A California district court judge on Tuesday ruled that Automattic and its CEO Matt Mullenweg must restore WP Engine's access to WordPress.org, a theme
A very short summary that may not be entirely accurate but is close enough:
WP Engine made a good amount of money off of WordPress without contributing back, and Automattic broke their own license to fight them, all the while the CEO became increasingly unhinged.
I understand they made some code contributions (no sources to hand right now) and also made / sponsored the WPGraphQL and Advanced Custom Fields plugins. The first, Automattic poached the developer; the second, Automattic rebranded it and removed any mention of WPE.
Not saying that WPE is beyond reproach; just not sure it’s 100% accurate to say they didn’t contribute anything back at all
Does WP Engine have much of a product without Automattic’s blessing? How much damage has already been done implanting into a WP Engine’s customer’s mind that they should start thinking about alternatives?
100% this: the sole owner of the foundation, trademark, and primary web portal has come across as absolutely unhinged, vengeful, and petty as all hell.
If I had any wordpress sites that I relied on professionally/ran a business on/made money with I’d be SERIOUSLY investigating any option that didn’t involve wordpress since the last thing I want is my business on software beholden to someone who is perfectly willing to be visibly nuts online.
Not a good thing for stability in general, you know?
I think this is like a parallel situation as seen in the Reddit ceo driving migration to lemmy.
The wp meltdown was destructive and healthy at the same time. A minority of wp users will look into alternatives, which will help make those better to use because the devs get more support, and/or the alternative communities and ecosystems start to grow
A very short summary that may not be entirely accurate but is close enough:
WP Engine made a good amount of money off of WordPress without contributing back, and Automattic broke their own license to fight them, all the while the CEO became increasingly unhinged.
I understand they made some code contributions (no sources to hand right now) and also made / sponsored the WPGraphQL and Advanced Custom Fields plugins. The first, Automattic poached the developer; the second, Automattic rebranded it and removed any mention of WPE.
Not saying that WPE is beyond reproach; just not sure it’s 100% accurate to say they didn’t contribute anything back at all
Does WP Engine have much of a product without Automattic’s blessing? How much damage has already been done implanting into a WP Engine’s customer’s mind that they should start thinking about alternatives?
Is it anything other than a sinking ship?
The whole thing has implanted into the mind of any wordpress user paying attention they should start thinking about alternatives.
100% this: the sole owner of the foundation, trademark, and primary web portal has come across as absolutely unhinged, vengeful, and petty as all hell.
If I had any wordpress sites that I relied on professionally/ran a business on/made money with I’d be SERIOUSLY investigating any option that didn’t involve wordpress since the last thing I want is my business on software beholden to someone who is perfectly willing to be visibly nuts online.
Not a good thing for stability in general, you know?
I think this is like a parallel situation as seen in the Reddit ceo driving migration to lemmy.
The wp meltdown was destructive and healthy at the same time. A minority of wp users will look into alternatives, which will help make those better to use because the devs get more support, and/or the alternative communities and ecosystems start to grow
I was honestly surprised how unstable the Automattic CEO sounded. He is literally sabotaging his own company/product/project.
It’s a public mental implosion.
WP Engine doesn’t need Automattic’s blessing. Wordpress is GPL software.
Oh no! “not contributing back” for free software managed by a profit driven company.
Automattic’s actions have proven exactly why WPEngine shouldn’t pay them squat.
I present: the reason we can’t have nice things.