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ACF Plugin no longer available on WordPress.org

advancedcustomfields.com

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Re: ACF Plugin no longer available on WordPress.org

#111

Post by almd »

sgdfhijfgsdfgds wrote: post #55
didgeoridoo wrote: post #20

This is particularly bananas as ACF is basically table stakes for doing anything beyond blogging. I’d assume most websites that make actual money are thoroughly dependent on it. To twist the knife on a personal spat, Mullenweg just blew up uncountable businesses on a double-holiday weekend. At this point, seriously, fuck that guy.

> This is particularly bananas as ACF is basically table stakes for doing anything beyond blogging. Not sure about this. I'd assume most Wordpress sites that make actual money are dependent on WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, and maybe Gravity Forms/WP Forms for member subscriptions. None of these are reliant on ACF, and there's any number of WP plugins like this that do the whole job of some website niche or…

I used to be at a website vendor house where we managed/built about 120 midsize websites (over awhile).

All of them used ACF for custom article types, testimonial types, carousels, and other random one-off “content-types”

Not trying to debate against you, just adding that wordpress usage is so wide

Re: ACF Plugin no longer available on WordPress.org

#112

Post by sangnoir »

arielcostas wrote: post #87
andix wrote: post #69

I guess the only way forward for now is forking WordPress and creating a new plugin registry. This should be rather easy, because all WordPress plugins are GPL-licensed because of the Copyleft. I don't care about the current dispute, but wordpress.org can't be trusted any more.

Creating an open registry would be nice, or even for developers to be able to host their own repos for others to install plugins from (à la Linux package managers), to avoid such centralisation. Ideally, those repos would be hosted by each party, and then hosting providers would be able to host their own mirrors containing many packages for all the installs, giving a similar experience to what is now offered by Mr. M…

> Creating an open registry would be nice, or even for developers to be able to host their own repos for others to install plugins from (à la Linux package managers), to avoid such centralisation.

The security trade offs for this would not be worth it, IMO, considering WPs auto-updating features.

Re: ACF Plugin no longer available on WordPress.org

#113

Post by mldevv »

arielcostas wrote: post #91
sgdfhijfgsdfgds wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wordpress has a (highly effective) auto-updates mechanism for security patches. It was extended a couple of years ago to automatically apply plugin updates for you if you opted in, and I think automatic plugin updates may now be the default. (This is on balance a good thing; almost all WP vulnerabilities are outdated plugins, and until this mechanism was prevalent, WordPress occasionally had to live-patch existing in…

IDK if WordPress plugins respect SEMVER, but shouldn't this auto-update thingy update only patch versions, or minor versions at most? Idk, breaking changes like these is definitely not something you want your CMS to do overnight when you won't notice until you receive complaints that your site is broken

Yes and that is a huge deal - I made this point to others that it shouldn't be considered a minor version change

Re: ACF Plugin no longer available on WordPress.org

#114

Post by dotBen »

dmje wrote: post #46

Long time WordPress agency owner here. At the heart of this - if you consider it generously - is a principle that we can possibly all sign up to, namely that "large commercial entities" should (should from a moral, not legal standpoint) "pay back" to the open source software that makes them money. The principle however has been totally undermined by MM's actions, which have been completely out of line. His behaviour…

"large commercial entities" should (should from a moral, not legal standpoint) "pay back" to the open source software that makes them money.

...

I know some of the developer team at ACF personally - they're excellent people, making brilliant code, and most of them are putting huge efforts into WP as an open source project even aside from their efforts in maintaining and extending ACF.

The ACF team wiring that open source ACF code are on WP Engine's payroll.

Re: ACF Plugin no longer available on WordPress.org

#115

Post by mirzap »

andix wrote: post #72
osbulbul wrote: post #52

After all this drama, it feels like WordPress has reached its peak and is now starting its decline. Of course, it will take years, and the process may be volatile, but the overall trend will likely be downward.

AFAIK there is just no other free and open source CMS with a similarly mature ecosystem, which could replace WordPress. So many websites, companies and agencies are built on WordPress, it would take a decade to move away. The only possibility I can think of is a fork.

Developers are the core of any system. Once they move on, it's game over. What Wordpress.org did sent a clear message to any developer who makes a living on WordPress or a plugin - we can take your plugin and revenue any time we want. No rational person will continue to invest their time in such an ecosystem, no matter its "maturity". It clearly is not mature enough.

I would keep an eye on PayloadCMS or Ghost. Those, among others, are the future, IMO.

Re: ACF Plugin no longer available on WordPress.org

#116

Post by system2 »

mldevv wrote: post #100
system2 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We use the wp-cli with cron jobs such as indexing when we post with API or database-related things. Even with wp-cli we must login to SSH individually. And this doesn't give us the wp-cli option since it is 3rd party zip file. We possibly can get the file, extract, and delete the old plugin with cli, and then enable the last updated plugin with with cli again with a script. Either way, we must create a script or suck…

As an agency dev, this is the shit they don't think about. In my case, all that would have to be billed or go through pro-bono approval process. "Just update it!" Until it all goes to shit, and we have to triage the whole mess. Sorry you are dealing with this, I have spent the better part of the weekend trying to get them to understand this was inevitable. Devs: "Don't deploy on Fridays" A8C/Matt: "We will deploy on…

We finished nearly half. Urgent ones are done but I need to spend another 5-10 hours tomorrow. Today really sucked.

Re: ACF Plugin no longer available on WordPress.org

#117

Post by Zealotux »

yidhsvc wrote: post #12

The official wp announcement of this said “we don’t plan on doing this to other plugins.” lol. anyone think they pinky promise? More like: build on Wordpress and unless you kiss the ring some guy named Matt will disappear your business.

The key word here is "plan".

Re: ACF Plugin no longer available on WordPress.org

#118

Post by Zealotux »

I received an email from ACF urging me to update my installs, while I appreciate the gesture, I see they mentioned Matt Mullenweg without specifying who he is or what he did. Now I'm a HN reader but it could be wise to give more context to their many users who are probably clueless of the whole drama.

Re: ACF Plugin no longer available on WordPress.org

#119

Post by LordAtlas »

chx wrote: post #10
chris_wot wrote: post #6

Hang on, the ACF plugin has been replaced by a different plugin, published by a different party? And install on every Wordpress installation?!?

The whole thing is https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3167679/advance... it's very close to functionality wise right now to ACF. Not identical, already. While I am not a lawyer it almost certainly violates the ACF trademark as the code and reviews contains a lot of reference to ACF and the Advanced Custom Fields trademark which is literally the project slug. Some suspect a request for emergency injunction m…

They even left the ACF logo in there, mate. And the menu label still says "ACF".

See this video at the 3:49 mark - https://youtu.be/qFlORU3NGX0?si=_AHQIT4V7LKvecBH&t=229

Re: ACF Plugin no longer available on WordPress.org

#120

Post by tone »

foosantos wrote: post #107
system2 wrote: post #9

Oh god, this gave me a minor heart attack. We are using over 20 ACF fields for 150+ sites. I thought it was completely out of the WordPress ecosystem. I am glad they have the zip download and continuing auto updates. EDIT: I confirm our ACF plugins on sites are all switched to secure custom fields. This is so shady, it broke our snippets because we are using prepend and append texts to wrap our field values. Now they…

I've been monitoring the SCF forums as well on WPorg, and there have been no reports of issues since moving to SCF. It would be fantastic if people could open a topic there or a thread on Slack if they face any issues.

No one should risk an unknown entity taking illegal control of a key plugin on their site. I can't imagine anyone wanting WP.org to weaponize more plugins on their site.

Update ACF and stay secure against this latest threat. https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/installing-and-upg...

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