Can I See Your ID?

In one of the after shows for WordPress Weekly, I discussed with Brad Potter and Michael Torbert that I would like to see an additional column of information be added to the WordPress backend that would show the Unique ID number of a post or category. The reason being, this type of information is not available in plain site and it seems like many themes have options which require you to know the ID number of something before you can show, hide, or manipulate that data.

It’s true that the ID number can be located by simply hovering the mouse cursor over a post or category when in the backend of WordPress, but I’d like to see that information presented in plain site. Actually, I wouldn’t mind if their was a Screen Option called ID# which would show or hide the column.

The argument against this idea is that a large majority of the WordPress userbase does not need to know this information. At least, not have it available in plain site. The other argument against this idea is that, it’s not a problem until a theme or plugin requires you to know this knowledge. Last but not least, the information is readily available by hovering over a link which means you can still figure out the UID without adding UI to the backend.

So despite hearing the other side of the argument already, I wanted to throw this out there to see what you thought. As it stands, some of the more advanced themes and plugins use this UID information, so is it up to those guys to create a solution which doesn’t require me to figure out a UID for a category or post? Or, by using these more advanced plugins/themes, is it up to me to figure out that I can get the information by hovering over the link? In the end, is this a non-issue, or does it have merit?

Funny thing is, older versions of WordPress actually showed this information in plain view.