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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"

#181

Post by everforward »

nchmy wrote: post #86
joshtynjala wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's appeared in several of related threads here on HN. He is always asked about his lawyers, and he repeatedly claims that they're cool with his behavior.

That's obviously a lie. And one of his lawyers - the fool that he is - literally confirmed it earlier today in another thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41784343 "Despite our sometimes fervent wishes, lawyers don't control clients. We are not puppeteers"

I’m somewhat doubting that actually is his lawyer, though no one appears to be denying that it is.

It just feels so very odd. Why would Matt’s lawyer care what people say here? He doesn’t have to convince of us anything. The PR folks would like to convince us of stuff and I wouldn’t be surprised if they showed up, but why legal?

And what kind of lawyer says that about a client in an ongoing case on a public forum using an account in their own name?! It’s a level of unprofessionalism that I struggle to believe a reputable lawyer would engage in. If Matt is unreasonable to the point of needing to make a public comment, Neil should have just forced him to find new council and quit.

I’ll likely never have need for this specific type of council, but if I do there’s a brand new list of people I won’t hire with only a single name on it.

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

#182

Post by jart »

LordAtlas wrote: post #58
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…

He's not the only Wordpress contributor banned from Slack for asking questions about the checkbox: * https://x.com/xwolf/status/1842548019289338346 * https://x.com/rmccue/status/1843967630585311595 * https://x.com/jonoalderson/status/1843985559745921046 * https://x.com/LinuxJedi/status/1843966957495939093 And from Javier's thread, Matt is gaslighting people by telling them to consult attorneys to decide the meaning o…

An "SEO Consultant"? You're using the word "contributor" very loosely.

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

#183

Post by jart »

srmarm wrote: post #79
danielfoster wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'd argue there is a moral obligation to support open source projects if you rely on them as a cornerstone of your business. However it's not a legal one. 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.

I agree. If Matt was smart, he would have spent the last ten years maintaining his advantage rather than ignoring the problem. Now that he's backed into a corner and forced to get real nasty to survive, I can't believe how much tech people are falling over themselves to shill for the slimy salesman organization. Only tech is like this. Folks like union workers would lay down their lives before crossing a picket line. But the concept of solidarity is completely lost on tech workers. No one turns against their own like us.

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

#184

Post by awoimbee »

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #78

> 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...

The offer was quite good honestly: people who left got a $30k buyout.

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

#185

Post by edanm »

What. The. Hell.

Just to get this straight. If you are in the business of creating websites for clients, and most of them are hosted on Wordpress.com, but a few are hosted on WPEngine, you are now forced to no longer use Wordpress.org and can't participate in the community?

Our company website is hosted on WPEngine, and has been there for years because we don't really touch it much. I literally log in once a year or so. The idea that because of this, I am barred from logging in to Wordpress.org is offensive and disgusting.

I really don't have much of a dog in this fight, I'm a lightweight customer of WPEngine but barely interact with it so don't care much. All I know is - I'll never, ever agree to work with Wordpress again.

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

#186

Post by herbst »

QQ00 wrote: post #94
dylan604 wrote: post #90

This whole bit of drama really makes me glad I never invested time/energy in WordPress. It's like Real Housewives of Computer Nerds level of whining, and feels just as fake. Regardless of right/wrong, the whole thing has just turned into a 80s made for TV type of situation. There was a much better way at handling this, but somebody had access to social media and the wheels promptly fell off.

but what's better alternative aside from rolling your own CMS?

Basically any web programming stack offers a database editor/admin panel. Imagine a clean phpmyadmin with WYSIWYG editor and full/more control.

Imo it's easier to just roll a fresh rails project and use any admin gem than to write a custom theme for Wordpress

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

#187

Post by pembrook »

doublerabbit wrote: post #108
pembrook wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a million standalone CMS’s (headless) and standalone site builders (ranging from pure technical to no-code to no-design) and even sitebuilders with robust CMS’s attached these days (eg. Webflow). There’s zero reason to use Wordpress in 2024 imo.

> There’s zero reason to use Wordpress IMO in 2024. Many folk, companies don't have the resources nor skillset to set up a LAMP equivalent for such. If you want to be the next wonder-host for $CMS be my guest. I recommend Kirby. No database required and only uses text files for its backend. https://getkirby.com/

No database required, but you’re still tied to being a “wonder-host” for Kirby.

I’ve used it before, and many clients sites are now dead because their web host didn’t want to support old PHP versions anymore.

Any cloud-based CMS doesn’t have that problem.

That, plus, Kirby just isn’t robust enough to compare to something like Webflow.

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

#188

Post by [deleted] »

jart wrote: post #47
danielfoster wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How would you feel about Google if they used things like Linux and never contributed anything to open source? As the most profitable entity in the WordPress space, WPE has a duty to give something back. What Matt is asking for isn't unreasonable.

[deleted]

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

#189

Post by lsaferite »

tedivm wrote: post #110
AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #88

“WP Engine is free to offer their hacked up, bastardized simulacra of WordPress’s GPL code to their customers, and they can experience WordPress as WP Engine envisions it" Does anyone know what the context about this is? What did WP-Engine change which Matt disliked? As I understand they were disabling page revision history (but would enable it if you asked) and only because they had some other proprietary to wp-engi…

Honestly this seems like Matt just wants WP Engine to give him a ton of money, and when they refused his extortion he threw a temper tantrum and abused his dual lead as head of Wordpress.com (the commercial wordpress) and Wordpress.org (the supposedly independent foundation). The lawsuit that WPEngine filed against Automatic and Matt specifically is a hell of a read. https://wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Co…

The foundation isn't even 'wordpress.org', it's 'wordpressfoundation.org'. The 'wordpress.org' site is wholly owned and managed by Matt (using Automatic resources from what he's said).

So, it's not just his dual role, it's his triple role.

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

#190

Post by miragecraft »

I have no horse in this race, my site is powered by Kirby CMS due to my preference for simplicity and security.

Wordpress seems like the dying Emperor in 40k where the daily sacrifice of thousands of psykers (developers) is the only thing sustaining its life.

If this drama craters the developer base then Wordpress might collapse under its own weight.

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