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This is incredibly troubling; I cannot see myself ever using Wordpress going forward. It is just too risky.
What's the risk? You own the code, and you aren't pre-committed to updating to any new versions in the future. You can just take it and use it on your own forever. Many people do. What's their risk?
Wow, might be time to fork the project.
WPE is the most profitable business in the WordPress space, and they haven't changed a single line of code in WordPress or so much as contributed a dime. So if you're eager to volunteer to be their free labor, be my guest.
If a 'company' is just digital landlordism it's not surprising makers don't want to subsidize your free ride...
Wow, might be time to fork the project.
WPE is the most profitable business in the WordPress space, and they haven't changed a single line of code in WordPress or so much as contributed a dime. So if you're eager to volunteer to be their free labor, be my guest.
They don't get secretly blackmailed and publicly shamed for failure to do so. There are a lot of other WP hosts too (Pantheon, Cloudways, etc.) and they also don't get this same treatment, unless they all silently paid up and we just didn't know...?
Sure, there's a gentleman's understanding that companies with resources should contribute back to the projects they use, but it's not a hard and fast moral or legal code.
It's disturbing and frankly terrifying for all downstream WordPress companies and users for Matt to blow this so out of proportion to the actual crime of "failing to contribute back to open source", which so many of us are guilty of every single day.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the risk? You own the code, and you aren't pre-committed to updating to any new versions in the future. You can just take it and use it on your own forever. Many people do. What's their risk?
> What's the risk? You own the code, and you aren't pre-committed to updating to any new versions in the future. This isn't a static website we're talking about — WordPress is probably one of the most attacked web software in the world given its footprint. WordPress doesn't do LTS releases or backports either.
That just reads like petty tyrantry to me. Stop me if I'm wrong here but isn't wordpress itself just some PHP on top of a database? The value that he's gatekeeping here is actually the contributions of _other open source developers_?
Stop me if I'm wrong but isn't this the pot calling the kettle black?
Wow, that's telling. 8.4% of his company decided he was acting in enough bad faith to quit without another job lined up in this economy? And he takes it as a good sign? Wow...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
WPE is the most profitable business in the WordPress space, and they haven't changed a single line of code in WordPress or so much as contributed a dime. So if you're eager to volunteer to be their free labor, be my guest.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't Wordpress open source? WPE is under no obligation to contribute source code or money. If WP is unhappy with the outcome, they should have released their product under a different license.
Open source is based on idealistic and community based mindset and modern tech is now based around extracting the dollars. The two aren't really compatible and it's really quite sad to see.
That being said this the most stupid way to go about it.
> Last week, Mullenweg announced that he’d given Automattic employees a buyout package, and 159 employees, or roughly 8.4 percent of staff, took the offer. “I feel much lighter,” he wrote. Wow, that's telling. 8.4% of his company decided he was acting in enough bad faith to quit without another job lined up in this economy? And he takes it as a good sign? Wow...
No, they just took the offer. Some probably for that reason, some for other. You'd need to interview them to know their actual views.