Supply chain attack
The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org
141–150 of 236 posts
Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org
#142Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org
#143Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org
#144Does anyone want to play armchair internet psychologist with me to speculate as to Matt's thinking here? My guess is that he was focused on these facts: 1) I own Wordpress 2) WPEngine is profiting from Wordpress and I'm not benefiting 3) This is unfair And it was stuck in his mind like a thorn, irritating him whenever the thought arose, and never went away. Commercializing open source is hard for myriad reasons, but…
I hate to speculate, especially from a distance. But I do wonder: - Why now? What snapped? Clearly WPE didn't go to "billions" over night. So why go nuclear now? - Doesn't he have a close and immediate circle of advisors and confidants? Are they speaking to him and he's not listen? Or has he locked himself in a room so to speak and is completely unapproachable? Either way, not good. - Is he trying to force WPE to for…
It's not new, Matt has been trying to reach an agreement for years.[1] To be fair, he has done everything he can for the health of the ecosystem for all these years.
WP Engine leech off the WordPress brand from head to toe. Literally, from trademark to infrastructure, while Automattic covers the bill for the most part.
Of course, legally, WPE doesn't have to contribute beyond its mouth but if we are going down that route then also Automattic doesn't have to put up with funding WPE operation anymore.
I'm tired of people justifying WPE attitude and behavior by saying "legally, they don't have to contribute", well let's talk legal, everything happening to them is within those same lines too. Why are you complaining if it's legal?
This is one of those "fuck around and find out" situation. Matt just run out of fucks to give, and decided it's better to teach the bully a lesson even if it comes at a cost.
Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The board fires Matt, stops chasing windmills, and settles with WP Engine The board is Matt and a PE firm Managing Partner, appointed by Matt. The third board member m (also appointed by Matt) doesn’t seem to have been active in any way shape or form in several years. I don’t see this happening.
I agree that the Wordpress Foundation will remain under his control. The Automattic board ( https://automattic.com/board/ ), however, has four other members, so it's possible they'll remove him. They can't all be true believers in his Delenda est WP Engine agenda. One can only hope.
You'd need to see the cap table and articles of incorporation to know if the board has any power. Salesforce invested $300m in the D round and doesn't have a seat, for example. Phil Black and maybe Toni Schneider's seats might be protected, but Matt could have the voting power to replace the other two at will.
Current drama aside, good for him if that's the case. Very few founders maintain absolute control past a Series C.
Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can see those, but I don't imagine there's even a fair chance of them happening. In my mind, shortly after the WordCamp US things should have leveled out. Someone should have pulled Matt aside and said, "OK, you vented. Pissed all over The Community who showed up, but you vented. Let's get this back on the rails..." It's possible that was said. But Matt's listening skills aren't good and lately have gotten worse. T…
CEOs can get away with a lot if they're successful; Elon Musk is a good example. That only goes so far, though. If he wins the trademark lawsuit, he can probably do whatever he wants. If he loses, there's a shareholder lawsuit, or he continues escalating then at some point he'll be removed. One can only hope.
There are very good chances Matt control majority of Automattic. It's private company so he can do whatever he wants.
Also their employee "shares" dont have any voting rights:
Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org
#147Imagine being an Automattic employee who turned down the severance offer, realizing only now that you're on the train to crazytown.
To be honest, it was obvious that things were going the wrong way even before this
The people that stayed are probably the ones that feel "married to the job" (pro-tip: you aren't your job)
Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
They bought ACF.
What I'm hearing is that Automattic didn't buy ACF.
I think they meant that WPEngine bought ACF:
https://wpengine.com/blog/wp-engine-acquires-delicious-brain...
Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why on earth is Matt’s nosebleed on this? Making fun of peoples medical issues is tasteless, and makes me wonder about the motivation behind the rest of the page.
Agreed. For context, Matt posted the following on the original video: > Around 20 minutes in, my nose started bleeding, which sometimes happens when I travel too much. Prior to this interview, I was on 30+ hour flights returning from Durban, where I was on safari, to Houston. I'm sorry for not noticing it happening; it's very embarrassing.
Which is kinda exactly the thing people say while in the middle of irrational behavior and psychotic episodes brought on by cocaine abuse.
That _might_ not be what's doing on. But it's entirely plausible given
Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org
#150I started a thread here a couple of weeks ago, "Ask HN: What's a Good Alternative to WordPress" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41731867 I feel like it's time to move off Wordpress. I don't feel comfortable about its future for my clients. What suggestions do you all have for alternatives?
Did anyone, especially here on HN, recommend going with Wordpress in the first place?
yeah. Me, for one.
WordPress is kinda awful in a lot of ways.
BUT
You can hand a thoughtfully build WP site over to a non technical client, and they can work out or learn how to do 90% of the publishing and updating they need to do, or easily find staff or contractors with lots of WordPress experience to do it for them.
The "43% of the entire web" statistic is a really really good reason to recommend WP for that reason.
There is obviously not a single competing CMS/blog-platform that has anything like as many experiences users. Where by "users" I mean people who are familiar with or even experts on publishing content using it.
That's the real "WordPress Community", the people using it on a day to day basis to get their jobs/hobbies/responsibilities done. That's the "WordPress Community" that makes it "the right thing" for agencies and contractors and IT departments to recommend WordPress.
Up until 2 weeks ago, I regularly recommended WordPress. In spite of it's flaws.