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The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

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Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#91

Post by chiefalchemist »

jzb wrote: post #58
bullenweg wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The inclusion of the nosebleed is not to make fun of Matt, it is to highlight something relevant to the medical issues that people have speculated about. The motivation is to bring to light Matt's wide-ranging exploits in one place, given it is abnormal for someone involved in high-profile litigation to spend their time arguing on Hacker News, Reddit, Twitter and live streams.

People are signaling to you that this particular thing crosses a line. You'd do well to heed that and take that part out. Speculating on his health / insinuating things undermines the points you're trying to make.

In the context of man off the rails, wrecking careers and reputations, etc. the nose bleed is a possible signal. It's not something to be ignored, again based on the context.

Frankly, it would explain a lot. Cause as it is, it's baffling.

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#92

Post by andrewmcwatters »

I started a thread here a couple of weeks ago, "Ask HN: What's a Good Alternative to WordPress" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41731867

I feel like it's time to move off Wordpress. I don't feel comfortable about its future for my clients.

What suggestions do you all have for alternatives?

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#93

Post by hooverd »

luuurker wrote: post #67
lexicality wrote: post #13

It's very funny that Matt's original complaint was that WPEngine didn't contribute enough, and he has now banned them from contributing and stolen what they had previously provided

> [...] and stolen [...] I'm not happy with the mess and Matt's behaviour, but you can't steal free code.

What Matt did is basically a supply chain attack.

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#94

Post by Scaevolus »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #88
Scaevolus wrote: post #65

Does anyone want to play armchair internet psychologist with me to speculate as to Matt's thinking here? My guess is that he was focused on these facts: 1) I own Wordpress 2) WPEngine is profiting from Wordpress and I'm not benefiting 3) This is unfair And it was stuck in his mind like a thorn, irritating him whenever the thought arose, and never went away. Commercializing open source is hard for myriad reasons, but…

I hate to speculate, especially from a distance. But I do wonder: - Why now? What snapped? Clearly WPE didn't go to "billions" over night. So why go nuclear now? - Doesn't he have a close and immediate circle of advisors and confidants? Are they speaking to him and he's not listen? Or has he locked himself in a room so to speak and is completely unapproachable? Either way, not good. - Is he trying to force WPE to for…

It is sad.

I imagine a near future result will be WPE maintaining a fork of WordPress and the plugin repo, with WP demanding plugin authors disclaim any association with WPE.

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#95

Post by chx »

capitainenemo wrote: post #15
sccxy wrote: post #9

Trust is lost forever. These are good times for Wordpress alternatives to shine.

Drupal?

I am the last person in this world to malign Drupal, I have been contributing for twenty long, long years to it.

But no, Drupal is not an alternative to Wordpress. Perhaps ten years ago but even then barely. Now? That's like saying a Kenworth semi is an alternative to a motorcycle. Sure, you can get from A to B on either but beyond that, they are really different tools for different jobs.

Maybe the new "Drupal CMS" (nee Starshot) initiative will bring them into direct competition again. We will see.

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#96

Post by softwaredoug »

sangnoir wrote: post #38
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #10

Calling it right now: If WP Engine is reading, fork WordPress now. Call it FreshPress. Put $25M into it, team up with other hosts, abandon the editor everyone hates, and relicense it to GPLv3 so Matt can’t have any of it. (Note that WordPress’s license specifically says GPLv2 or later.) Maybe support Composer like sane modern PHP projects. Maybe put the most important plugins like Woo into core and make it an all-in-…

> Put $25M into it...then he’ll realize his bluff has been called I don't think Matt will be too displeased with WPEngine investing $25 million into a fork. He may even feel vindicated.

Ha or we may find all this has actually nothing to do with any values

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#97

Post by kstrauser »

ChocolateGod wrote: post #86
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GPLv3 code can’t go into a GPLv2 project - but “GPLv2 or later” licensed code can go into a GPLv3 project. The main reason is that Matt wouldn’t be able to freeload without relicensing WordPress - which would be a massive headache for him and his partners to go through; and the reason would be patently and embarrassingly obvious. The goal I described earlier is not to make a WordPress clone that just happens to be fr…

> GPLv3 code can’t go into a GPLv2 project - but “GPLv2 or later” licensed code can go into a GPLv3 project. Has this been proven in court, not implying the legality would be respected in this case though.

Yes, the GPL in general has been upheld in court. The gist is that the GPL is the only thing giving anyone any right at all to distribute code licensed under it. If you don’t follow its terms, you no longer have that permission.

The question isn’t whether the GPL can restrict you from doing something. It’s just that in the absence of the GPL, you fall back to the default legal rights where you’re not allowed to make copies of that code.

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#98

Post by kstrauser »

usea wrote: post #68
getcrunk wrote: post #35

A lot of the comments seem to call out Matt (right or wrong). But that’s the easy thing to do. No one dares address the systemic issue of for profit corporations exploitatively (ab)using open source software. There is a social contract that people should contribute back, and while it’s largely unenforceable, as it should be, when it’s happening on a systemic level something has to be done. And we are all complicit if…

> There is a social contract that people should contribute back No there isn't. The author gets to decide the contract, not you or anyone else. I am the one who decides how to license my software. If I don't want to require my users to contribute, I don't have to. If I wanted to include such an obligation, I would have. You don't get to hold users of my projects to unwritten, made-up obligations. You don't get to bul…

Agreed. I’ve released software under GPL, MIT, and Apache2 at different times and for different reasons. No one owes me a thing other than what those licenses say they do. Morally, if someone gets rich off my code, it’d be awfully nice if they send some love and cash my way. That would be nice and honorable. They’re not obligated to, though.

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#99

Post by thanksgiving »

lolinder wrote: post #52
sangnoir wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not inherently abusive, consider NPM resurrecting an earlier version of leftpad against author's wish. Who should provide security updates to an open source package when author no longer has access to the repository - voluntarily or otherwise?

> voluntarily or otherwise? You say this like there's not much difference between the two, but there's a world of difference. One is someone yanking a repo and breaking millions of builds across the world and the maintainers of npm stepping in to fix things (in a move that is still controversial, mind you). The other is the maintainers of the WordPress plugin repository starting a self-described "nuclear war" with th…

> One is someone yanking a repo and breaking millions of builds across the world and the maintainers of npm stepping in to fix things (in a move that is still controversial, mind you).

Thank you for stating the move is still controversial. The root issue people always forget was NOT left pad. It was kik. It was not npm’s to take away from the package maintainer and give to someone else. That was the abuse of trust that caused the maintainer to also yank left pad. I am not this maintainer. I don’t know this maintainer. However, if someone went to my email provider for example Gmail and said I can’t use kik at Gmail dot com anymore and this email address would be given to kik now, I would be furious.

Imagine if Toyota came to New York Times and said the New York Times can’t have a page like nytimes.com/toyota The lawyers at the times would tell them to pound sand and or see you in court.

NPM has never acknowledged its grave error of judgment. In fact, its website doubles down saying it stands by its decision.

If you told me Wordpress dot org would manage to outclown the clowns at npm, I would not believe you and yet here we are.

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#100

Post by etchalon »

mplewis wrote: post #83
andrew_lettuce wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think they were all of the sudden going to dramatically start contributing? I see this more as symbolically shutting them out. Nothing in this ongoing situation is about more than optics now

They were already contributing as evidenced by the existence of ACF.

They bought ACF.
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