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Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

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Re: Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

#11

Post by 0xy »

Jcampuzano2 wrote: post #4

This is just getting petty at this point. What kind of normal person or business operates this way - especially during an ongoing lawsuit. I can't see how anybody who knows a bit about the situation would ever want to continue to be affiliated with Wordpress knowing this guy could go over the top at any moment.

I have no dog in this race, but the behavior does seem ill-advised even if you look at it through a pure legal lens. WP Engine's lawyers must be having a field day with this stuff.

Is he just totally ignoring his own lawyers? He has to be, because no lawyer who charges more than $20 an hour would tell him any of this is advisable.

Re: Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

#12

Post by noirscape »

Ridiculously petty. I genuinely wonder how the fuck Matt and Automattics lawyers are gonna argue him out of this shit, because this is pretty much just giving free arguments to your opposition when it comes to arguing that Automattic is self-dealing.

Re: Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

#14

Post by moomin »

What is going on here? I understand that open source companies have a free rider problem, and will naturally take steps to deal with that, but some of the recent activities seem… strange.

I’m thinking part of the problem is that the software itself is GPL and so is it’s ecosystem, which means that the standard next step of changing the license (followed by an inevitable fork) is infeasible.

Re: Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

#15

Post by TechRemarker »

0xy wrote: post #11
Jcampuzano2 wrote: post #4

This is just getting petty at this point. What kind of normal person or business operates this way - especially during an ongoing lawsuit. I can't see how anybody who knows a bit about the situation would ever want to continue to be affiliated with Wordpress knowing this guy could go over the top at any moment.

I have no dog in this race, but the behavior does seem ill-advised even if you look at it through a pure legal lens. WP Engine's lawyers must be having a field day with this stuff. Is he just totally ignoring his own lawyers? He has to be, because no lawyer who charges more than $20 an hour would tell him any of this is advisable.

Yes, very odd, since the class name for that new checkbox is even, "login-lawsuit".

Re: Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

#16

Post by cat_multiverse »

alwa wrote: post #8

Is there really nobody in the Wordpress.org organization who can provide a check on this kind of behavior? Or do they really collectively share this Matt character’s attitude toward professionalism?

Well, clearly there's someone who can provide a check box at least!

Re: Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

#18

Post by Zealotux »

benmmurphy wrote: post #17

Is it mandatory to check it to login? The default is unchecked. I doubt normal users would check it unless they are forced to.

It is mandatory, and one of the CSS classes used is "login-lawsuit." Incredibly unprofessional, I would be mortified to push something like that into production.

Re: Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

#19

Post by JimDabell »

There’s a thread on X here with screenshots of the WordPress Slack, where Mullenweg seems deliberately vague when people ask him what counts as “affiliated in any way”. It seems like he wants to spread Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt about what can get you banned. People who have been asking him awkward questions in the Slack have started to get banned from there as well.

https://x.com/javiercasares/status/1843963052183433331

This is shunning, which is literally one of the hallmarks of a cult. If you are associated in any way with a suppressive person (WP Engine), you now cannot be a member of the WordPress.org community. Members of the community have to decide whether to shun WP Engine or be excommunicated themselves. He’s trying to use the community as a weapon.

It also seems a fertile ground to claim tortious interference. He’s trying to sever relationships between WP Engine and everybody they interact with.

Re: Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

#20

Post by pluc »

JimDabell wrote: post #19

There’s a thread on X here with screenshots of the WordPress Slack, where Mullenweg seems deliberately vague when people ask him what counts as “affiliated in any way”. It seems like he wants to spread Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt about what can get you banned. People who have been asking him awkward questions in the Slack have started to get banned from there as well. https://x.com/javiercasares/status/1843963052183…

I mean he already made sure his entire company were entirely yes-men who agreed with his behaviour. It's not a stretch to say he'd like to do the same with the community, especially given his actions of basically begging WPEngine to create an alternate ecosystem he is removed from. Nuts.
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