when ethical considerations around bias are paramount.
Blending AIs speed and scalability with human wisdom and oversight is how we manifest the best possible futures. Neither is sufficient alone. This balance underpins our vision for SmythOS keeping a person in the loop for meaningful guidance while AI agents tackle tedious minutiae.
The limitations reveal where humans must lead, govern, and collaborate. AI is an incredible asset when thoughtfully directed, but alone lacks the maturity for full responsibility in societys foundational pillars. We have much refinement ahead before artificial intelligence rivals emotional and contextual human intelligence. Discerning appropriate integration is key as technology steadily advances.
9. Do you think your job as an entrepreneur will ever be replaced by AI?
Regarding job displacement we see AI as empowering staff, not replacing them. The goal is to effectively collaborate with artificial teammates to unlock new levels of innovation and fulfillment. We believe the future is blended teams with humans directing priorities while AI handles repetitive tasks.
Rather than redundancy, its an opportunity to elevate people towards more satisfying responsibilities better leveraging their abilities. Time freed from drudgery opens creative avenues previously unattainable when bogged down in administrative tasks. Just as past innovations like factories or computers inspired new human-centered progress, AI can propel society forward if harnessed judiciously.
With conscientious governance and empathy, automation can transform businesses without devaluing humanity. Blending inclusive policies and moral AI systems to elevate both artificial and human potential, we aim for SmythOS to responsibly unlock a brighter collaborative future.
10. We will reach AGI by the year?
I think that one one-year window is too short to achieve AGI in general. I think that we (humans) will discover challenges and face delusions on some aspects, in order to re-evaluate our expectations from AI, and maybe AGI is not actually the holy grail, and instead, we should focus on AIs that will multiply our capabilities, instead of ones that could potentially replace us
Have you seen rumors on the internet that WordPress is outdated?
WordPress is the most popular website builder on the market, powering about 43% of the websites. With its large market share, flexibility, and regular updates, it is safe to say that WordPress is not outdated at all.
However, you may have seen some blog posts or threads on the internet convincing you not to build a website on the platform.
In this article, we will discuss if WordPress is outdated and shed some light on the good, bad, and ugly side of the platform.
Is WordPress Really Outdated?
WordPress is an open-source software that is completely free, flexible, and easy to use.
WordPress is also highly popular. It holds over 64% of the CMS market share, and about 36% of the top 10,000 websites are powered by WordPress, showing that it is the best website builder on the market.
Plus, many big-name brands like Sony Music, CNN, and Disney Books have also used WordPress to build their websites.
So, if WordPress was outdated, then why would some of the most popular brands in the world use it to power their websites?
The answer is that WordPress is updated regularly, is secure, and cost-effective, along with plenty of customization options for all kinds of website owners and small businesses.
In short, the blog posts that you may have seen on the internet about WordPress dying are untrue. These rumors are usually promoted by people who use other alternatives and are convinced that those platforms are better than WordPress.
Having said that, let’s look at WordPress’s good, bad, and ugly sides to determine if the platform is outdated. You can use the quick links below to jump to the different parts of our discussion:
First, let’s take a look at some of the advantages of using WordPress as a website builder to prove that it isn’t outdated at all.
1. Regular Updates
WordPress has around 2-3 major releases each year. These updates normally introduce new features and improvements, along with measures to minimize security vulnerabilities.
Additionally, WordPress also gets some minor updates every few weeks that focus on bug issues, boosting performance, and any minor security problems.
Since WordPress is open source, it is maintained by developers all over the world who also fix errors and even add new features that are then released in major updates throughout the year.
Another benefit of WordPress is that it is automatically updated every time there is a minor release, so you won’t have to waste time doing it yourself.
We recommend always using the latest version of WordPress to add new features, improve performance, and stay updated with the latest industry standards.
WordPress is super popular due to its ease of use and flexibility. This means you don’t need any coding knowledge to build a website on the platform.
That is why there are almost 4 million WordPress blogs and websites in the USA alone.
The platform has a clean and user-friendly interface with a very straightforward menu on the left side of the screen. This makes it easy for beginners to manage their websites right from the dashboard.
WordPress also offers the block editor, where you can use different blocks from the panel, including image, heading, video, quote, column, or group blocks to create posts and pages.
Additionally, it is flexible and allows you to add all kinds of customizations using WordPress themes and plugins.
For example, you could use a theme like Astra or a theme builder like SeedProd to build an attractive site.
Similarly, you can also add contact forms, build online stores, add social media icons, create lead generation campaigns, and so much more using the 59,000 plugins available in the WordPress.org directory.
WordPress is SEO-friendly and up-to-date with the latest SEO standards because it uses clean and semantic code, which is easy to understand for search engines like Google.
Plus, it allows you to customize your permalink structure, easily add titles and meta descriptions, and comes with built-in taxonomies in the form of categories and tags.
This makes it easier for users to organize their content and improve their search engine rankings.
All these settings are available in WordPress by default and can easily be configured right from your dashboard. You can also use some plugins and tools to optimize your content further.
It allows you to add titles and meta descriptions and comes with features like a broken link assistant, XML sitemaps, on-page SEO analysis, a robots.txt editor, social media cards, a redirection manager, and more.
Plus, it has schema markup for articles, products, FAQs, and recipes that can boost your rankings and organic click-through rate.
A lot of users on the internet believe that WordPress is overly vulnerable to hackers, malware, and bugs.
However, that is an over-exaggeration.
WordPress is a secure platform that is monitored by security experts worldwide. Since it is open source, its source code is always available for developers to study and debug security issues.
You can even add an extra layer of security to your WordPress site by using popular security plugins like Sucuri. This tool adds a firewall that prevents bad traffic, hackers, and malware from reaching your server.
Plus, Sucuri uses a content delivery network (CDN), which can boost your website’s performance and speed.
Apart from WordPress, all the themes and plugins that you are using are also secure because most premium plugins pay security experts to audit their code. This means that even if malware is found in a theme or plugin, it is patched up pretty quickly.
Plus, plugins submitted to the free WordPress plugin repository must meet certain security and coding standards.
Still, we recommend using security plugins, site backups, strong passwords, and regular updates to make your WordPress site completely secure. For more details, please take a look at our WordPress security guide.
5. Community
WordPress is not outdated because it’s still wildly popular. It boasts a huge community of individuals, including bloggers, developers, and designers, who regularly contribute to the platform.
The WordPress community is known for its inclusivity. It generates a wealth of resources such as forums, blogs, documentation, tutorials, and video guides to help beginners learn and grow their websites.
For example, the WordPress translation community has fully translated the CMS into over 50 languages and partially translated more than 200.
Individuals and teams all over the world also organize WordCamps and meetups each year to promote global collaboration and share their love of WordPress.
The WordPress community also allows you to contribute your skills to different projects, access support, and provide opportunities to learn from other members of the community.
You can even post job listings for writers, developers, or designers on the WordPress.org website.
Overall, the community is an integral part of WordPress and can be a valuable resource for beginners who are just starting with the platform.
6. Scalable
WordPress isn’t an outdated option because it can be used for all sizes of websites and online businesses, meaning that you can grow from within the platform.
WordPress can be highly scalable if you use the right tools on your website. A lot of WordPress sites on the internet have very high traffic volume and perform exceptionally well.
For example, there are plenty of reliable WordPress hosting services that can handle a high level of traffic without hurting your site’s speed.
While we think WordPress is a great option for all kinds of websites, there are some potential downsides to using the platform. Here are some cons of using WordPress as your website builder.
1. Reliance on WordPress Plugins
The WordPress.org directory offers more than 59,000 free WordPress plugins. This guarantees that you can find pretty much any tool you need to add new functionality to your website.
While that is a huge benefit, it also means that your website could be heavily reliant on different plugins to add features.
WordPress plugins may sometimes conflict with other plugins or WordPress’s latest software version, which can cause unexpected issues. For example, if you use two plugins that offer the same functionality, then that can lead to some errors.
Not all free plugins receive ongoing support, either. You may install a plugin on your website, only for it to be abandoned by the developer later and become outdated. This can introduce security vulnerabilities or cause WordPress errors.
However, it is important to remember that WordPress plugins go through quite a bit of testing before they are added to the plugin directory. Most of them work nicely, and some may even improve site performance. Still, it is important to be mindful of the potential downsides of using outdated plugins.
WordPress is super easy to navigate, but you can sometimes run into some common errors that can sound scary or even prevent you from accessing your site.
For example, you may come across the Internal Server Error when you are trying to visit your website because the server has run into a problem that it cannot recognize.
In that case, it will be up to you to identify and fix the error. To do this, you can try clearing your browser cache, reuploading core files, increasing the PHP memory limit, or deactivating all your WordPress plugins.
Other than that, you may also see other WordPress errors like the 504 gateway timeout, password reset, RSS feed error, or WordPress not sending email errors. While they might sound scary, you can easily fix them using the resources available on the internet and WordPress community forums.
WordPress.org is completely free because it is an open-source platform.
However, the cost starts adding up when you need to purchase a domain name and web hosting for your website. A domain name is your website’s name on the internet, like www.wpbeginner.com,and can cost up to $14.99/year.
On the other hand, a hosting plan typically starts from $7.99/month. This can be expensive if you have just started and are on a shoestring budget.
Fortunately, you can get around this by choosing a cheap WordPress hosting provider like Bluehost, which is one of the largest hosting companies on the market. Essentially, you can get started for $2.75 per month.
Some people claim that WordPress is outdated because some WordPress websites are slow-loading and have performance issues.
Although WordPress is a scalable platform, that doesn’t mean that your website will automatically be fast. It can still suffer from performance issues that can hurt the user experience and search engine rankings.
Some of the common reasons for slow website speed can be a poor hosting plan, large image sizes, excessive plugins, unoptimized code, or database issues.
Most importantly, you should ensure that you are using a WordPress caching plugin like WP Rocket. This ensures that your website can handle more traffic without slowing down your server.
WordPress isn’t perfect, so here are some more serious disadvantages to consider if you start using it for your website.
1. Needs Regular Maintenance
Even though WordPress is a great website builder, you will still have to perform some regular maintenance tasks to keep your site secure and fast.
For example, we recommend always updating your WordPress to the latest version.
Next, you must create regular WordPress backups, optimize your database, and run performance tests. You should also try changing your site password now and then because it is the first defense against hackers trying to access your website.
While these tasks are necessary, they can be frustrating and time-consuming. Plus, not doing them can hurt your site’s performance and expose it to security vulnerabilities.
However, if doing these tasks feels like too much work, then you can opt for Seahawk Media Services instead. They are the best WordPress services provider that can perform regular maintenance tasks for you so that you don’t need to worry about anything.
Other than that, Seahawk Media also offers speed optimization, SEO optimization, site migration, hacked site repair, website rebuilding, content writing, and so many other services.
Alternatively, you could choose a managed WordPress hosting provider like WP Engine. Their plans start at $20 per month and include VIP hosting services like managed updates, advanced WordPress security, daily and on-demand backups, and a built-in activity log.
2. Bloated Code
WordPress is sometimes accused of being outdated and having bloated code because it has a lot of built-in features for a wide range of websites. However, a lot of these settings are optional and may not be needed by all sites.
These features can add extra code to your pages, which can slow down load times. That being said, the easiest way to get rid of bloated code is to disable all the settings that you don’t want to use on your website.
For example, you can disable the pingback feature that notifies other blogs when you link to them. This functionality is not necessary for all kinds of websites and adds unnecessary bloat to your database.
You can also disable emojis, default themes, and unused plugins to make your site faster. However, we recommend carefully considering features before disabling them, especially if you are new to WordPress.
What Is the Future of WordPress?
After looking at the good, bad, and ugly sides of WordPress, we have concluded that WordPress is not outdated at all and its future is bright.
It is a robust platform that performs regular updates and is SEO-friendly, scalable, and secure, making it the perfect choice to build a website.
Plus, its popularity and community are growing, and it’s even a highly popular platform for online stores, with over 5 million websites powered by WooCommerce alone.
We also expect Artificial Intelligence (AI) to become an integral part of WordPress in the future, and we believe the platform will continue to grow and evolve in the coming years.
If you would like some more information, then you can see our guide on the future of WordPress and what to expect.
Frequently Asked Questions About WordPress
Here are some questions that are frequently asked by our readers about WordPress:
Is WordPress still relevant in 2024?
The answer is yes. WordPress is still relevant in 2024, considering that it powers over 43% of all websites globally.
It is open-source, free, user-friendly, and offers a vast library of plugins and themes that extend WordPress’s functionality, making it the preferred choice for building a website for many users.
Are WordPress sites outdated?
WordPress itself is regularly maintained and updated with new features and security patches. This means that all the websites using the latest WordPress version can be quite modern.
However, some websites on the internet may be using an outdated theme or plugins or a very old version of WordPress, which can lead to a hack.
If you keep your core software, themes, and plugins updated, your WordPress site can be just as modern and secure as one built on a different platform.
Is WordPress losing popularity?
WordPress is still a super popular website builder and holds a 64% share of the Content Management System (CMS) market.
It also boasts a huge community that organizes WordCamps worldwide and promotes global inclusivity. Plus, the community offers extensive plugin support, has translated the platform into over 50 languages, and has forums to help you with your WordPress problems.
Is WordPress really that bad?
No, WordPress is actually a very user-friendly platform where you can build a website without any coding knowledge. It is used by some of the top companies in the world and is super scalable.
We hope this article helped you learn if WordPress is outdated, with an overview of its good, bad, and ugly sides. You may also want to see our complete WordPress review and our guide on why you should use WordPress.
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