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WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

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Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#121

Even if they find a middle ground to this mess that Matt has created, I very much fear that the damage to the community is done and it's only a matter of time before the popularity of the once famous platform that almost everyone uses in one way or another collapses.

Depends how good their PR is. By all accounts, their current PR is not very good

I think their current PR seems to be Matt Mullenweg himself.

And the more I hear him speak - having never really concerned myself with anything he said - the more loopy and disconnected from reality he seems. Post-economic!

Sometimes it’s great to have a slightly crazy visionary with utopian ideals who is prepared to say whatever they think will effect change. But also: Elon.

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#122

They either have some of the best or worst legal counsel; or they just ignore the legal counsel.

They also have the worst social media team I have ever seen: https://x.com/WordPress/status/1845121130207535524

What's that in response to? I don't have an account so don't seem to see anything beyond 'Sorry, who are you?'

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#123
post #7

Mullenweg calls it a fork. I could see that being somewhat okay if it's indeed for security fixes, but removing the upsells is petty at the very least. But a fork doesn't take control of the original, so I wonder what they did there? Perhaps a redirect from the ACF entry to SCF? To be honest, none of this makes WordPress look good... It just seems like a douche move.

It can hardly be called a fork when you wipe every mention of the original dev team in the codebase, and start a fresh changelog with 'Patched security fixes' whilst thanking his team. It's an absolute takeover not a fork.

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#124
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Linux, not even in user space: ZFS is developed as a kernel module rather than mainline Linux kernel because of its incompatible with GPL license. Or Nvidia's Linux driver aren't even open sourced. Well AMD has proprietary Linux drivers too, but they have an open sourced one also.

Not detracting from the point you're making, but the kernel side for Nvidia drivers for Linux is published on GitHub, by Nvidia. The userspace side is still delivered as pre-compiled binaries, tough.

You're right. But that's a somewhat recent (2 years) release and not compatible with as many GPUs as their closed source kernel side ones drivers, which are still on version parity.

My 1080Ti isn't compatible with those drivers, so I do forget about the open sourced ones.

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#125
post #94

Wow, the WordPress name is being ploughed into the ground with this sort of behaviour.

Well, they banned Wpengine from updating their package in the repository. Then the package maintainers found security problems - which they can’t fix with an update because they’re locked out. It makes a weird sort of sense. Ie, wp.org backed themselves into a corner where they needed to close the security hole. And to do that, they needed to patch it themselves, which in turn requires them taking over the package. I…

They could have backed down and allowed WPEngine to publish an update or even published it on their behalf. Instead they've doubled down and taken this ridiculous action that undermines the whole wp/plugin eco system.

None of this is necessary.

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#126
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That one of Matts claims. Personally I suspect the actual trigger was WPE removing Automattic's affiliate key from WooCommerce and costing them $m/y of revenue.

Our attempts at resolving trademark issues with WPE predate our discovery of the attribution removal.

Who is our in this context?

If you are a party to this dispute, why on Earth would you comment publicly?

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#127
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our attempts at resolving trademark issues with WPE predate our discovery of the attribution removal.

What do you mean by “trademark issues”? Is this about the WP in the WPEngine’s name? If yes, what about other companies in a similar position?

The abbreviation "WP" was initially permitted for use before they retroactively changed it a few days ago. Saying "We host WordPress" on WPEngine's site constitutes as much trademark violation as a random shoe shop listing Nike shoes in their catalog. It seems this is more about attempting to undermine a competitor, with trademark issues serving merely as an excuse.

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#129
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also have the worst social media team I have ever seen: https://x.com/WordPress/status/1845121130207535524

What's that in response to? I don't have an account so don't seem to see anything beyond 'Sorry, who are you?'

According to https://bullenweg.com/#matt-uses-wordpress-to-dismiss-founde... , "Laura Elizabeth, founder of WordPress Plugin Client Portal" posted "Guess I can’t contribute to WordPress "

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#130

So, ACF injected notices into everyone's dashboards to push their own legal agenda. It’s a move that reeks of self-interest more than community benefit. While everyone’s ready to grab their pitchforks at Matt, this actually sounds somewhat reasonable. Still, given its impact, this could easily be seen as a breach of trust. Definitely a move that's going to stir the pot.

Assuming the notices are real and a problem, Automattic should cite that instead of making it about security issues. As it stands, that's just a claim.
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