Anyone else see the drama on Twitter over .com copying the entire plugin repo and it ranking higher than .org repository? .com clearly using it to get more people to sign up for .com.
The disappointing part is Matt M bullying people that comment in disagreement with Automattic’s designing to copy the repo. Making fun of plug-in authors who only have 90,000 installs, threatening to suspend their plugin from being installed on .com, etc.
I used to respect Matt, not a chance anymore.
https://x.com/johnbillion/status/1701765939534893475?s=46&t=E8ZRVEh-t9DS1EYgijG2Og
Handbags ready, ladies….
I would like to know more, but I don’t have a Twitter/X account because I’m not racist, paedo or nazi.
where is the bullying?
GPL allows that.
The plot thickens: [https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/12891](https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/12891) 9 Hours ago, .com was added to the list of recommended hosted, replacing siteground.
Don’t forget how they removed active installation growth data without any warning and valid explanation.
That data is still collected, and only a few can access it. They can monitor which plugin is growing and which is not, which is very helpful if you are making regular acquisitions or want to create a competitor.
Even after lots of drama around it and many plugin authors requested to restore it, there is no attempt to offer any helpful data to plugin authors.
Imagine your livelihood depends on your plugin, but you don’t know at what rate your plugin is growing or declining.
Many plugin authors are silent just for fear of backlash/revenge.
I don’t understand what the drama is.
It’s a shitty move, but GPL works like this.
It says you can sell and distribute your own version of WordPress.
Once you upload a plugin or theme to [WordPress.org](https://WordPress.org) it becomes open source under the same license wordpress uses.
The boat that is the WordPress open source project has been called to port by the $846 million dollars raised by Automattic. That level of investment cannot exist without extreme external pressure to pull every lever possible to maximize profit. This debacle is just another symptom over the last five years of money now being in control.