Hi, everyone, I’m new to this sub but have been using WP for a while now, except that I was diverted to WP.com initially because I had heard so much about WordPress (meaning WP.org) but was naive and unaware that the .com vs .org was even a thing with WordPress. And WP.com engages in (in my opinion ) some very deceptive practices, for instance the landing page at WP.com has statistics pertaining to the real WordPress that it passes off as its own, and welcomes visitors to the website powering 43% of the web, it’s really quite u believable they can do that but still I get it’s a bit of a gray area.
But my question really is about Google and Bing, who serve up results for a search for WordPress in this order: ads, WordPress.com, WordPress.org. Does this not piss anyone else off? You can call me an idiot, that’s ok, but I spent literally years on WordPress.com thinking it was the real WordPress and very unimpressed, because I couldn’t do things like use plug-ins, had no access to HTML files so couldn’t incorporate analytics, had no real use of powerful themes like Astra, etc.
When I was finally forced off WP.com and had to look at other options, I ended up moving my website to a managed host with “real wordpress” and it’s like that movie I watched as a kid where it rains all the time but there’s one day of sunshine every 10 years or something and it was that sunshine day. And then the sun went away when I figured out how technically challenging it was going to be (just kidding)
But re google and bing and automattic. Look i revere mullenweg, but the guy is a shrewd businessman and at a $7.5 billion valuation you’d think Automattic wouldn’t engage in deceptive stuff like they do on WP.com. They don’t need to right? unless the revenue that comes in from poor schmucks like me adds significantly to that valuation but it can’t right.
And google (with threats of AI and chatgpt hovering above) to totally fail at a search for WordPress? If the google algorithm can’t confidently predict which wordpress to show first then am i the only one thinking conspiracy theories here? And how is Automattic allowed to own the .com domain for WP when the WP foundation shuts down anyone else who even tries to do that. They no longer own it right? was it an agreed upon part of the transfer of IP rights to the foundation? Aren’t trademark laws supposed to protect consumers, even idiot consumers, from making the exact kind of mistake I made? Instead, every wordpress website must contain this strange little “here’s the difference between WP.org and WP.com” section when literally no other company or product has that issue. Anyone pretending to be coke.com is shut down with a cease and desist letter like on day 2 of operations but this has been going on for over a decade and it astounds me. And i think mullenweg’s character is that i don’t think this is his doing. I like him, but then again idk him and there are so many zeroes involved in that valuation.
[ad_2]