My experiences with Automattic: Part 3
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My experiences with Automattic: Part 3
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Re: My experiences with Automattic: Part 3
#2> ...how it (the Wordpress community) has been made to depend on Matt’s leadership at Automattic’s infrastructure. And how that is a very bad thing.
> This post is best read while listening to Know Your Enemy by Rage Against the Machine. (There’s a jazzy cover if you are so inclined.)
Well, I hope nobody needs to listen to "(This is what you asked for,) Heavy Is the Crown" when listening to the future developments :)
I'm not on team WP Engine or Matt, and I have no personal stake in this (I don't use WordPress). But at this point, I’m concerned that things are going to crash and burn, impacting the average blogger who just wants to publish content - far more than they’d ever expect. I dislike Medium even more than I dislike the WordPress ecosystem.
Re: My experiences with Automattic: Part 3
#3This whole affair has been a disaster for everyone involved. Just a ton of dirty laundry being aired in public…
Time is ripe for a new publishing ecosystem — more secure, with less cruft, and preferably better governance. But I imagine WordPress is far from being displaced, even after everything that has been going on.
Re: My experiences with Automattic: Part 3
#4> Also that WP Engine was not actually providing WordPress because they were limiting a single resource-heavy feature. As if WordPress.com hasn’t been going even further in providing a limited WordPress experience since the beginning.
I was thinking the same thing!
> This means that many of the people who work for Automattic are technically external contractors despite acting on behalf of the company, holding business cards with the company logo or conducting WordCamp talks on behalf of the company. (Which rendered legal action about what I endured as good as impossible, as I did not have any rights as an actual employee and my contract was with Automattic in California, under US law.)
Many countries use duck tests for employment both for taxation and employment law. Does it quack like employment? Are you given instructions? Are you forbidden from subcontracting? Is there a fixed hourly rate? Are you required to work set hours? Etc.
And possibly human rights based law would pierce both anyway. For example you can be discriminated against as a customer in a shop and sue.
Re: My experiences with Automattic: Part 3
#5> What not everyone knows is that those sites are mirrored over to the WordPress.com infrastructure, including WooCommerce customer data and purchase histories — and that infrastructure is as far as I understand the GDPR — not compatible with European privacy regulations
Yikes. Not surprising in this age of data hoovering, but definitely sketchy and likely illegal in the EU. I guess it follows the other point about Automattic ignoring laws outside of the US
Re: My experiences with Automattic: Part 3
#6Judging from this post, it seems there are lots of regulatory holes in the way Automattic operates in the EU. Mullenweg needs to be careful that the eye of the EU doesn't turn its gaze towards him and his company, or he could be in some trouble. But I can't say I'm surprised by his belief that he only answers to US laws and jurisdiction.
Re: My experiences with Automattic: Part 3
#7Judging from this post, it seems there are lots of regulatory holes in the way Automattic operates in the EU. Mullenweg needs to be careful that the eye of the EU doesn't turn its gaze towards him and his company, or he could be in some trouble. But I can't say I'm surprised by his belief that he only answers to US laws and jurisdiction.
> that the eye of the EU doesn't turn its gaze towards him
EU = Sauron ?
Re: My experiences with Automattic: Part 3
#8Judging from this post, it seems there are lots of regulatory holes in the way Automattic operates in the EU. Mullenweg needs to be careful that the eye of the EU doesn't turn its gaze towards him and his company, or he could be in some trouble. But I can't say I'm surprised by his belief that he only answers to US laws and jurisdiction.
> that the eye of the EU doesn't turn its gaze towards him EU = Sauron ?
They built the one ring to rule them all.
Re: My experiences with Automattic: Part 3
#9This whole affair has been a disaster for everyone involved. Just a ton of dirty laundry being aired in public… Time is ripe for a new publishing ecosystem — more secure, with less cruft, and preferably better governance. But I imagine WordPress is far from being displaced, even after everything that has been going on.
> But I imagine WordPress is far from being displaced, even after everything that has been going on.
Right. But this is because of a very simple, undeniable fact that is unpopular around these here parts:
There is nothing close to as good as WordPress at everything WordPress can be made to do.
No GUI-based CMS not built on PHP can be as flexibly hosted as one that is. PHP is easy and can be secured. There are no real PHP-based competitors for WordPress that are as easy to install, configure or use.
There are no CMSes that can get close to being as good for a bespoke mix of small ecommerce, member systems, digital downloads sales, form handling etc. Hosted or not hosted.
Say what you like about the block editor (personally I think it is an impressive but ultimately ten-year-plus project). But TinyMCE and shortcodes has proved painfully non-robust and there is no other block editor on an open source CMS that gets close to being open-ended enough for an extensible CMS. Gutenberg has some strengths over hosted solutions like e.g. the Squarespace editor.
There is no open-source CMS that rolls out security patches automatically the way Wordpress does, or can do so at the scale WordPress does.
HN people may dislike this, but it has not been out-competed because it is actually basically competent and extensible, and has no real jack-of-all-trades competitors at all. There's nothing with this level of contribution, extensibility, attention to detail, longevity or backwards compatibility.
Personally I think WP Engine needed a bit of a straightener; there are things they should not have done and there are things they could do. But this was not the way to go about it.
The damage Matt is doing, in particular with the "Secure Custom Fields" gaslighting bullshit is among the most depressing examples of willingly setting one's own hair on fire that I've ever seen.
(Edited for clarity, but sorry everyone, I'm waiting for a new coffee grinder to be delivered this morning)