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WordPress retaliation impacts community

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Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community

#11

Post by serial_dev »

bullenweg wrote: post #3

Rumors are that another round of voluntary layoffs are coming to Automattic today. I am optimistic for the future of WordPress because it looks less and less likely to involve Matt. Matt has created the ideal conditions for a fork to succeed: WordPress (the software) is a fixture of the internet, it is never going away no matter how much Matt sabotages it but Matt's control over it is not a foregone conclusion given…

I have been thinking about the alignment offer that Automattic has offered its employees. It’s hard for me to imagine any scenario at any company where I would not take the money and go. Six months of salary is a lot of money for just simply walking away.

To be completely honest, after seeing everything that has transpired, I would be worried that the offer is just a lie, a way to out the detractors. I’m wondering if that’s the reason less than 10% accepted the first offer.

Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community

#12

Post by ookblah »

x3n0ph3n3 wrote: post #5
ookblah wrote: post #2

Been randomly thinking about it since this whole thing started, and beyond the drama it's clear that whether legal or not, Matt intends to use the trademark as a weapon to serve his purposes. If you just look at the timeline and even that response to DHH it feels to me that he has much resentment against others using the software and him not being able to be the largest beneficiary of it. The examples to Shopify bein…

> even that response to DHH Can you link to what you're referring?

i think the original got taken down but you can find it on archive or just searching around

Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community

#13

Post by jcranmer »

dylan604 wrote: post #9
jcranmer wrote: post #8

On the off-chance that Matt is doing the irresponsible thing here and still getting involved in social media discussions on this topic: People don't like being involved in drama, and as we saw with the Freenode debacle, when it starts up, the usual first reaction is to try to chart a path that lets them avoid the drama as much as possible. But when you demand that those people take sides, and pursue a scorched earth…

> People don't like being involved in drama, Which is kind of a weird thing, as people sure do love to sit back with their popcorn and watch the drama. There's entire TV networks dedicated to banality just like this.

Oh yeah, this is a fantastic thing to sit back and munch popcorn to. It's when the people involved are demanding that you stop munching the popcorn and start throwing knives at someone that the fun stops.

Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community

#14

Post by dylan604 »

ookblah wrote: post #2

Been randomly thinking about it since this whole thing started, and beyond the drama it's clear that whether legal or not, Matt intends to use the trademark as a weapon to serve his purposes. If you just look at the timeline and even that response to DHH it feels to me that he has much resentment against others using the software and him not being able to be the largest beneficiary of it. The examples to Shopify bein…

> I feel like Automattic is willing to burn the community to the ground or fracture it as long as they get their cut or become the the biggest player.

Just taking a page out of the app store playbooks. I guess Matt hasn't been keeping up with courts starting to rule against those stores.

Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community

#16

Post by slg »

dovin wrote: post #4

I've been trying to wrap my head around why this feels so wrong. If the project had been run like this from the beginning, in an opinionated way that prioritizes what the few creators of the project think are important, then that's one thing. But it seems like Wordpress has generally been the stable, boring, slow-moving project that isn't run like a personal fiefdom, and Mullenweg is trying to force it from the one m…

It reminds me of Reddit cracking down on 3rd party apps or Twitter changing that policy and a whole lot more once Musk took over. The problem isn't necessarily the actions or policies in a vacuum. There are legitimate benefits to these approaches. The problem is it feels like these communities were built up around certain practices and there was no reason to expect those practices to change. So when there is a big change that only happens after a platform has already reached near monopoly status, it feels like a bait and switch to users because many people would have never signed up for a platform with those policies in the first place.

Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community

#17

Post by serial_dev »

jcranmer wrote: post #10
angch wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://ma.tt/2024/10/on-dhh/

He appears to have replaced the original post, which was a lot more ad hominem: https://archive.ph/UZZit

Funnily enough, your archive is already a friendlier version, there is one with even more ad hominem: https://archive.ph/7ZRbY

Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community

#18

Post by kmeisthax »

> Mullenweg had also asked Automattic employees to pick a side, shortly after banning WP Engine from WordPress.org. He wrote on October 3 that Automattic had extended an ""Alignment Offer"" to its employees. The company provided a buyout package of $30,000 or six months of salary (whichever was higher) to employees who wanted to leave because they disagreed with Mullenweg's actions. Employees who accepted the buyout were immediately terminated and are not eligible for rehire. According to the post, 159 people — 8.4% of the company — accepted the offer.

Hot take: it should be illegal to do these "agree with me or take a silver parachute" deals. This is the CEO blatantly forcing their political views on their workers and purging anyone who has a different opinion and wants to speak it.

And yes, just for completeness sake (and because he's tangentially involved in the Matt drama), that includes DHH's "no politics" rule at 37signals, which (if my fuzzy memory is correct) was also enforced by a similar "agree or parachute" deal. Yes, "no politics" is political, it's stopping the music after claiming a seat in musical chairs.

Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community

#19

Post by primitivesuave »

kmeisthax wrote: post #18

> Mullenweg had also asked Automattic employees to pick a side, shortly after banning WP Engine from WordPress.org. He wrote on October 3 that Automattic had extended an ""Alignment Offer"" to its employees. The company provided a buyout package of $30,000 or six months of salary (whichever was higher) to employees who wanted to leave because they disagreed with Mullenweg's actions. Employees who accepted the buyout…

It's called freedom of association, a foundational principle of capitalism and free markets.

Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community

#20

Post by viraptor »

kmeisthax wrote: post #18

> Mullenweg had also asked Automattic employees to pick a side, shortly after banning WP Engine from WordPress.org. He wrote on October 3 that Automattic had extended an ""Alignment Offer"" to its employees. The company provided a buyout package of $30,000 or six months of salary (whichever was higher) to employees who wanted to leave because they disagreed with Mullenweg's actions. Employees who accepted the buyout…

Yup, "my environment is not political" just means "I'm in a comfortable enough situation that most current issues don't affect me and can ignore that they affect others". I don't think it should be illegal. But it sure describes a person.
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