@WPEngine - fork Wordpress, rebrand yourself and the code. Setup a plugin / update hub like Wordpress.org and provide a pathway for your customers and devs to migrate. I recognize this is non-trivial. Ending an abusive relationship usually is.
WordPress retaliation impacts community
41–50 of 152 posts
Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community
#42Been 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…
> "Capturing value".
Matt behaving like a PE fund, or any standard Big Tech company. In other words, enshittification as usual.
Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community
#43Nice detailed article. However, in these two places it doesn't seem clear that it was just the Slack account that was deactivated. Here: > Javier Casares shared that his account was deactivated after he asked a series of questions in a Slack thread started by Colin Stewart. And here, referring to Terence Eden: > He later reported on Mastodon that his account was deactivated. Another thing – with that headline, I was…
I can confirm that only my Slack account has been deactivated.
Although, that said, I anticipate an eventual purge of all WP related accounts for users involved in Lèse-majesté.
Regarding usage, I wouldn't expect to see an immediate decline. It takes a long time to plan a migration, as users of ReiserFS found out.
Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community
#44I honestly have been starting to wonder if this open source business model (a for-profit company whose business model centers around being the owners and maintainers of open source projects) is the best way to fund the development of open source. I think a vast majority of software should be open source, but I also don’t think these sorts of businesses are the best way to achieve that goal. There just ends up being t…
I mean that problem does exist as a whole, but in this specific case this has nothing to do with some scrappy open source project not being able fund itself. Automattic is a 7.5 billion dollar company with ~800 million in rev lol.
The "giving back" angle is just smokescreen for wanting to charge more rent IMO.
Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community
#45Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
If you're a PHP developer with expertise in WordPress Automattic is pretty much your version of FAANG - I can totally understand why people wouldn't want to trade even six months salary for never being able to work there again.
The 8% of the company left. IMHO it's not uncommon than the 8% of any company is willing to leave at any time because of any reason. They got a payoff so they anticipated their move. Some of them could have been even on Matt's side, some not.
Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community
#47One of the most recent losses to the WordPress community is bluesix, a former r/Wordpress mod, and arguably one of the most altruistic members of the community: https://www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/1g5fn36/uhhh_wha...
[deleted]
Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community
#48[deleted]
Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community
#49I'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…
Initially, I was taking the side of WP.org and Automattic; however, I changed my mind completely once they took over the “Advanced Custom Fields” plugin, and replaced it with another plugin that broke people's websites. So Matt weaponized the WP package repository, and stole the users of a well-maintained package, making WP site admins work over the weekend to fix the breakage.
This isn't opinionated, this is theft.
If the project had been run like this since the beginning, it wouldn't be where it is today. Automattic is a rich company partially due to the community around WordPress, and the trust that community has had in the governance of the project.
Re: WordPress retaliation impacts community
#50> 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…
The offer is setup as a dichotomy but at least in countries with reasonable workplace laws (which perhaps the US isn't) it's a false dichotomy.
There's nothing stopping an employee from simply continuing to disagree with the company direction and also not accepting the offer. In this case, employment goes along as usual and you can continue to disagree with the direction. With proper workplace laws, a company couldn't fire you in this instance, even if you vocally disagree with what is happening.
When an unreasonable choice is attempted to be forced onto you, sometimes the best approach is to ignore it and continue on as usual.