P2 powers internal collaboration at WordPress.com, and is now free

There is a live demo here https://p2customers.p2.blog/

I don't get it. Looks like a regular news wall with endless scrolling and comments expanded.

Except anybody can post an announcement on top? and the previous ones disappear under the constant flow?

I'm sure this used to be a theme for WordPress at one point? Either way, it's really unusual how Automattic haven't released it to the public

> Can I self-host my P2? Not at the moment, but we plan to offer this option in the future.

Yea - I see it as weird too. The only reason I'm still an advocate for WordPress are the self-host-ability/full customization aspects. Otherwise, you're just another Medium that's going to take my data and use it against me.

Honestly, I wouldn't touch this until Automattic publishes the code. To a old-timer who's been leveraging WP for well over a decade: ew.

I work at Automattic, and p2 is (in my mind) _the_ thing that makes our remote-only culture work. We don't really use email that much or other forms of async chat. When synchronous chat (like Slack) gets to be too in-depth, our motto is "p2 or it didn't happen." p2 has the widest visibility in the company -- anyone can search for a p2 post, or cross-post to other teams and divisions. Since many teams are spread across the globe, async conversations are crucial to staying aligned. That's why any kind of in-depth conversation, technical analysis, or decision making happens on p2.

Company culture is also important to making it work, in my mind. p2 is viewed as the source of truth for many conversations (including meeting notes and summaries of slack conversations), which is part of how it works. Additionally, anyone across the company is empowered to post on any p2 to start conversations, ask questions, or kickstart lengthy, technical discussions.

In response to another commenter, Automattic has been using p2 as its main form of async internal communication for years before it even hit 1k employees, so it's not the kind of thing which requires a ton of people to work. Once a few hundred people using it as the main form of async conversation, there is certainly more content than any one person can consume. :)

For context, a8c started using a prior version of p2 like eleven or twelve years ago, when we were positively dozens of people. We have smaller p2s for teams of three to four people.

tl;dr: nah, doesn't need thousands of people to be useful.