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WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

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Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#141

Post by karel-3d »

mikl wrote: post #137

1. Release your code as open source. 2. Make a fortune. 3. Complain that people are freeloading. 4. Abuse your power as project founder to punish them, torching the community trust you’ve built up over decades. 5. Profit? Whatever Mullenweg hoped to gain by undermining WPEngine can’t possibly be worth the damage he’s done to WP and his own company.

If I understand it correctly, the core of the dispute is trademark and that WPEngine somehow implies WordPress affiliation.

I can see both sides of the story here, but the scorched earth strategy doesn't seem to be very effective for building trust

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#142

Post by lexicality »

mikl wrote: post #137

1. Release your code as open source. 2. Make a fortune. 3. Complain that people are freeloading. 4. Abuse your power as project founder to punish them, torching the community trust you’ve built up over decades. 5. Profit? Whatever Mullenweg hoped to gain by undermining WPEngine can’t possibly be worth the damage he’s done to WP and his own company.

He has certainly gained a lot of personal attention. Maybe he was feeling lonely?

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#143

Post by weird-eye-issue »

nurettin wrote: post #12

You make an opensource project, provide hosting services, then others take your project, modify it for their needs, cut into your hosting market share and then you try to get rid of them. ...What was the end game plan?

What a terrible take

WordPress.com is only successful in the first place because WordPress was open source and had so many hosting options

Also what do you mean it was modified? WPE didn't fork or modify WordPress any more than other hosts

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#144

Post by mrweasel »

lordofgibbons wrote: post #69
thih9 wrote: post #31

The appropriate twist here would be to have WPEngine find a trusted third party (one or more), start a foundation together and successfully fork wordpress.

Didn't this whole thing start because Automattic was complaining that WPEngine wasn't contributing much to the Wordpress development but competing with them for free?

That was my impression too, but now we learn that they have made plugins available, so they are contributing to the Wordpress community, but they're doing it wrong?

I feel like Wordpress is going down the same path as Elastic and other companies have done, make something, open source it and then make a fuss when other companies "misuse" their code? If you want that tight control over how others use your code, then maybe consider not picking an open source license?

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#145

Post by mrweasel »

bravetraveler wrote: post #38
thih9 wrote: post #31

The appropriate twist here would be to have WPEngine find a trusted third party (one or more), start a foundation together and successfully fork wordpress.

If not for Microsoft I'd suggest calling it "Word" , no need for the Press.

Just call it TextPress.

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#146

Post by huskyr »

mikl wrote: post #137

1. Release your code as open source. 2. Make a fortune. 3. Complain that people are freeloading. 4. Abuse your power as project founder to punish them, torching the community trust you’ve built up over decades. 5. Profit? Whatever Mullenweg hoped to gain by undermining WPEngine can’t possibly be worth the damage he’s done to WP and his own company.

I think the only reasonable course of action for Automattic would be for Mullenweg to step down and for them to make a mea culpa, but i doubt that will happen. Given that half of the web runs on WordPress, i wonder how many people will actually move away from WP as a CMS. Maybe if there is a succesful community fork.

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#147

Post by skywhopper »

karel-3d wrote: post #141
mikl wrote: post #137

1. Release your code as open source. 2. Make a fortune. 3. Complain that people are freeloading. 4. Abuse your power as project founder to punish them, torching the community trust you’ve built up over decades. 5. Profit? Whatever Mullenweg hoped to gain by undermining WPEngine can’t possibly be worth the damage he’s done to WP and his own company.

If I understand it correctly, the core of the dispute is trademark and that WPEngine somehow implies WordPress affiliation. I can see both sides of the story here, but the scorched earth strategy doesn't seem to be very effective for building trust

I think the trademark issue is weak in this case anyway. WP Engine has been around for 14 years with that name, and has been part of the Wordpress community.

But absolutely nothing about a trademark dispute excuses the lies, unethical behavior, and just downright personal animus Mullenweg is pouring into this takedown.

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#148

Post by seydor »

Etheryte wrote: post #53
stefanos82 wrote: post #32

Even if they find a middle ground to this mess that Matt has created, I very much fear that the damage to the community is done and it's only a matter of time before the popularity of the once famous platform that almost everyone uses in one way or another collapses.

For better or worse, I would optimistically say that that might be a good thing. WordPress has given a lot to the internet over the years, but a very large portion of its giving has been pwned sites and security issues. If this leads to either the birth or popularization of a tool that's modern and secure, that would be a net win for everyone involved.

I can only imagine how worse it will be if wordpress is hastily replaced with some javascript contraption

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#149

Post by gtvwill »

DoubleGlazing wrote: post #138
labster wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My advice would be to make plans to move away from WordPress entirely. While I think that the “supply chain attack” is hyperbolic, if technically true, it’s indicative of an organization that cares about winning more than ensuring any form of stability whatsoever to their users and clients. Beware.

I agree, If I were an IT manager this sort of stuff would make me start looking at alternatives. If an app/pluging/package is maintrained and published by X, I want to make sure no one else can interefere with it - even if they have good intentions. What Automattic should have done is removed the plugin from distribution and told WP Engine to fix the problem. By doing what they did they have breached the trust of the…

This is gonna be a hard move for some of the IT companies I've seen who have based their entire business around WordPress websites. They literally don't have the skill to use anything else as WP is all they know. Rip.

Re: WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

#150

Post by fHr »

bagels wrote: post #91

To me, WordPress used to be the thing you used if you wanted a website that was easy to put together but was full of third party php spaghetti code and security holes. Now, it's completely radioactive.

Wordpress made me quit web developement and my job at one point, custom plugins in php 5 running on wordpress I think version 4 were a nightmare to maintain.
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