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Thesis, Automattic, and WordPress: A Conflict of Ideology

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Re: Thesis, Automattic, and WordPress: A Conflict of Ideology

#41

Post by michaelpinto »

kijin wrote: post #30
michaelpinto wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So then you're agreeing that Automattic isn't a unicorn, and you also hinting that they should be a non-profit. And if that's the case and if that's what they want to do (wikipedia is that) then you're right. But I don't get the impression that Automattic views itself as a non-profit, but maybe they should.

Contrary to what some people in the startup scene would like to believe, there are many business models in between "unicorn" and "non-profit". There's nothing wrong with being a regular hornless horse as long as you're making enough money to live a comfortable middle-class life.

Yes but the article clearly refers to them as a unicorn.

Re: Thesis, Automattic, and WordPress: A Conflict of Ideology

#42

Post by pessimizer »

I agree with Mullenweg on every aspect of this conflict, and I think that Pearson is an unpleasant person trying to make money on the back of GPL'd software without sharing back.

That being said, I don't understand how he could prevail over Pearson on the thesis.com dispute, as Mullenweg clearly bought it out of spite and has no business connection to the name. His willingness to settle shows that he probably thought he was going to lose as well. I would think that the judge would accept the technicalities offered by Mullenweg's lawyers, and possibly force Pearson to move the trademarks to his business entity - but I guess that's my ignorance of the legal system showing.

Re: Thesis, Automattic, and WordPress: A Conflict of Ideology

#43

Post by kijin »

michaelpinto wrote: post #41
kijin wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contrary to what some people in the startup scene would like to believe, there are many business models in between "unicorn" and "non-profit". There's nothing wrong with being a regular hornless horse as long as you're making enough money to live a comfortable middle-class life.

Yes but the article clearly refers to them as a unicorn.

Just because you disagree with the article and I disagree with you doesn't mean that I agree with the article on that specific point.

(I think you're right about WordPress being a primarily Web 2.0 platform. My disagreement with you is that I don't think there's anything wrong with being a Web 2.0 platform.)

Re: Thesis, Automattic, and WordPress: A Conflict of Ideology

#44

Post by tbrooks »

xiaoma wrote: post #31

Thank you WP and thank you Automattic. I find all the negative comments directed at Matt here both surprising and deeply disappointing. Wordpress powers about 20% of all the sites on the web. It's been a boon to humanity and much of the reason it has flourished as it has is its open sourced nature. Automattic has made profit, but only a tiny sliver of what it could have if concern for the rest of the world weren't an…

I can't tell if you're be hyperbolic...

All negative comments directed towards Matt are surprising?

How so? What's so surprising?

Re: Thesis, Automattic, and WordPress: A Conflict of Ideology

#45

Post by jlgaddis »

UserRights wrote: post #39

Is there a legal website where one can download all the premium gpl themes?

Some of them (including Thesis -- the 1.x versions, anyways) come with their source code so there probably is. At the least, you can probably find torrents for them.

Re: Thesis, Automattic, and WordPress: A Conflict of Ideology

#46

Post by bwb »

Jgrubb wrote: post #7
bwb wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine he knows he made a series of mistakes but cant find the exit :(

I dunno, this latest thing over thesis.com is so outlandishly childish it's almost beyond belief. If I were on the board of Automattic I'd be showing him the exit, at least for a little while. This is not the measured behavior of someone I'd trust with making decisions for a multi-hundred-million dollar company.

This is his baby, and he feels very strongly on this issue. I hope his board, mentors, and team members help pull him in a little. Reality is hard to find in your own distortion bubble sometimes. He is a really good guy, just stuck on this and not realizing how bad it looks.

Re: Thesis, Automattic, and WordPress: A Conflict of Ideology

#47

Post by mikeschinkel »

puranjay wrote: post #40
michaelpinto wrote: post #16

You know I started to dive back into WordPress very recently after a few years and there are a few things I noticed: - Commercial themes are the selling point of the WordPress ecosystem. The themes are what gets a user to use WordPress in the first place, because it solves a real world problem (examples: you need a portfolio site, you need an urban bar site or you need a real estate site). - That said the quality of…

If you wanted to know how big of a mess WordPress is, just take a look at all the successful businesses that have been built just to explain how to use WordPress. The WordPress UI hasn't changed in the 6 years that I've been using it. Everything about it feels "heavy". Not a good experience, honestly. Just that the free alternatives (Ghost, for example) are even more technically challenging.

Having businesses that are built just to explain software is not a sign of failure, it is a sign of success. Microsoft Windows has the same and no one could say that they were not a success for over two decades. It means that WordPress has "crossed the chasm" into the "early majority."

Re: Thesis, Automattic, and WordPress: A Conflict of Ideology

#48

Post by mikeschinkel »

mtbcoder wrote: post #38
kijin wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't care less about whether WordPress is a mobile-first platform or how easy it should be to wrap a WordPress site in an app. Most of that is presentation layer problem, which can and should be handled by individual themes and plugins. WordPress themes are incredibly powerful; they can do that and much more. The only part of the presentation layer that WordPress needs to concern itself with is the admin interf…

> The only part of the presentation layer that WordPress needs to concern itself with is the admin interface. If only this were the case. WP's underlying processes and database structure are so unbelievably stunted and entirely coupled to the core WP application, that to do something as simple as pull rendered posts from the database generally involves performing a series of SQL gymnastics just to retrieve the releva…

There are pros and cons to WordPress' database structure. While it may take "a series of SQL gymnastics just to retrieve the relevant data" it's database structure is incredibly resilient to the changing requirements of different users. A "better" database structure would almost certainly be too fragile to meet the needs of as many users as WordPress does.

Re: Thesis, Automattic, and WordPress: A Conflict of Ideology

#49

Post by mikeschinkel »

tbrooks wrote: post #21

I lost a lot of respect for Matt Mullenweg in this fiasco. This comment in particular: http://www.pearsonified.com/2015/07/truth-about-thesis-com.p... Pursuing the trademark cancellation further is just downright vindictive. It's not too late for him, to say, "I f-ed up and I've let this blind my decision making. I've asked the legal team to rescind the trademark dispute and we won't pursuing this any further." Until…

I lost all respect for him as a decent human being in this fiasco. FWIW.

Re: Thesis, Automattic, and WordPress: A Conflict of Ideology

#50

Post by mikeschinkel »

techaddict009 wrote: post #32

I dont know why but every wordpress update breaks some or other thing. Like their latest update broke woo commerce which they have acquired now. Dont they test before release?

When you have software that runs on 23% of the web, it is simply impossible to test for all permutations. Try it yourself sometime if you don't believe me. :-)
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