WorstPress – is it time for a fork?1 min read

the longer i think about what matt mullenberg did with these hot nacho articles at wp.org the more upset i get about it.
how dare he?
no, i can’t be causual about this. i feel betrayed. i liked WP because it was open source and donation driven, because it had a great support community, because the code was/is excellent.

this brings back some very unpleasant memories. i am reminded of how matt did his almost “unfriendly takeover” of the great b2 blog-software from michael v. back when he started WP.
he then proceeded to do a great job developing it further and after some initial reservations i ended up chosing WP instead of the other forks.

since then i have been quite a supporter of WP – in many different ways.
i have donated $200.00 which is certainly more money than i have spent on software in the last 5 years taken all together, [gosh – i want that money back! i feel i have fallen to a false pretense, i donated money to donation-driven project, not a search engine spammer] and i have recommended it to many people and assisted quite a few in setting up, even switch to, a WP-blog.
and now this…

so, is it time to start a WP fork?
because the code IS great, its got huge potential.
i know that my trust in matt mullenweg is broken for good.
and maybe a few others feel the same way. maybe it is time to start that fork – with all the complicated issues that such an action envolves. what do you think?

7 Replies to “WorstPress – is it time for a fork?1 min read

  1. s**t, mang — you gotta chill for awhile.

    Matt didn’t murder no babies, or anything. And as far as “donation-driven” goes, one of the Ping-o-matic people pointed out that the total donations he’s received has been equivalent to ZERO and SQUAT. bandwidth bills are NOT cheap, and while you have payed $200 for WordPress, I admit that I have not.

    A Mistake Was Made.

    Let’s wait a while and see how it shakes down.

  2. quite teh psychology there, michael. somebody makes an emotional rant and you tell them to chill? uhm. no. i won’t chill. i won’t be all casual about this. all blase. i do feel betrayed. and betrayal takes time to heal. if ever. so lets name things and feel things. maybe then this could come to a constructive result. not if we whitewash it or banalise it.

  3. i have read it and i found it intelligent, i found it honest. but only to some extent, because i did not find it vulnerable.

    i think his response was mostly defensive and in a very subtle way it was quite manipulative. he is trying to say: “hey look at me, i am a cool guy after all”, and that, to be honest, i find quite immature.

    what i would have liked to read is a “i am sorry. this was unacceptable” instead of this “i am sorry, but… but… but… think of me as a cool guy anyway, please?”

    if someone does something as unacceptable as what matt has done, he should have at least the grandeur to simply stand there, vulnerable and naked, and to allow people to get angry with him. instead of emotionally blackmailing his friends into backing him in the issue.

    thats my opinion.

  4. lol. that’s quite an interesting way to phrase this. his young age “entitles” him to act immaturely?
    well, i have met 21 year olds – and even younger people than that, i might add – who are certainly much more mature than i will ever be.
    so, i would say young age can serve as one explanation for immature behavior, but as entitlement? i don’t think so, and thats a bit of a naive worldview, imho…

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