Earlier quoted context omitted.
We don't have evidence there is anyone else in the Foundation with any power. WordPress.org is owned personally by Matt.
Yeah, the practical situation there would seem pretty clear. I'm just wondering what theory Mullenweg is trying to express here in support of this action.
WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org
21–30 of 61 posts
Re: WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, the practical situation there would seem pretty clear. I'm just wondering what theory Mullenweg is trying to express here in support of this action.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41641864
Of course the claim of trademark infringement has some plausible iota of basis to it. But I question whether WP Engine is really pursuing legal claims against WordPress.org as Mullenweg says they are, which would be a surprise to me. (Well, except for new claims as a consequence of this action.)
Re: WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org
#23The exaggerations in the post are crazy, that WP engine "broke" websites by disabling the news in the admin dashboard? If I recall that is like a one line code change. They disabled it because Matt published a disparaging post about WP Engine, knowing that it would show up in the admin dashboards of every wordpress install. That post was about them not being "real" wordpress because they disable post revisions (which…
> His own competing managed WordPress service (confusingly named Wordpress.com) disables features as well
They are allowed to do this because Automattic owns the trademark along with WordPress Foundation
Re: WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org
#24The exaggerations in the post are crazy, that WP engine "broke" websites by disabling the news in the admin dashboard? If I recall that is like a one line code change. They disabled it because Matt published a disparaging post about WP Engine, knowing that it would show up in the admin dashboards of every wordpress install. That post was about them not being "real" wordpress because they disable post revisions (which…
> His own competing managed WordPress service (confusingly named Wordpress.com) disables features as well They are allowed to do this because Automattic owns the trademark along with WordPress Foundation
Correct, but his argument that WP Engine is confusing customers is strange when he runs the most confusing part about WordPress (.com vs .org). This tells me it is not really about reducing confusion, but him wanting to get paid because WP Engine is not contributing. Keep in mind Automattic was an early investor in WP Engine and they, along with countless other hosting and plugin businesses, have been using the WordPress name. Failing to go after any of them for over a decade can make it difficult to enforce the trademark. However, this may be the most valid legal avenue he has.
Something I also find interesting is the WordPress foundation trademark terms were changed a couple days ago. Using "WP" was okay, to now calling out "WP Engine" specifically as being confusing: https://www.diffchecker.com/tJ29tGIn/
Re: WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
His reputation wasn't exactly sterling before: https://pearsonified.com/truth-about-thesis-com
Earlier this year, Matt chased a popular Tumblr user he banned under Tumblr's weirdly transphobic TOS to Twitter to harass her publicly. He immediately took a "sabbatical" from Tumblr after this. https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/22/tumblr-ceo-publicly-spars-...
Please point out where Tumblr’s TOS is “weirdly transphobic”. Users who post pornography are banned regardless of gender identity.
Matt’s sabbatical from Automattic was already underway when this incident occurred.
Disclaimer: I work for Automattic but I am speaking personally.
Re: WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org
#26He's lost his mind! Customising the admin dashboard has been something WordPress multisite hosts have been doing for 15+ years! There are tons of plugins on WordPress.org that provide this specific feature. And if you don't want a plugin, you can develop it yourself using supported WordPress-provided dashboard hooks: https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/wp_dashboard...
Same with post revisions - you can download plugins to customise this, or you can do it yourself with WordPress-supported functionality: https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/revisions/
Where is the contract that WP Engine signed, that says they must display posts from their competitors calling them a cancer in their customer's websites? I'm really lost for words - I have no explanation for what's going on in Matt's head.
Re: WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org
#27This is not what ceasing and desisting looks like. If Automattic doesn’t fire MM within a week then we know who wears the pants there. A fork backed by real money is starting to look more likely.
The fork has a name; it's called ClassicPress!
I've been casually keeping track of this - I wasn't sure that it would last. But perhaps it's time for me to take another look at this.
Re: WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org
#28WordPress supports ActivityPub now, so this is also a spat between two massive AP platforms with apocalyptic potential. Someone needs to get follower migration from WordPress to anything else on the AP fediverse done quick. It's inter-instance conflict at incredible scale.
Whatever happens, WordPress isn't going anywhere. At worst, someone will fork and rebrand it, just like Mike and Matt forked and rebranded b2/cafelog to create WordPress. (There are already successful forks like ClassicPress.)
Re: WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
His reputation wasn't exactly sterling before: https://pearsonified.com/truth-about-thesis-com
Earlier this year, Matt chased a popular Tumblr user he banned under Tumblr's weirdly transphobic TOS to Twitter to harass her publicly. He immediately took a "sabbatical" from Tumblr after this. https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/22/tumblr-ceo-publicly-spars-...
Odd that user got singled out, it seems pretty average for Tumblr
Re: WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
> His own competing managed WordPress service (confusingly named Wordpress.com) disables features as well They are allowed to do this because Automattic owns the trademark along with WordPress Foundation
Correct, but his argument that WP Engine is confusing customers is strange when he runs the most confusing part about WordPress (.com vs .org). This tells me it is not really about reducing confusion, but him wanting to get paid because WP Engine is not contributing. Keep in mind Automattic was an early investor in WP Engine and they, along with countless other hosting and plugin businesses, have been using the WordP…
> Using "WP" was okay, to now calling out "WP Engine" specifically as being confusing
That’s the most childish thing out of this whole debacle. It is extremely clear that you cannot just change your terms 10 years after a company has been created in order to exclude it. Any judge would throw that case out of the window in 10 seconds.