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WordPress Is in Trouble

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Re: WordPress Is in Trouble

#341

Post by hluska »

ismail wrote: post #329
hluska wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Some samples of misinformation at the highest levels. There are many more, here are some of the more recent ones: False claims of beheaded babies, reports of babies burnt in ovens. Even more nefarious , are the psyops influence campaigns (both against own citizens [1]) and against American's [2] [1] https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-admits-psychological-warfa... [2] https://www.wired.com/story/israel-us-disinformatio…

You could put that all in one reply or even used edit. I’m done with this conversation.

Re: WordPress Is in Trouble

#342

Post by refulgentis »

danudey wrote: post #258
brendanyounger wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect they gave him a timeline to IPO and/or sell or he's kicked out as CEO. His recent actions are those of a man with a deadline and nothing to lose.

Assuming that is the case: WordPress the company only needs to stay stable and valuable until everything goes through; if it burns down after that he's still met his obligations (to an extent).

That is narrowly correct and widely incorrect

zen question: what is the "everything" that will "go through"?

That's the core problem: there's no exit in sight. None

Re: WordPress Is in Trouble

#343

Post by Implicated »

amyjess wrote: post #336
beshrkayali wrote: post #64

I really think Matt is suffering from some sort of a mental breakdown. It’s a sad situation and there’s a lot to learn about open source projects with a huge user base and where the bottle necks exist. But I think people who know or are close to him should seriously consider an intervention. I can’t believe after two decades he’d just decide to throw it all out in a blazing fire and tarnish his reputation (and Wordpr…

I think "breakdown" is the wrong word: he's always been this way. I think he may have Borderline Personality Disorder. The behavior Matt is engaging in here is called "emotional dysregulation", which is characteristic of BPD, and he has a long history of doing it whenever he faces even the slightest criticism. In 2010, he attempted to get Ben Cook fired from his day job for writing an essay criticizing his dual role…

Don't forget the time Matt allegedly attempted to extort the WPEngine CEO into coming to work for him [1]

1: https://www.therepository.email/wp-engine-sues-automattic-an...

Re: WordPress Is in Trouble

#344

Post by wordofx »

danudey wrote: post #258
brendanyounger wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect they gave him a timeline to IPO and/or sell or he's kicked out as CEO. His recent actions are those of a man with a deadline and nothing to lose.

Assuming that is the case: WordPress the company only needs to stay stable and valuable until everything goes through; if it burns down after that he's still met his obligations (to an extent).

If you invest in a company and it’s valued at $1,000,000. And you want to make some money. You sell your investment in the company.

If after 5 years revenue doesn’t grow the value is still $1,000,000. Unless the value increases the investors won’t get a return on their investment. Often investment comes with conditions.

So no it’s not as simple as “just needs to stay stable”

Re: WordPress Is in Trouble

#345

Post by i_have_an_idea »

tylershuster wrote: post #196

I don't understand how (if?) WordPress has popularity among serious professionals. Extending it without plugins, many of which are paid, is a nightmare. Adding custom fields is laborious, configuring post type display modes is a slog as well. HN seems to grumble about Drupal but even if your only requirement is a PHP server with a MySQL database connect, Drupal (8+) is just as simple to set up as WordPress and infini…

I don't understand how `serious professionals` continue to try to trash WordPress using superficial and often uneducated arguments, completely ignoring the fact that it has huge flexibility, a rich ecosystem, many options for using modern development practices and 40%+ global market share.

Re: WordPress Is in Trouble

#346

Post by bsder »

beshrkayali wrote: post #64

I really think Matt is suffering from some sort of a mental breakdown. It’s a sad situation and there’s a lot to learn about open source projects with a huge user base and where the bottle necks exist. But I think people who know or are close to him should seriously consider an intervention. I can’t believe after two decades he’d just decide to throw it all out in a blazing fire and tarnish his reputation (and Wordpr…

Why do you assume that he is suffering from a mental breakdown as opposed to someone who tripped into his position and has always been out of his depth?

As long as money is flowing, nobody gives a damn how shitty you are. Once the money stops, however ...

Re: WordPress Is in Trouble

#347

Post by technion »

throwpoaster wrote: post #334
kibwen wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you've observed, quite accurately, is that our bar for emotional intelligence when it comes to corporate executives is the same that we expect from ten-year olds.

Respectfully, it's not. Serious businesses take EQ seriously.

This feels very "no true scotsman" to me. It's accurate if none of the large places I've worked are "serious".

Re: WordPress Is in Trouble

#348

Post by Volundr »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #312
kedean wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's doing it in a way that feels suspiciously like a breakdown to me. The latest "we're restricting our contributions to 45 hours a week to match WPEngine" is the the reaction of a college student who is mad at their lab partner, not of an establish business that helped build the internet as we know it.

it's somewhat valid though, why continue providing free code for wp engine to resell when wp engine doesn't contribute to open source themselves? wp engine has also bought out multiple competing hosts, so they're a direct competitor with deep pockets

> wp engine doesn't contribute to open source themselves

At minimum they contribute Advanced Custom Fields, one of the most heavily used plugins. I make no judgement on if they contribute enough, but it's not like they give zero back to the ecosystem.

Re: WordPress Is in Trouble

#349

Post by citizenpaul »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #191
dangrossman wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's a mental breakdown, I think this is a (poorly executed) long pivot into Matt's companies having tighter control over the ecosystem and keeping more of the profits from hosting, plugin and theme sales. He's burning down "the community" on purpose. In a couple years, it'll be run more like Shopify, where the theme store and app store only list products that run their billing through Shopify and give…

You may be right. Come to think of it, until this drama, the only "community" I believed exists around Wordpress is the network of small businesses specialized in Wordpress hosting, maintenance and consulting for other small businesses. I personally know someone running a sole proprietorship, whose entire income over past ~decade came from such Wordpress jobs. It might be that this will be the only "community" that r…

The only interaction i have with wordpress is sleazy small consultancies selling it to clueless mgmt as the magic solution to all their problems. I really have never had a positive impression of wordpress due to this.

I can't even remember all the times I've been suckerpunched with "hey we hired these people to implement and its not going so well. They tell us its because our systems are bad and our employees are not doing things right. Can you get with them and see what the seems to be....?

ME: The problem is they are some hack shop that "sold you" and bit off more than they could chew and they also don't have a clue about systems integrations.

MGMT: Nope the problem is our employees that have been working here getting "Exceeds expectations" on reviews that are the problem. We have no explanation for why though... So we are hiring McKinsey to come in and do a department evaluation to find out.

Re: WordPress Is in Trouble

#350

Post by rcxdude »

whimsicalism wrote: post #286
chrismsimpson wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps more indicative of late stage capitalism where rent seekers try to extract more and more value and consolidate more and more power.

WP engine is pretty obviously the “rent seekers” in this situation. hard to be a rent seeker if you actually built the software

No, pretty easy actually. You can sit and seek rent on something you built.
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