Further highlights from the Thread That Nobody Is Reading Anymore:
- The hasty rewriting of the FAQ in order to accommodate the right of staff to filch your username any time they feel like it [gestures vaguely in direction of ‘recent comments’ widget]
- drmike directs us to another trac ticket which does not require any commentary, really. You should be able to guess what sort of pattern it is going to take by the fact that I am linking to it. I love how links that Matt wants to keep are always really trivial and unimportant and a waste of everyone’s precious time to even be discussing, yet links Matt wants gone are the subject of passionate campaigns across multiple high-traffic sites. Odd, that.
- our new friend Steve (I assume it is the same one based on his flexible approach to grammar) shows up late to the party, having already commented on my post about him back over at photomatt. I did try to explain, for future reference, that most people respond to blog posts by either a) commenting on said blog post or b) writing about it on their own blog and trackbacking, and that option c) blogging about it in the comment threads of third parties, is generally considered poor form. But sadly this did not get past the Great Firewall of Photomatt, which is fair enough.
I do actually feel quite bad about posting that, because 90% of the time when I pop the ‘idiocy’ tag on a post I am mocking the stupidity of clever people, who should know better. Mocking the stupidity of stupid people is just a cheap, mean, easy laugh, and I sincerely apologise to anyone whom it may have offended. Onward and upward.
wordpress™ wank 
Alan said
That trac ticket was… wow.
I knew Matt had a stranglehold, but fuck.
Kissing Bandit said
I’m with Alan on this one. That has certainly been one of the most unilateral and hypocritical decisions I’ve ever seen Matt make. I’m almost inclined to say it was a selfish decision, too.
My goodness, it’s astonishingly (and depressingly funny) how possible it is for one pot to call the kettle black so many times without scrubbing himself down first…
I especially love Mark for calling his ass on it, too. How exactly does the outdated BrowseHappy (which, not surprisingly, still hasn’t been updated since that thread) help and not hinder the WP user base who uses, understands, and enjoys IE?
No shite the community is “very large”, it’s just too bad trac doesn’t represent a fair overview of the true WP user base. Most of them don’t even know what trac is…maybe Matt just likes to listen to his users and takes their best interest to heart when it’s convenient for him? That seems to be the trend.
-KB
shep said
i really like this line:
“I appreciate your comments, but this isn’t a place for voting.”
Even if it was a place for voting, it wouldn’t matter. What Matt wants, Matt gets. It doesn’t matter if the community at large wants something different. And if he’s blind enough to think it’s not something people want, then maybe he should open that up for discussion (much like he did with advice for what to do with the recent blocking of .com by Turkey). Discussion of what goes in or out of WP doesn’t seem to be something Matt likes to do if it goes against what he wants.
skippy said
Ain’t that the truth?
Software, by definition, is soulless. It’s the community — and the individual members of that community — that have soul. Their passion and their participation are what drive the development of software: without users, there’s no need for the software.
Both matt and the readers of wank have a rather myopic view of the situation. matt gets to read near-sycophantic “keep up the great work” posts on almost anything he writes; and wank and her readers get to lament amongst themselves how absurd and arbitrary much of matt’s decision making is.
matt’s recent comments make it abundantly clear that the .org version of WordPress is not open for casual participation. The recent hullabaloo with the .com version of WordPress makes it abundantly clear that the desires of automattic trump the desires of the community they purport to serve. For those that don’t care, or are content with that situation, both the .org and .com versions remain fine choices for them to satisfy their blogging needs.
For everyone else, plenty of other tools exist, each with their own community. WordPress isn’t the only game in town.
that girl again said
Only ‘near-sycophantic’? That is so insulting to the fanboys. Have you not seen them begging Matt to restore the default link to his blog? Populating their own blogrolls is obviously too much work for them. Some people are so lazy.
(not logging in to reduce the chances of being swallowed by Akismet. Don’t ask.)
Root said
I love seeing this type of stuff played out in all it’s squalid naked glory. The base for browsehappy was the utter inability of anyone with any formal link to WP to produce anything – theme – admin panel – forum – their own blog 🙂 which runs consistently across platform. Matt will never live down his entry in the first style comp (or was that blamed on his sister?). Furthermore the suspicious lack of a sidebar on his yukky green yellow thing, and the forum mess tell us all we need to know in this regard. I have even seen com themes using OMFG – negative margin – positioning schemes of all things. It all sucks absolutely gloriously. But the bit I really like is the naivety of the trac punters who think they count. Submitting code is strictly a one way street. As always. Rock on TXP. And bring on Habari.
Robert Synnott said
So basically, the message is “Don’t contribute to this”? And also “no developer but Matt has any say in anything”, I suppose. Amazing. WordPress appears to be one of the most socially dysfunctional open-source projects I’ve ever had the privilege of coming across.
Robert Synnott said
Ah, all is clear to me now. Did you actually look at the Browse Happy page? It has nice big ‘Firefox with Google Toolbar’ affiliate links; Google pays a dollar or so an installation for those 😉
Robert Synnott said
Browse Manic, or, Waaah, MY blogging platform!
More news from the wacky world of WordPress; I almost wish I was still using it so that I’d have more reasonable cause for complaint… I was put onto this by this article, although the advertising discovery is my own,…
Robert Synnott said
Incidentally, the ad has the same client ID as was used on Matt’s personal blog back when he used AdSense.
drmiketemp said
I see that my post got caught again by Akismet. *sigh*
Anyway….
And gets to delete anything that even begins to call into question if he’s right or not.
Collin said
mike – that gets on my nerves too. I asked a simple, non offensive question of Matt on his Vanilla rant post and it never appeared. I’m not going to bother any more.
that girl again said
Oh, good catch. I wouldn’t have seen that because I have Firefox with Adblock installed 😉
Kissing Bandit said
Affiliate links? And he’s badmouthing others because of their monetization choices? At least, this time, he’s not trying to game search engine rankings and PR juice from the link.
If I learned one thing from this thread, it’s that Matt is the master of the spin job.
Frankly, he’s in the wrong field; forget software development, he should seriously consider becoming a PR exec. With all of this in his portfolio, he would certainly make a lot more money than the few random clicks from people downloading the Firefox w/ Googlebar software…
-KB
Robert Synnott said
Kissing Bandit: In fairness, it’s not at all clear that they are his or Automattic’s affiliate links. If the money goes to WordPress.org, that would be okay. He should clarify this issue, though.
Root said
A dollar an installation? Fuck me. No wonder the guy is rich.
Christian Mohn said
Another example of the problem with mixing .org and .com, and where to draw the lines.
Kissing Bandit said
@Robert: You’re right, but I strongly doubt that the money’s going back to WP.org. (Now is the time for Matt to make a huge “donation” to the WP.org project and announce that future AdSense revenue will go directly to the WP.org project, then spin it as though it’s always been that way.) And would it truly make a difference whether it’s his personal pub-ID or if it’s Automattic’s pub-ID?
If it’s his personal pub-ID, he makes no mention of donating the earned money to WP.org on the post you linked to. In fact, one commenter eluded to it being a “money grubbing ploy” — facetiously, of course.
Even if those are Automattic’s links, Automattic is a commercial company that has its own products to worry about. WP.org is non-commercial. MattCo™ needs to separate their commercial gains from the non-commercial products and not covertly use their non-commercial users to further their funding for commercial projects — that is, if MattCo™ wishes not to be hypocritical.
By the way, Google does allow for multiple AdSense publisher accounts for different individuals and businesses. So, if he truly wanted to get AdSense for the WP.org movement, he could have set up a foundation and signed up for AdSense under the WP.org foundation.
What’s left to find out is whether the pub-ID for AdSense on WP.com matches that of the BrowseHappy website.
But, like I said, though, you’re right; he truly needs to clarify.
-KB
that girl again said
I don’t think Matt ever did get around to setting up a non-profit foundation for WordPress, though he occasionally used to claim that was the plan. In its absence, wordpress.org=Matt.
I can’t work out whether he’s clinging on to the browsehappy link because of its monetary value (he always says that money is unimportant, but mostly that’s when it’s other people trying to make it) or whether it’s a power thing, or some combination of the two. Based on the recent appearance of the link in the wordpress.org footer, I’m going to guess it’s mainly about control. For the benevolent dictator to maintain his position, he needs to dictate things. They may seem petty, self-serving, and even self-defeating to everyone else, but it is politically necessary, every so often, to remind people who’s in charge.
Kissing Bandit said
After all my comments here, I probably should clarify that I have nothing against WordPress or Matt personally. It just rubs me the wrong way when people take a “do as I say, not as I do” stance, which is what Matt has been doing a lot of lately.
-KB
Robert Synnott said
I hadn’t even seriously considered that it might be his own personal ID; I doubt he’s that bad 😉
Regardless, it’s the sort of thing that should be clarified.
I also have nothing personally against WordPress, Automattic or Matt. I don’t care for WordPress as an application, and Matt is the sort of person who tends to get on my nerves, at least on the Internet; it’s entirely possible that he’s quite nice in person.
Kissing Bandit said
Ahhh, I wish I were still that naive.
The beautiful thing about transparency, the hot new Web 2.0 term, is that it really should be called translucence because a company only needs to show you as much about their inner workings as they want you to see.
Right now, I’d say that MattCo™’s translucence is around 40%. We can still see through it, but it’s fuzzy enough that we can’t always make out what’s on the other side.
I would hope he’s not that bad, but I’d recommend waiting and watching a little while longer. People can surprise you.
-KB
that girl again said
After some digging around on my hard drive (I saved a copy of the wordpress.com ad code when this happened), I can tell you that the ID used to serve ads here is not the same as the one Robert found on browsehappy.
The ad setup here is rather more complicated than the standard cut-and-paste job and isn’t handled in the standard way. They would possibly need to have a separate ID for purely technical reasons.
Kissing Bandit said
That would be a nope. The pub-ID is used solely for tracking who’s AdSense account it is and not for technical purposes.
So (and I’m going out on the tip of the limb here), I’d wager it’s Matt’s personal AdSense code that’s up on the BrowseHappy site since it also matches the pub-ID from his personal blog.
The pub-ID found in the code on WP.com is most likely Automattic’s (the company) which would be a separate AdSense account altogether.
-KB
Robert Synnott said
According to Matt, the money goes to WordPress.org. (http://myblog.rsynnott.com/2007/08/browsehappy-apparently-earning.html). So it’s not as bad as we’d thought.
He also says that it wasn’t a noticeable amount, which I am sceptical of, considering the site’s highly targeted advertisement in WordPress.
Kissing Bandit: AdSense is known to do all sorts of weird things for very big publishers. Even somewhat big; most publishers with over 10 million views a month get special treatment.
Robert Synnott said
BrowseHappy – apparently earning money for WordPress, not Automattic
Following on from here.According to Matt, the money from the affiliate link on BrowseHappy goes to WordPress.org. (Incidentally, I wonder does that mean that the ads on his blog, which, when they existed, used the same ID, funded WordPress too?)…
that girl again said
True enough, I daresay. The amount that would need to be pouring into the adsense coffers in order for it to show up on Matt’s radar is a lot larger than it would be for the rest of us 😉
shep said
It goes to WordPress.org and no one knew of this? Maybe it’s time for the copyright holders and the rest of the wordpress community to start asking about where this money is going. It has to be going somewhere right? It’s not just sitting in a coffee can buried in the desert somewhere. I think it’s only fair to disclose where the funds that have been made by a community project are going.
ttancm said
So, why doesn’t somebody branch WP (not create a new product, I like the software) and have a rival, more democratic group making WP releases?
It seems there are plenty of developers who are unhappy enough with the way things are. I’d be more than happy to switch my sites over to a version with changes made to improve functionality rather than unnecessary bloat (browser switching campaigns, links to people I don’t know, knew shiny widgets and wizbangs that I just have to delete from every single installation I make etc.).
shep said
well, some people have left and started habari. why did they not use wp code? because there are a lot of people who think wp code is bad. that’s why many former wp devs joined habari, as it was a fresh start with the code.
Kissing Bandit said
@Robert:
I know, I’ve worked with some of them and been to one too many webmaster/affiliate conferences where the big G always has a rep (usually Matt Cutts).
You’re right that Google will make special concessions for larger accounts, but one thing that remains the same? The publisher ID unless they have different corporations or DBA’s set up.
I’ve rarely heard of a case where Google will randomly create new pub-IDs for the same company. Not saying it isn’t possible, just highly unlikely that’s the case with Automattic — they get a lot of pageviews, but doubt Google will jump through those hoops for them.
-KB
Kissing Bandit said
Playing Devil’s advocate here…
And you truly expected him to say otherwise? It’s like asking a criminal if he committed a crime.
(By the way, I’m not saying that Matt is or isn’t lying, simply pointing out that <em<human nature generally requires us to deny anything we believe will get us into trouble.)
-KB
ttancm said
Shep,
I know about Habari but that would fall under the “new product” bit in the parenthesis there. =)
There seem to be plenty of people who are willing to accept the WP code but don’t like the various politics and such that go along with it. Seems a good solution would be to make another version, which is completely possible since it’s open source right? =)
skippy said
Forking WordPress is entirely possible, but not entirely practical.
First, why should Joe Blogger download your version versus the “real” version? If you don’t have users, why bother doing it?
Second, how do you meaningfully get word out that you’re forking WordPress?
Third, how do you meaningfully provide ways for the disaffected masses to participate in your forked version? What assurances do they have that you won’t be just another matt?
Fourth, how do you provide support for your forked version, which will inherit all of the WP bugs from the moment you fork?
Once you fork, and establish some modicum of infrastructure for transparency (public commit logs, discussion forums or mailing lists, etc), you’ll need to start adding value to your offering. The whole idea of “forking” WordPress is to keep the same codebase, but remove the bottleneck of Automattic. What happens when you want to include some great new code that breaks backward compatibility? Suddenly a large portion of plugins stop working on your users’ sites. Do you continue to track WordPress development — bugs and all — or do you finally decide to irrevocably split so that you can pursue your own development?
There are several previous attempts at forked versions of WordPress. There was a PostgresSQL version, SteamPress, and at least one other that escapes me now. None gathered sufficient interest from users, and the developers moved on.
Finally, there are great swaths of WordPress code that are better off being redesigned from the ground-up, rather than massaged into some reasonable form. When we set out on Habari, we had a long discussion about whether to start with the WordPress base and make our modifications, or start from scratch while evaluating what WordPress did well. We decided that the amount of work necessary to improve the core WordPress code was substantially greater than starting from scratch.
Looking back, I think we made the right choice: Habari has a fantastic codebase. It’s easy to explain to new users; it’s clear and largely self-documenting (one file per class, with each class representing a discrete “thingie” (posts, comments, users, etc)); and we’re (currently) not saddled with lots of backwards compatibility constraints. In several years time, I’m sure we’ll be struggling with many of the same challenges with which WordPress currently struggles. Hopefully, though, our adherence to meritocracy and consensus will allow us to explore many more options that just those ideas the original developers might be willing to suggest or explore.
Check back in a few years to see how well we’ve fared. 😉
Steve said
We meet again wank, nice to hear I’m your “friend” however thinking about what you said, I have to agree with you on a large part about Automattic. Yes that was me on TechCrunch, I changed my name a little to see if you could notice, but it seems you did. Sorry about being nasty though, I just wanted to get back at you P:
I wrote on matts blog but he didn’t accept it, I suppose he thinks I’m a “weirdo” because I posted more than once? When I “offered” a new theme for the admin in WP, it was just a stylesheet change, nothing fancy, it’s just that I thought he would be interested in what I have to say, but he never responded. But generally reading Matts postings online I notice when something trivial comes around he is quick to back out or “pretend” not to have read it. I don’t know maybe matt does lack basic moral judgment. And whats so bad about my suggestions? sure I think WP could be seperated into teams, it would make the software better and it would ensure that every bit of the WP code could be overlooked by a certain number of individuals.
Now I did take offense when you classified me as an idiot on your other entry, because the MT download page wasn’t downloading me the software at the time when I posted on Matts blog, then when I did finally download, all I got were perl errors and for someone who doesn’t know anything about perl (who does?) it was a struggle to figure out the problem, but they were vague errors that I didn’t understand anyway. WordPress wins me because it’s easy to install, thats what matters. I am certain MT is great software but if it doesn’t install properly the first time it’s no use. I’m no fanboy of wordpress though, just someone who likes the software. But in the future though I will look elsewhere for blogging software, Habari looks good.
Root said
WW could you do a nice *Browse Unhappy* graphic for us ? 🙂
ttancm said
Hi Skippy,
I think you missed a basic premise in my comment. I’m not talking about a fork for people who don’t want to use WordPress anymore, but for people who like the software but not all the other BS that goes along with and seems to have an unfortunate amount of influence on newer versions of the software.
I’m not saying it would be easy by any means, (if it was that easy I’d do it myself =) ) but I think that with the amount of dissatisfaction there is with current WP shenanigans there would be a decent amount of interest in a forked version minus all the holier than thou preachiness and development towards the ideals of a very small group of people.
Support is the same problem for WP (hey we could just take their approach and ignore users!) and Habari have, in fact I would venture to say that Habari support is going to be a bigger challenge because with a forked version of WP you would at least have users experienced with the pre-forked code.
Eventually you will end up straying far enough from the original code base that you end up with a completely separate project, but at least you start off with something immediately usable that people who just want a more reliable version of WP can use with an already developed library of themes and plugins, whereas with Habari, or any totally new codebase there’s going to be a significant wait until you have something that can be reliably implemented by end users.
I know there are huge chunks of WP that need re-coding or just need to be completely redone from scratch, but that’s true for pretty much every piece of software. No offense and I’m not trying to take the piss or anything, but I guarantee once Habari grow a bit more in functionality there are going to redundant and badly written bits of code (pretty much no matter what you do, someone, somewhere is going to feel that way).
In the meantime, until Habari or some other project releases a perfect piece of software, there would be something for the rest of us to use without being subject to increasingly commercial and egomaniacal whims 😉
skippy said
The author of this post claims to be interested in forking WordPress. Perhaps what it takes is someone actually doing it in order for such an effort to gain momentum. matt has in the past expressed a willingness to provide resources (server space, bandwidth) to start-up open source projects — maybe this is a good opportunity to take him up on that offer.
For the record, all of the original authors of Habari wanted to continue to use WordPress. We liked it well enough at the time, and we certainly had substantial familiarity with it. But as we evaluated the benefits and costs for sticking with the WordPress code, we finally decided that there was significantly greater long-term value by starting over. Maybe the fellow linked above won’t reach the same conclusion, and there will be a less emotionally-encumbered version of WordPress available for folks to use.
No offense is taken about your observations of Habari: as I noted above, in time we’ll face many of the same challenges that WordPress (and every other free software package) faces. It’s our sincere hope that we face it with dignity, and listen carefully to the great ideas that come from our community.
I don’t mean to derail wank’s post by proselytizing Habari. 😉
If matt wants to earn revenue from the .org version of WP, he’s free to do so, just as others are free to do so by earning money writing plugins, or providing support services, or placing ads on their personal blogs. One would hope that any other developer with commit access would be permitted to embed links to their quasi-related personal money-making projects, too, if the Browse Happy link remains.
ttancm said
The author of that post is going to fork WPMU and for his own purposes, and doesn’t apparently plan on plugging security holes discovered on the official WPMU in the future which seems a bit dodgy since WP seems to be such a popular topic for places like milw0rm and such.
His post and the topic it points to however is an excellent example of the recent direction WP has taken where they decide what we can and cannot do with our blogs and software. It’s gotten to the point that I am afraid to update my copies of WP because I don’t know what new functionality I am going to lose without being notified beforehand. =P
Like I said above, I do understand the need and want to start over from scratch, and while I look forward to testing a fully fleshed out version of Habari in the future, it still leaves me subject to the whims of a handful of people who more and more seem to think they should be able to decide what I can or cannot put into my sites, and what resources are good/bad etc.
drmike said
@ttancm, only other choice to is roll your own blogging software.
It’s like eating fries at a fast food restaurant. Gotta put some trust in the folks behind the counter and hope that they didn’t spit into them.
Robert Synnott said
@drmike Or using software written by sane people, perhaps. 🙂
ttancm said
@Dr. Mike,
What a vivid and apt analogy =) It brings to mind all sorts of others too. “Automatic, like the spit in your big mac”
@Robert,
I have a friend (who is a programmer) who would argue fairly convincingly that there is no such thing as a “sane programmer” 🙂
Root said
Sane programmer? No such thing. No doubt about that. 🙂
Robert Synnott said
As a programmer, I resent that.
Even if it might reasonably be said to be true. 😉
drmiketemp said
By the way, next time someone sees adverts on their wp.com blog, will they please check the pub-ID within them?
power_switch said
Howdy!
I feel all warm inside that my meager words have been read and that I wasn’t too far off base.
Yes, forking WordPress is not a practical thing to do, I was using the terminology available to me and it came out awfully grandiose.
To clarify, i am forking WP MU in my own little world. I will be addressing security issues as they come up and making the code work for me and my evil marketing purposes. I also will release my mods as I make them. Whether they will be of use to anyone else is yet to be seen. But it is Open Sourced code, so I will continue that.
I certainly am not of the caliber of the WordPress team though. I have no doubts about that, so that is why I know it will cause me issues in the future.
Would *I* give server space and bandwidth to help with OSS projects?
You bet!
I have a few boxen around the web too 😉
My point, and seemingly the point of a LOT of others is that the entity known as WordPress is not going to get any better to deal with. 2 years ago, it was virtually the perfect solution for my needs and I invested heavily in it’s use and deployment. Now, as I am trying to roll out a new MU domain, I am discovering it is junk. Not being harsh, being realistic. The only profiteer being served by it seems Automattic. Personally, I cannot survive without being able to modify code for my purposes.
So, my intent as of this moment is to take the existing code and hack it BACK into reasonable shape and then modify from there. technically, that does make it a fork 😉
I would be surprised if more than ten people wind up using their own copy of my version.
If I wanted to make a blog script, I would take Skippy’s approach and move completely. The only reason I am not all over Habari personally is it seems it has a bit to go on features (their goals are not mine yet) and I don’t have the time for the learning curve.
Sorry to pop in here and spout my agenda… but I wanted to be clear that I have no plans of being a real replacement for WP MU.
I may be an insane coder, but I am not delusional 😉
Should Smarter People desire to make a real fork to WP MU, I would gladly offer help and resources. This is also an offer to the Habari group if they want to work on a multi-user version.
All I want out of life is a sane script that I can use to serve ME. Automattic has made WordPress only serve them. The issue that made me write what I did is a prime example. Rather than find out if there was a problem and then fixing it, they hacked in an overkill solution to prevent future bad press and user complaints. Worse, they REFUSE to go back and fix it themselves.
I guess what they did was preemptively moderate a bunch of negative posts. I think censoring the bad posts is a major mistake. Successful entities survive criticism. They fix problems and they grow.
I think it is a shame that WP does not utilize the power of the Loyal Opposition. THEY are creating defectors.
WordPress is a gonner.
BTW, as a programmer, let me say for the record: there is no such thing as a sane programmer. 😉
Root said
Well I am programme a bit and for the record I am far from sane. In fact I have certificates.
OT: Habari is MU right out of the box. How cool is that?
skippy said
For the record, Root, the multi-site capabilities of Habari are not like WPMU.:
* WPMU provides a single account database, with discrete permissions for each user to each blog.
* Habari multi-site allows discrete blogs to be hosted from a single version of the code. Each blog is completely independent, with no account sharing between them. I hope a plugin can provide WPMU-like functionality, but that’s not currently on the agenda.
Root said
Sorry. I didnt mean to confuse anybody.
Andrew said
Thanks for the last few comments, which show how Habari is similar to WPMU, and how it is different.
drmike said
Won’t happen. Too many companies and folks don’t see what occurs. Perfect example: Hotmail has a string of open-for-relaying servers in San Fran that are well known for being abused by spammers. GMail doesn’t put the sending IP address in their email headers like they’re supposed to so there’s no way to track down spammers who abuse their service.
Does anyone see them falling to the side?
Robert Synnott said
In the case of WordPress(.org), I suspect that a large number of users are reasonably well-informed and likely to take offence to this sort of thing; many people went for it in the first place at least partly because it was a large open-source project. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of those people leave, assuming that things don’t get better; of course, a number of major contributors have already left.
Of course, this will have little or no impact on WordPress.com, so it’s unlikely Automattic will care too much. It’s quite clear at this point that they aren’t really interested in what contributors want to do anyway.
power_switch said
drmike,
WordPress… no, Austomattic may try and act like M$, but they are a far shot from it.
I have been around this web for awhile and seen many bigger fish than these fried.
What made WP what it is today is the great deal of support the community has given. People like Skippy and the other hackers working on it. The code base itself has never really impressed me.. um, comments anyone?
What makes me say they are a gonner is they aren’t M$ and their strength WAS their greater community. the official community has always been disappointing, but some of the contributors are amazing in the level of work they do and the help they offer.
Is WP a gonner this year? nah. Will this domain fall off the web? nah. Will many of us be using the code in 5 years? I seriously doubt it. Not without some serious changes at the top.
I use WordPress because it is the best available solution to my needs. It still is. But it WONT be for much longer. The web is like anything else and abhors a vacuum… when there is a need, things get done. If I was any better of a coder, I would have started my own blog engine a few years ago. There ARE good coders though, and they are even more dissatisfied than I am and they are coding away to offer a solution to “the WordPress mentality is wrong” problem.
Some of the code I have seen is very good and shows promise. But it wont do what I need it to yet. So, I use the tool that does mostly work and I hack it and smack it till it fakes it for my purposes and I wait for their agendas to get closer to mine…
The point I am trying to bash around here is that my case is sadly becoming typical. I am using the code still because I am invested and there is no ready solution I could deploy by Monday. The moment a solution is available….
WordPress is a gonner 😉
Just think, all they did to me was make a dumb edit and refuse to fix it… had they given me a real slight and stolen from me (futile attempt to get back on topic), I doubt seriously I would still even allow them to exist on my servers at all.
drmiketemp said
Oh, I agree. Automattic is more like the Enron of the Internet but without the money. The ehtics issues that they have will bite themselves someday but I don’t think it will mean the end of the company. Only way that will happen is if the funding gets pulled but considering they have backers and the income from wp.com and their support, I doubt it will happen.
End users don’t see the internal politics. All they see if the WordPress link on their CPanel page to get it to load.
drmiketemp said
Oh, Matt’s having second thoughts about IE7:
http://photomatt.net/2007/09/05/confession/
I wonder if this is butt covering to remove Browse Happy.
Robert Synnott said
DrMike: they have, indeed, removed the affiliate link from BrowseHappy.
Root said
Another win for WW?
that girl again said
nah, I’m going to let drmike and Robert take the credit for this one. The ad has gone, but the link in the dashboard hasn’t gone anywhere. Yet.
Maybe Matt will now add an IE7 section to BrowseHappy so he has an excuse to keep plugging his silly little fansite 😉
True, but while over the years Matt has become more adept at spinning his errors of judgment so that he comes out looking better than ever, one day the team’s ineptness at dealing with customers is going to turn around and bite them. Hard. The Turkey thing died down because Americans don’t care about Turkey, and the few who do were happy to frame it as a free-speech issue with wordpress.com as the plucky little bloghost standing up against Teh Evil Oppressor. The more pertinent questions of whether the initial complaints were in fact ignored and whether the blogs were in fact libellous were brushed aside. It might not be so easy to handwave those things next time round.
drmiketemp said
Better not give me credit. Matt will just spin it into yet another lie.
Robert Synnott said
Browse Hippy – no more ads for WordPress.org site
I mentioned a little while ago that BrowseHappy.com, a site operated by WordPress (.org? Automattic? Unclear…) had a Google affiliate ad for Firefox with Google Toolbar; the person who publishes said ads gets a dollar or so each time someone…
drmiketemp said
Oh, the FAQ got rewritten again. Someone quoted the “two year old” ToS we have here at wp.com.
Well I guess maybe a year and a half old ToS is pretty close to two years old. (Maybe we complained about not having one for what seems like almost two years) Too bad it’s just another example of where Automattic can’t get it’s policies all together on the same page.
Official: WordPress default theme translation is forbidden said
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shep said
Funny that matt is so adamant about Browse Happy being in there because IE is so bad, yet he posts this: http://photomatt.net/2007/09/05/confession/
shep said
gah, i didn’t see the previous comments about his IE7 post. ignore mine 🙂
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