I feel like this vote doesn’t represent opinions that should actually matter.
Do I believe WP Engine should contribute more to the WordPress community? Sure. I’d say there should be a moral or ethical consideration. But there’s no requirement to contribute to open source. At worse, this should impact reputation and perception of the company.
But do I believe Matt is a knight in shining armor and doing the right thing? Absolutely not. The idea that any competitor of Automattic can have the rug pulled out from under them on a whim by Matt is contradictory to what open source should be. While the ethics and contribution to WordPress by WP Engine might be in question, I’d argue there’s no technical or legal base to take actions that impacts 1.5mil WordPress end users that just happen to be on a specific host. Matt leveraging his control over an open source project to attack a company by crippling it’s end users is despicable.
The precedence that this sets for WordPress and open source should be a watershed moment. You can’t have an open source project and control access to it because a competitor is potentially making more money than you and not “giving back” as much. Open source is open source and the GPL does not warrant blocking the use of if the use conflicts with your own “for profit” interests.
Additionally, there may be an argument somewhere that blocking end users from using the software as well as anything found in [wordpress.org](http://wordpress.org) (i.e. plugins, themes), all of which all require GPL, conflicts with it’s own internal GPL license. “The license cannot restrict use by specific fields of endeavor or groups or types of users”. So blocking distribution based on a Automattic competitor bias sounds like it could be conflicting with it’s own internal licensing. I’m no lawyer, and I’m sure it’s much more complicated than this, but it does reflect a potential of a contradiction in what WordPress should be vs how Matt is trying to control it.
At the going rate, I think Matt went from trying to use his platform to (arguably warranted) burn the reputation of a “greedy” competitor quickly into shooting the whole of WordPress’s reputation in the foot with his pettiness.
I’m team “sit back with a box of popcorn”
I have no opinion on who is right/wrong, as I’m sure there is more to the situation than I (or the public) is aware of. Whether or not Matt has a legitimate grievance against WP Engine, these matters can be settled in court. There is no telling how many innocent parties (users, businesses, etc) are going to be negatively impacted by this. You don’t nuke an entire nation of people because you have a problem with its regime.
Our agency hosts over 150 client sites on Flywheel, and we have many more clients who have their own WP Engine/Flywheel hosting accounts. Despite that, WP Engine is a corporation and I don’t believe them incapable of being scummy, themselves. However, this isn’t the way. Matt needs to backtrack this decision and get whatever he wants via trial/mediation/whatever. He’s not going to win any PR war, as he’s the one who chose to cut off the resources. The average Joe who relies on his small business website isn’t going to care what a CEO’s financial/trademark/contributional grievances are with his host.
I think there are three options. Team WP Engine. Team Matt. And Team WordPress. Matt no longer represents Team WordPress.
I am Team WPE because the actions taken against them impact their customers directly. Do I LOVE the direction WPE has been going? No, I have A LOT of sites hosted with them (10+ years) and unhappy about various things… but this… this is different and my company and clients have nothing to do with this and should have never been impacted in such an abrupt, dangerous way.
If we are specifically speaking about this week, I’m team WP Engine. Matt’s response has been unprofessional, embarrassing, and petty. He put at risk 1.2 million websites hosted with WP Engine and interfered with WP Engine’s ability to fulfill their contractual obligations to their customers. Sending out an email and ad campaign for hosting services right after disabling access to the repository by a direct competitor is unethical. Matt’s irresponsible and negligent reaction could very well lead to litigation for which WP Engine and their customers will likely win and which will do real harm to Automattic and WordPress.org.
Long term, I’m Team WordPress. Matt has shown that he needs to be removed from leadership and from any ability to harm the WordPress ecosystem.
You forgot the “eating popcorn” side.
The problem with this poll supporting WordPress and supporting Matt are not the same thing. So I have to vote no opinion.
In this case, Team WP Engine. But I don’t like WP Engine for other reasons.
I feel like this vote doesn’t represent opinions that should actually matter.
Do I believe WP Engine should contribute more to the WordPress community? Sure. I’d say there should be a moral or ethical consideration. But there’s no requirement to contribute to open source. At worse, this should impact reputation and perception of the company.
But do I believe Matt is a knight in shining armor and doing the right thing? Absolutely not. The idea that any competitor of Automattic can have the rug pulled out from under them on a whim by Matt is contradictory to what open source should be. While the ethics and contribution to WordPress by WP Engine might be in question, I’d argue there’s no technical or legal base to take actions that impacts 1.5mil WordPress end users that just happen to be on a specific host. Matt leveraging his control over an open source project to attack a company by crippling it’s end users is despicable.
The precedence that this sets for WordPress and open source should be a watershed moment. You can’t have an open source project and control access to it because a competitor is potentially making more money than you and not “giving back” as much. Open source is open source and the GPL does not warrant blocking the use of if the use conflicts with your own “for profit” interests.
Additionally, there may be an argument somewhere that blocking end users from using the software as well as anything found in [wordpress.org](http://wordpress.org) (i.e. plugins, themes), all of which all require GPL, conflicts with it’s own internal GPL license. “The license cannot restrict use by specific fields of endeavor or groups or types of users”. So blocking distribution based on a Automattic competitor bias sounds like it could be conflicting with it’s own internal licensing. I’m no lawyer, and I’m sure it’s much more complicated than this, but it does reflect a potential of a contradiction in what WordPress should be vs how Matt is trying to control it.
At the going rate, I think Matt went from trying to use his platform to (arguably warranted) burn the reputation of a “greedy” competitor quickly into shooting the whole of WordPress’s reputation in the foot with his pettiness.
I’m team “sit back with a box of popcorn”
I have no opinion on who is right/wrong, as I’m sure there is more to the situation than I (or the public) is aware of. Whether or not Matt has a legitimate grievance against WP Engine, these matters can be settled in court. There is no telling how many innocent parties (users, businesses, etc) are going to be negatively impacted by this. You don’t nuke an entire nation of people because you have a problem with its regime.
Our agency hosts over 150 client sites on Flywheel, and we have many more clients who have their own WP Engine/Flywheel hosting accounts. Despite that, WP Engine is a corporation and I don’t believe them incapable of being scummy, themselves. However, this isn’t the way. Matt needs to backtrack this decision and get whatever he wants via trial/mediation/whatever. He’s not going to win any PR war, as he’s the one who chose to cut off the resources. The average Joe who relies on his small business website isn’t going to care what a CEO’s financial/trademark/contributional grievances are with his host.
I think there are three options. Team WP Engine. Team Matt. And Team WordPress. Matt no longer represents Team WordPress.
I am Team WPE because the actions taken against them impact their customers directly. Do I LOVE the direction WPE has been going? No, I have A LOT of sites hosted with them (10+ years) and unhappy about various things… but this… this is different and my company and clients have nothing to do with this and should have never been impacted in such an abrupt, dangerous way.
If we are specifically speaking about this week, I’m team WP Engine. Matt’s response has been unprofessional, embarrassing, and petty. He put at risk 1.2 million websites hosted with WP Engine and interfered with WP Engine’s ability to fulfill their contractual obligations to their customers. Sending out an email and ad campaign for hosting services right after disabling access to the repository by a direct competitor is unethical. Matt’s irresponsible and negligent reaction could very well lead to litigation for which WP Engine and their customers will likely win and which will do real harm to Automattic and WordPress.org.
Long term, I’m Team WordPress. Matt has shown that he needs to be removed from leadership and from any ability to harm the WordPress ecosystem.
You forgot the “eating popcorn” side.
The problem with this poll supporting WordPress and supporting Matt are not the same thing. So I have to vote no opinion.
In this case, Team WP Engine. But I don’t like WP Engine for other reasons.
Forgot Team WP Engine (Employee of WPE)