WordPress to Gain Tumblr-Style Post Formats

I’ve talked a little before about how WordPress 3.0’s custom post types made it possible, if you don’t mind doing a bit of coding, to turn your WordPress blog into a “tumbleblog.” A little while after, WooThemes released a plugin to make it a bit simpler.

Now, with development for WordPress 3.1 underway, there has been some talk of building “post formats” into the WordPress core. The general idea thus far is to create optional post formats that behave like Tumblr, enabling theme developers to turn them on selectively. Suppose I ran a photography blog that published one-off photos now and then between full posts. It would be great to be able to easily style these posts differently in the theme and to have a separate posting interface tooled with images in mind. Or you could use it to do Gruber-style link posts.

There’s an ongoing discussion going on over at the WordPress development prologue.