From drama to opportunities
But that’s a smaller point. The bigger one to me is this: “WP Engine made the risky decision to base its growing business on a site to which it has no rights or guarantee of access”. The site referenced here is WordPress.org. This is a site that, to a first approximation, everyone had believed was part of the WordPress community before this whole mess kicked off. Mullenweg’s legal team seems to be arguing that it’s risky to rely on WordPress.org. The problem is, everyone using WordPress relies on WordPress.org.
This is crazy-making. WordPress.org has become a cornerstone of the WordPress ecosystem. It allows for automatic updates of WordPress and plugins, it’s where people discuss the future of the platform, it’s where new plugins and themes are uploaded by developers, and a lot more besides. This new legal filing makes it crystal clear that Mullenweg has sole discretion over who can access it. If he’s ever upset with you for any reason, he can turn off your access or take over your plugin. I think that should deeply frighten anyone using WordPress today.
I don’t believe that I had never had interesting arguments to add to the WordPress Drama, consequentially I never wrote about.
I find this moment a valuable opportunity for the community to adopt solutions that try to add the value—at the software—and the values—open-source—to WordPress in a secure vault. Maybe with a fork project that can grow on his legs.
Anyway, we still use WordPress at work and I doubt that we’d leave the platform. There is a giant community that covers our shoulders and thousands of individuals and companies that have invested and focused their own business on the aesthetic and functional improvement of WordPress. But, I do not conceal that I can evaluate an analysis of the alternatives, if the Mullenweg bullying persists.
I’m not concerned, our WordPress business is risible, but the idea of studying Drupal, Joomla, or Ghost would be a good opportunity to improve our team and technologies. It is a good exercise to overcome habits.
However, for now, it is not worth it. We can wait for the first shot to explode.
For me, personally, I’m happy with Hugo.