Apparently, it’s not enough to licence your plugins as GPL anymore. If Matt doesn’t like the look of your site, it’s not going in the official repository regardless of the licence.
I’m not sure that the plugin in question is illegal — it just looks like a cache plugin to me — but clearly Matt is morally offended by it. Maybe there are ASCII nekkid ladies in the readme? No, actually he just seems affronted by the fact the guy is selling enhanced versions of said plugin. What, does Plugin Guy not read Techcrunch? Putting a pricelist on your site and expecting Matt to approve you is just stupid.
I’m a little worried about the precedent this sets, though, if uploads ever do get re-enabled on the theme viewer. If an author links to a site offering themes for sale, will they be banned from uploading? What if they offer paid services? What if they have too many ads for Matt’s liking? What if he thinks their site just looks a bit spammy? What if they have sites he doesn’t like in their blogroll? What if they fail to fill their required quota of pixels in the blue/green part of the spectrum? 🙄
wordpress™ wank 
drmiketemp said
Actually what I think is funny about that ‘morally offended’ that you link to is how I’ve yet to find a single plugin of Automattic’s that includes a readme file. Or even just basic instructions.
Since you’re posting about this, I gather that means you’ve seen the ‘discussion‘ that started all of this.
shep said
so, the guy offers a free version and if you want to upgrade, a paid version. not a bad idea. i’m going to offer a plugin that is free for personal users but if you are a professional blogger, you’ll have to pay. what’s even better is it’s going to come with every version of wp. i shall call it akismet! huh? someone already did that? damn. Guess matt is the only one allowed to make money off wp. Don’t see what the big deal is about including the plugin on wp.org The author does offer a free version. *shrugs*
drmiketemp said
Just had a thought after reading shep’s comment.
Isn’t Akismet in the same boat? It’s free unless you need the upgrade and then you have to pay for it? 😉
drmiketemp said
Long day. I missed the bit in there that shep says about akismet. Sorry about that. Averaging 5 hours a night of sleep lately.
zzzzzzz…………..
Alan said
Akismet is different, duh. Matt made Akismet, or his company at least, so it’s okay for it to be pay for.
Abel Cheung said
Since we are playing other people’s game, such thing isn’t entirely unexpected. Actually quite normal for a self-proclaimed god.
Root said
This is caused by the big conflict which arises when what is ostensibly open source software; allows the control of all the supporting resources to remain in the hands of one guy. It is frankly – none of Matt’s business – and nor does it properly fall with legitimate WP territory – who produces what plugins / themes and how they are distributed. That is the whole point of open source.
that girl again said
The trouble is that few very people outside Automattic have the time or resources to keep third-party resources ticking over. The only reason Matt’s now got his mitts on the theme viewer is because it was too much work for the succession of people who’ve tried to run it in the past.
Of course, it’s becoming increasingly evident that Automattic don’t have the time to keep the plugin and theme directories running efficiently either, so others will step in to fill the gap. It’s really up to the community to support these independent sites and ensure that wordpress.org isn’t the only source of plugins or themes in town. Freedom requires eternal vigilance. 🙂
Pissed Off Joe said
Matt is right. That plugin does not add a whole lot of value to wordpress. For an example of a high-value plugins, you need to look at that fine creation called “Hello Dolly”. Ha!
It’s all “open source” in letter perhaps, but not spirit. WordPress is nothing but Matt Mullenweg’s fiefdom.
Kissing Bandit said
I don’t understand why this would surprise anyone. Matt has made it crystal clear on numerous occasions that he’s not kosher with people earning money from WP itself, its themes or plugins.
Hypocritical? Yes. Surprising. Not really.
sunburntkamel said
heh, hello dolly: a fine example of illegally relicensing copy written works under the GPL. morally offensive indeed.
Daria Black said
I guess it’s time for someone to take WordPress and fork it into something more community friendly because it’s become apparent that Matt only wants altruistic users.
drmiketemp said
They did. It’s called Habari.
Alan said
Habari isn’t a fork…
Root said
Well said……..
Javier Aroche said
Habari isn’t a fork, and these guys seems they are in another business we have waited for something and still I don’t see any progress….. maybe MT is for you jeje
that girl again said
Technically, Habari isn’t a fork since it doesn’t use any WP code. Spiritually, well, that’s debatable. It’s true that the lead developers met through working on wordpress and that they disagree with the way that wordpress is being run. So while it’s not a fork, it does have certain forky qualities.
As for Habari’s development speed, it’s probably rather faster than WordPress’s was before anyone got paid to work on it. They’ve put out two releases this year. The only reason WP now release a new version every couple of months is so Ryan can earn his keep 😉
shep said
don’t forget the habari folks are writing from scratch. wp was slow to develop as well back then (remember how long it took for theme support to be added?) Once they get a stable product they can speed things up, as the code base will already be there and they just need to tweak code, fix bugs, and add features.
Root said
mm. I think that is clever Wank. Its a spiritual fork. Cool.
sunburntkamel said
having poked around in wp 2.3 a bit now, here’s the most disturbing thing about matt’s refusal to list the plugin: he’s putting every user of the plugin at greater risk, by denying them access to update notifications.
that girl again said
Presumably people who download unofficial plugins deserve everything they get 🙄 Update notifications are just another way of trying to kill off any independent distribution of plugins and bring everything under Matt’s control. No doubt he’s planning something similar for themes.
Root said
Themes approved by Matt? God help us. 🙂
Kissing Bandit said
Root, you’re not into two column fixed with themes with Big Blue Headers™? <sarcasm>I thought that was the new trend.</sarcasm>
-KB
WP 2.3 Update Notification vs. WP-Plugins DB | PhSoftware Programming Blog - PSPB said
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snowboarders said
shut up and skate. I think too many things are mixed here because of someone is offended that his plugin is not added to a (even if its ‘the’) repository. you can not blame matt for this.
that girl again said
um, since he’s the only person with the power to give people access to extend/plugins, I think you probably can.