After the Deadline: Acquired • Hacker News Board

Re: After the Deadline: Acquired

#51

Post by blasdel » Wed, Sep 09, 2009, 9:40 AM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #37

cperciva wrote: post #12

A question for the AtD folks: Do you have any concerns about being acquired by a company which builds such a famously insecure product? Speaking as someone who cares a lot about security, I'd be concerned about the reputation for poor security "rubbing off" on me.

I'm not sure why my question here is being voted down; the fact that wordpress is famously insecure is hardly controversial. Can some downvoters please explain?

I like you and wholeheartedly agree with your reasoning, but in this context your comment is really a 'question' -- it's basically a concern troll.

Re: After the Deadline: Acquired

#52

Post by jacquesm » Wed, Sep 09, 2009, 10:01 AM UTC

Confusion wrote: post #49

jacquesm wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure Bill Gates really cares. The point I was trying to make, and which seems to be lost on you, is that it is perfectly possible to have people associate you with insecure code or even to outright dislike you and to sleep very well at night and have half the world kow-tow to you. The people at your work are no doubt in IT, they probably don't realize that if Bill Gates had not done his thing that they'd be in a…

The difference is that in this case, we are talking about a company/product that is associating itself with insecure software, before that company has become hugely successful. Bill Gates can't be hurt by the associations anymore; this product still can be hurt by association with Wordpress. Being acquired by Automattic may mean you have just limited your clients to Wordpress, because no-one else dares use a plugin b…

No, we're talking about a person joining a company that has produced insecure software and whether or not that would 'rub off'.

That's a weird way of looking at it. As though people working for microsoft are automatically associated with making insecure software.

The people that make wordpress that are responsible for the security - or lack there off - have some egg on their faces, but the person whose company just got acquired obviously does not.

For one the acquisition is after this particular bug was found, secondly he is not working on that part of the wordpress code but on the text polishing feature.

Major difference.

To suggest it would 'rub off' is to lump all the wordpress employees onto one heap and assign blame/attach stigma for the acts or negligence of the wordpress security team.

And that is where it should rub off on.

The 'on me' bit makes it pretty clear this is a personal issue and not about people not using the software produced by the company.

As in "even after you leave that company you will still carry the stigma of having worked for a company that produced insecure software".

Re: After the Deadline: Acquired

#53

Post by Estragon » Wed, Sep 09, 2009, 11:44 AM UTC

raffi wrote: post #40

nearestneighbor wrote: post #39

If they have a better spell checker, why tie it to a particular editor/web site?

It's a software as a service so it isn't tied to a particular editor/web site. I chose to support TinyMCE as the first editor because of its excellent plugin API and use in popular applications. I chose WordPress as a first application because of its excellent plugin API and infrastructure for distributing plugins to users. The fact I think it's pretty slick helped too.

  It's a software as a service

So, when you say you're going to open-source it, does that include the backend?

Re: After the Deadline: Acquired

#54

Post by raffi » Wed, Sep 09, 2009, 12:24 PM UTC

Estragon wrote: post #53

raffi wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a software as a service so it isn't tied to a particular editor/web site. I chose to support TinyMCE as the first editor because of its excellent plugin API and use in popular applications. I chose WordPress as a first application because of its excellent plugin API and infrastructure for distributing plugins to users. The fact I think it's pretty slick helped too.

It's a software as a service So, when you say you're going to open-source it, does that include the backend?

Yes, the front-end stuff is already available under an open source license. Something about AtD that amazes me is there isn't a lot of code. The data and the rules do most of the work. (although there is a lot of stuff to manage the training and testing processes)

Re: After the Deadline: Acquired

#55

Post by Derrek » Wed, Sep 09, 2009, 1:28 PM UTC

"[...] as part of an application to Y-Combinator, Spring 09. Later, I was greeted with a rejection letter. But that was ok! I knew I didn’t need permission to start a business. So on I went."

I think we all can take a good lesson from this example of determination.

Congrats!

Re: After the Deadline: Acquired

#56

Post by photomatt » Wed, Sep 09, 2009, 11:46 PM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #12

A question for the AtD folks: Do you have any concerns about being acquired by a company which builds such a famously insecure product? Speaking as someone who cares a lot about security, I'd be concerned about the reputation for poor security "rubbing off" on me.

Which of Automattic's services (WordPress.com, Akismet, Gravatar, IntenseDebate, and Polldaddy) do you consider famously insecure?

Re: After the Deadline: Acquired

#57

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 12:42 AM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #12

A question for the AtD folks: Do you have any concerns about being acquired by a company which builds such a famously insecure product? Speaking as someone who cares a lot about security, I'd be concerned about the reputation for poor security "rubbing off" on me.

[deleted]

Re: After the Deadline: Acquired

#58

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 12:43 AM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #12

A question for the AtD folks: Do you have any concerns about being acquired by a company which builds such a famously insecure product? Speaking as someone who cares a lot about security, I'd be concerned about the reputation for poor security "rubbing off" on me.

[deleted]

Re: After the Deadline: Acquired

#59

Post by Estragon » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 7:26 PM UTC

raffi wrote: post #54

Estragon wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a software as a service So, when you say you're going to open-source it, does that include the backend?

Yes, the front-end stuff is already available under an open source license. Something about AtD that amazes me is there isn't a lot of code. The data and the rules do most of the work. (although there is a lot of stuff to manage the training and testing processes)

Thanks for the info.