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The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

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Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#171

Post by aimazon »

shprd wrote: post #170
_fjg8 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Automattic's control over WordPress is part of their "marketing" budget. Let's not forget how valuable the exclusive commercial license for the WordPress trademark is to Automattic, their ability to use the WordPress.com domain has huge commercial value to them. I have no doubt that WP Engine would pay tens of millions of dollars per year for the exclusive commercial license to the WordPress trademark which is te…

> The "Five for the Future" contributions are specifically about contributing to WordPress Core, which is owned and controlled by Matt Mullenweg And? It is the backbone that powers their entire business. You're acting like they're being asked to contribute to something they don't use. That should be the bare minimum. Even business wise it make sense to contribute to it and help make it better. It's absurd we're even…

WP Engine are a Private Equity owned for-profit corporation who exist solely to hoover up as much revenue as possible, consequence be damned, that's Private Equity. Matt Mullenweg is an individual who professes to be an open-source software for-the-greater-good moral crusader. I hold them to very different standards. Matt has to behave according to his professed principles otherwise they're not his principles, they're just a mask.

I release Open Source software under a permissive license: if I leverage my control over that software to harm the consumers of my software that I believe are taking without giving, then I am far worse than a leech.

Regarding "WordPress Core": if WordPress Core is all that matters, why are plugins fundamental to WordPress? Why do millions of WordPress websites use Advanced Custom Fields?

You've repeated a bunch of Matt's lies, either you're uninformed or not impartial. The latter cannot be addressed, the former can. Read more, speak less.

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#172

Post by chipdart »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #102
luuurker wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [...] and stolen [...] I'm not happy with the mess and Matt's behaviour, but you can't steal free code.

Where in the world, how the hell did you get the idea that stealing free code isn't stealing?

> Where in the world, how the hell did you get the idea that stealing free code isn't stealing?

What is your personal definition of "free code" and "stealing free code"? From your post, either you got one of them profoundly wrong, or both.

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#173

Post by shprd »

aimazon wrote: post #171
shprd wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The "Five for the Future" contributions are specifically about contributing to WordPress Core, which is owned and controlled by Matt Mullenweg And? It is the backbone that powers their entire business. You're acting like they're being asked to contribute to something they don't use. That should be the bare minimum. Even business wise it make sense to contribute to it and help make it better. It's absurd we're even…

WP Engine are a Private Equity owned for-profit corporation who exist solely to hoover up as much revenue as possible, consequence be damned, that's Private Equity. Matt Mullenweg is an individual who professes to be an open-source software for-the-greater-good moral crusader. I hold them to very different standards. Matt has to behave according to his professed principles otherwise they're not his principles, they'r…

> I hold them to very different standards

It's foolish to support a private equity against the guy because you hold him to a higher standards. It doesn't even make sense.

But this discussion is unlikely to lead anywhere.

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#177

Post by jart »

aimazon wrote: post #171
shprd wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The "Five for the Future" contributions are specifically about contributing to WordPress Core, which is owned and controlled by Matt Mullenweg And? It is the backbone that powers their entire business. You're acting like they're being asked to contribute to something they don't use. That should be the bare minimum. Even business wise it make sense to contribute to it and help make it better. It's absurd we're even…

WP Engine are a Private Equity owned for-profit corporation who exist solely to hoover up as much revenue as possible, consequence be damned, that's Private Equity. Matt Mullenweg is an individual who professes to be an open-source software for-the-greater-good moral crusader. I hold them to very different standards. Matt has to behave according to his professed principles otherwise they're not his principles, they'r…

Everyone should be held to the same standards. If my professed principle was to be evil, then would you judge me negatively if I acted good?

I release software under a permissive license too. But I understand the only reason I'm able to do it, is because companies like Google and Mozilla believe in supporting people like me. There's this unwritten rule that the most successful people in our society should be philanthropic, because they're the only ones who can. However nothing formally requires this.

It's similar to how a company might officially give you unlimited vacation days. Imagine if one person tests that rule, and makes every day a vacation day. It would probably take years before someone tries that, but once someone actually does, the rules are going to quickly change for everyone and you might end up with a lot less freedom than before.

WPEngine has certainly tested the limits of the open source gift economy and the way Automattic is reacting isn't helping either. It's a sad thing to witness.

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#178

Post by aimazon »

shprd wrote: post #173
aimazon wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WP Engine are a Private Equity owned for-profit corporation who exist solely to hoover up as much revenue as possible, consequence be damned, that's Private Equity. Matt Mullenweg is an individual who professes to be an open-source software for-the-greater-good moral crusader. I hold them to very different standards. Matt has to behave according to his professed principles otherwise they're not his principles, they'r…

> I hold them to very different standards It's foolish to support a private equity against the guy because you hold him to a higher standards. It doesn't even make sense. But this discussion is unlikely to lead anywhere.

Matt isn't being held to a higher standard, he's being held to a different standard, a standard he chose.

WP Engine is a company that chose to build a business around a piece of software released under a license that permits their commercialisation of the software.

Matt is an individual who chose to release software under a license that permits companies to build a business around the software and has then chosen to initiate a "nuclear war" against one of those companies who is complying with the license he chose to release the software under because they are not contributing to the software in a way that he deems acceptable.

They're fundamentally different actors in fundamentally different positions. WP Engine has behaved exactly as one would expect from the start. Matt has behaved in a way that suggests he has lost his damn mind, doing everything in his power to harm a business that is complying with the license he chose.

I don't disagree with the idea that WP Engine should contribute more, I don't disagree that Private Equity is harmful to Open Source, but I fundamentally disagree with Matt's weaponisation of Open Source to make a point. There is a lot of great prior thinking on this subject[1], Matt has many options, he is making the choice to behave in this way, it is not a foregone conclusion.

Our discussion isn't going to lead anywhere, but we can revisit it in a month when Matt's downward spiral has resulted in the inevitable. Perhaps, at that point, you'll reflect on whether Matt's behaviour was worth supporting.

[1] https://dri.es/solving-the-maker-taker-problem

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#179

Post by aimazon »

jart wrote: post #177
aimazon wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WP Engine are a Private Equity owned for-profit corporation who exist solely to hoover up as much revenue as possible, consequence be damned, that's Private Equity. Matt Mullenweg is an individual who professes to be an open-source software for-the-greater-good moral crusader. I hold them to very different standards. Matt has to behave according to his professed principles otherwise they're not his principles, they'r…

Everyone should be held to the same standards. If my professed principle was to be evil, then would you judge me negatively if I acted good? I release software under a permissive license too. But I understand the only reason I'm able to do it, is because companies like Google and Mozilla believe in supporting people like me. There's this unwritten rule that the most successful people in our society should be philanth…

If I release a fox into my hen house, who is at fault for the death of my hens: me or the fox?

Re: The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org

#180

Post by lexicality »

andrew_lettuce wrote: post #62
lexicality wrote: post #13

It's very funny that Matt's original complaint was that WPEngine didn't contribute enough, and he has now banned them from contributing and stolen what they had previously provided

Do you think they were all of the sudden going to dramatically start contributing? I see this more as symbolically shutting them out. Nothing in this ongoing situation is about more than optics now

> Do you think they were all of the sudden going to dramatically start contributing?

It's possible if they had been approached in a calm, polite and constructive way, they might have.

After Matt stormed in, set the bridges on fire and started pissing on everything?

lol. lmao even

> Nothing in this ongoing situation is about more than optics now

You're not wrong there! And since you apparently created this account purely to respond to my post, what do you think these optics make you look like, Matt? Do you think they make you look good?

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