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> But acting like he's benefiting from other people's free labour just shows you've never paid attention to the development of WordPress. Is Matt responsible,

> But acting like he's benefiting from other people's free labour just shows you've never paid attention to the development of WordPress. Is Matt responsible, financially, for a large portion of WP development? Yes. Is he benefitting from free labor from OS contributors? Yes. Is the WP ecosystem enriched as a whole by commercial and OS contributors? Yes.

FireBeyond 2y ago
There is this whole issue - which plays into the dispute in multiple ways - that treats Matt, Automattic, WordPress, wordpress.org, wordpress.com, WordPress Foundation, as essentially interchangeable and synonymous. That's part of the problem. This lawsuit is between two for-profit companies, Automattic and WPE. Automattic has investors and revenue streams. As does WPE. This isn't "Matt is financially responsible for WP development".
- lsaferite 2y ago
  Your statement further highlights the issues actually. Matt owns, outright, wordpress.org and uses resources from Automattic to manage wordpress.org. One avenue this slap fight has taken is via Matt blocking WPEngine from wordpress.org. Matt, not Automattic. The WP Foundation is a thin veneer around Matt as well. There are a bunch more oddities in this whole thing if you care to look into it. IMHO, Matt needs to step back from this whole thing and let the lawyers work out the dispute without his emotions clouding things. He also needs to clear up ownership of wordpress.org, ideally by transferring it to the WPF. And finally, he should step down from his role at the WPF to help it become a foundation independent of control from Automattic. He's proven to be an unstable steward of the WP ecosystem at this point and lost trust is hard to regain. I make all of these statement as someone not connected to the WP ecosystem beyond sometimes helping a friend who leverages WP for his clients.

FireBeyond 2y ago

There is this whole issue - which plays into the dispute in multiple ways - that treats Matt, Automattic, WordPress, wordpress.org, wordpress.com, WordPress Foundation, as essentially interchangeable and synonymous. That's part of the problem. This lawsuit is between two for-profit companies, Automattic and WPE. Automattic has investors and revenue streams. As does WPE. This isn't "Matt is financially responsible for WP development".

lsaferite 2y ago
Your statement further highlights the issues actually. Matt owns, outright, wordpress.org and uses resources from Automattic to manage wordpress.org. One avenue this slap fight has taken is via Matt blocking WPEngine from wordpress.org. Matt, not Automattic. The WP Foundation is a thin veneer around Matt as well. There are a bunch more oddities in this whole thing if you care to look into it. IMHO, Matt needs to step back from this whole thing and let the lawyers work out the dispute without his emotions clouding things. He also needs to clear up ownership of wordpress.org, ideally by transferring it to the WPF. And finally, he should step down from his role at the WPF to help it become a foundation independent of control from Automattic. He's proven to be an unstable steward of the WP ecosystem at this point and lost trust is hard to regain. I make all of these statement as someone not connected to the WP ecosystem beyond sometimes helping a friend who leverages WP for his clients.