Use The Media Library Or Hand Code?

DiggingIntoWordPress.com have released the poll results from January when they asked their audience, How Do You Use The WordPress Media Library? Interesting results to say the least. 30% of voters stated they loved the media library and used it for all media content. Following closely behind was the occasional use for uploading and editing media. The most surprising result of all is the preferred method of hand-coding and uploading images through FTP which had a voting total of 23%. Hard to believe that percentage is so high but I have a story I’d like to tell.

When I started using WordPress and probably for a year after that, I manually uploaded my images through FTP. I manually organized them through folders and linked to them in the post editor. I even created thumbnails by hand using HTML code pasted into the editor. Upon tinkering around in WordPress, I eventually discovered the media library and figured out one day that all of the images I uploaded through it were able to be reused. Up until this point, I would sometimes upload the same image into the media library to use or I would find a link to an image via FTP. What a time saver it was to discover the media library. I wonder if those that voted for hand-coding have just never realized the benefits of using the uploader. Or, if they feel the uploader is inferior to their current methods.

I’m interested in hearing from you on the benefits or negative between hand coding images and using the media uploader, if there are any.