Add Block: Meta

[melchoyce]

As part of the effort to convert all widgets into blocks for Gutenberg phase 2, I took a look at the Meta widget.

The Meta widget has been around, as far as I can tell, since WordPress 2.2 or WordPress 2.3, released in 2007. It has barely changed in the last twelve years. Creating a comparable block seems trivial:

Should we, though?

From speaking with folks and seeing support tickets, the biggest use-case for the meta widget is providing people a quick and easy way to log in to their sites. We removed it from WordPress.com in 2016, and figuring out how to log in seemed to be the only reason people contacted us about it. If anything, maybe we could consider creating a "log in" block, or include a log in link in the footer by default:

[Ipstenu]

Should this actually be TWO blocks then?

1. Powered By/Login Block (with the ability to edit the text ;) )
2. Follow This Site Block (links to RSS, and make it hookable so Jetpack could add in a link to subscriptions etc)

[StaggerLeee]

It is indeed stupid widget (block). Regardless of it I think any serious CMS should have Login, Register, Forgot password widget (block).

[kjellr]

Unless there's some sort of backwards compatibility concern, I'm not sure it makes sense to include this.

If anything, I think many of these options could just be added as options in a navigation block. For instance, letting people insert "Login/Logout" or "RSS Feed", etc. into their menus.

[melchoyce]

@mapk @youknowriad What do you think about @kjellr's suggestion above?

[mapk]

@kjellr's suggestion makes sense. Let's move forward without the Meta block. I'll close the issue based on this decision.