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This is so bizarre. I saw this first on the Automattic blog: https://wordpress.org/news/2024/10/spoon/ https://wordpress.org/news/2024/10/spoon/ It’s curious w

This is so bizarre. I saw this first on the Automattic blog: https://wordpress.org/news/2024/10/spoon/ https://wordpress.org/news/2024/10/spoon/ It’s curious why Matt Mullenweg would be hyping this up when it contains “WP” in the name, like WP Engine. “FreeWP” sounds just as much like something that would cause brand confusion. Also, the FreeWP announcement post seems like a manifesto to remove Matt from stewardship of WordPress and to start some sort of class action lawsuit. With bits like: “On the legal front, I’ve secured a suite of domains for WP Class Action. This independent initiative aims to address the issues plaguing our community head-on.” and “Change isn’t just coming — it’s here. Consider this your wake-up call to those who’ve held the reins for too long. FreeWP stands ready to ensures WordPress remains free, open, and genuinely community-centric.” Is Matt just really trying to promote forking of software? Is he hoping people point and laugh at FreeWP? Does he want the project to get off the ground so he can go after them with trademark claims? It doesn’t make sense to me.

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lolinder 2y ago
This isn't even a fork—looking at the text on this site, I think it's just this guy Vinny deliberately trolling Matt by registering a bunch of WP domains and flaunting them. If so, he succeeded at the goal of provoking an asinine response from WordPress.org (aka Matt). From the author [0]: > I love how I never said I was going to fork the project and only wanted to support those who did. Matt is incredible at only hearing the things he wants to hear. See the FAQ for more evidence that this is mostly just Vinny trolling so far [1]: > Well, what does ‘wp’ mean? > We found some notes referencing “word processing” and “web publishing,” and there’s even a mention of Wendell Pierce, who played Detective William ‘Bunk’ Moreland in the popular HBO series The Wire. It seems to be related to one of those topics. > It’s also rumored the singsongy vibes really sealed the deal. [0] https://x.com/vinnysgreen/status/1844488053060141233 https://x.com/vinnysgreen/status/1844488053060141233 [1] https://freewp.com/faq/ https://freewp.com/faq/
- lrae 2y ago
  I am not sure who is trolling who here. Maybe they both are trying to troll each other, but both don't really look great. FreeWP seems like a completely meritless attempt at a fork / initiative. Potentially even just an attempt by "Vinny" to move himself into the spotlight. And the WordPress community, for a big part, looks still very novice and in-experienced and a decent junk of community members might fall for this and put at least some (and more than they should) eggs into that basket. Matt just seems to troll and knows that "FreeWP" is no competition at all. And continues on his path of eccentric and very weird behavior.
  - lolinder 2y ago
    > FreeWP seems like a completely meritless attempt at a fork / initiative. Potentially even just an attempt by "Vinny" to move himself into the spotlight. This is why I think it's a troll—it's so completely devoid of substance that I think it must be deliberately void, and getting Matt to respond was the only point. The OP specifically says they don't intend to fork, and they have a goofy FAQ with an intentionally-absent mission statement.
  - vinnysgreen 2y ago
    It's not a fork. I'm "Vinny," and I've been a part of other communities outside of WordPress. Matt seems to be very concerned about it because while the site is just a placeholder, the real work is organizing the community, which I know he knows I am doing.
nickff 2y ago
Wordpress has consistently said that “WP” is fair game, but that leaning on “Wordpress” is not.
- lolinder 2y ago
  They said that consistently right up until they changed the trademark policy to call out WP Engine by name: > The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress. "Consistently" is not an adverb I would associate with Automattic/WordPress.org/WordPress Foundation/Matt's behavior in recent months.
- GavinAnderegg 2y ago
  They used to, until the WP Engine fight began. The trademark policy was updated a few days after Matt started publicly beefing with them. There’s now the following on the trademark policy page: https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/ https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/ The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.
  - nickff 2y ago
    That seems clear and consistent to me; they’re not saying you can’t use “WP”, just asking that people avoid confusing users.
    - deleted 2y ago
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that_guy_iain 2y ago
The issue with WP Engine isn't the WP in the name. That's fine and part of how WordPress wants it. The issue is they use the word WordPress to define the services they provide. Which is why it's completely bonkers that there is a trademark dispute since they provide managed Wordpress hosting so using WordPress to describe providing WordPress hosting is normal and expected.
- lolinder 2y ago
  No, they updated the trademark policy to call out WP Engine specifically with a petulant mini-rant: > The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress. https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/ https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/
  - benatkin 2y ago
    > The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks This goes with my view that Matt is technically correct almost all the time, which is the best kind of correct. https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/909991-futurama https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/909991-futurama Thanks to that, I normally find consistency in what he says. The forking post about FreeWP makes sense. Especially because there is some amount of joking in both freewp.com and the post. I like how Matt refers to him as a former WordPress community member.
  - chiefalchemist 2y ago
    I'm not a lawyer but the lack of donating is not grounds for a copyright violation. Part of having a copyright is defending it. This is why we occasional see a Goliath beat up on a David. If Goliath lets the David slide it could undermine Goliath's status as actively defending his copyright. In fact, Matt shoots himself in the foot. You don't become a billion dollar company overnight. Zero to thousands. Thousands to hundreds of thousands. Hundreds of thousands to millions. Silence all the way. But billions and it becomes a copyright violation?? That's so ridiculous that only the stupid or the insane would believe it. Or both. But this isn't about copyright. It's Matt looking for revenue and then manufacturing a flimsy excuse to demand money. Up to recently most of the WP Community drank the MM Kool Aid. That's not the case any more.

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lolinder 2y ago

This isn't even a fork—looking at the text on this site, I think it's just this guy Vinny deliberately trolling Matt by registering a bunch of WP domains and flaunting them. If so, he succeeded at the goal of provoking an asinine response from WordPress.org (aka Matt). From the author [0]: > I love how I never said I was going to fork the project and only wanted to support those who did. Matt is incredible at only hearing the things he wants to hear. See the FAQ for more evidence that this is mostly just Vinny trolling so far [1]: > Well, what does ‘wp’ mean? > We found some notes referencing “word processing” and “web publishing,” and there’s even a mention of Wendell Pierce, who played Detective William ‘Bunk’ Moreland in the popular HBO series The Wire. It seems to be related to one of those topics. > It’s also rumored the singsongy vibes really sealed the deal. [0] https://x.com/vinnysgreen/status/1844488053060141233 https://x.com/vinnysgreen/status/1844488053060141233 [1] https://freewp.com/faq/ https://freewp.com/faq/

lrae 2y ago
I am not sure who is trolling who here. Maybe they both are trying to troll each other, but both don't really look great. FreeWP seems like a completely meritless attempt at a fork / initiative. Potentially even just an attempt by "Vinny" to move himself into the spotlight. And the WordPress community, for a big part, looks still very novice and in-experienced and a decent junk of community members might fall for this and put at least some (and more than they should) eggs into that basket. Matt just seems to troll and knows that "FreeWP" is no competition at all. And continues on his path of eccentric and very weird behavior.
- lolinder 2y ago
  > FreeWP seems like a completely meritless attempt at a fork / initiative. Potentially even just an attempt by "Vinny" to move himself into the spotlight. This is why I think it's a troll—it's so completely devoid of substance that I think it must be deliberately void, and getting Matt to respond was the only point. The OP specifically says they don't intend to fork, and they have a goofy FAQ with an intentionally-absent mission statement.
- vinnysgreen 2y ago
  It's not a fork. I'm "Vinny," and I've been a part of other communities outside of WordPress. Matt seems to be very concerned about it because while the site is just a placeholder, the real work is organizing the community, which I know he knows I am doing.

nickff 2y ago

Wordpress has consistently said that “WP” is fair game, but that leaning on “Wordpress” is not.

lolinder 2y ago
They said that consistently right up until they changed the trademark policy to call out WP Engine by name: > The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress. "Consistently" is not an adverb I would associate with Automattic/WordPress.org/WordPress Foundation/Matt's behavior in recent months.
GavinAnderegg 2y ago
They used to, until the WP Engine fight began. The trademark policy was updated a few days after Matt started publicly beefing with them. There’s now the following on the trademark policy page: https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/ https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/ The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.
- nickff 2y ago
  That seems clear and consistent to me; they’re not saying you can’t use “WP”, just asking that people avoid confusing users.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]

that_guy_iain 2y ago

The issue with WP Engine isn't the WP in the name. That's fine and part of how WordPress wants it. The issue is they use the word WordPress to define the services they provide. Which is why it's completely bonkers that there is a trademark dispute since they provide managed Wordpress hosting so using WordPress to describe providing WordPress hosting is normal and expected.

lolinder 2y ago
No, they updated the trademark policy to call out WP Engine specifically with a petulant mini-rant: > The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress. https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/ https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/
- benatkin 2y ago
  > The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks This goes with my view that Matt is technically correct almost all the time, which is the best kind of correct. https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/909991-futurama https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/909991-futurama Thanks to that, I normally find consistency in what he says. The forking post about FreeWP makes sense. Especially because there is some amount of joking in both freewp.com and the post. I like how Matt refers to him as a former WordPress community member.
- chiefalchemist 2y ago
  I'm not a lawyer but the lack of donating is not grounds for a copyright violation. Part of having a copyright is defending it. This is why we occasional see a Goliath beat up on a David. If Goliath lets the David slide it could undermine Goliath's status as actively defending his copyright. In fact, Matt shoots himself in the foot. You don't become a billion dollar company overnight. Zero to thousands. Thousands to hundreds of thousands. Hundreds of thousands to millions. Silence all the way. But billions and it becomes a copyright violation?? That's so ridiculous that only the stupid or the insane would believe it. Or both. But this isn't about copyright. It's Matt looking for revenue and then manufacturing a flimsy excuse to demand money. Up to recently most of the WP Community drank the MM Kool Aid. That's not the case any more.