I'm really sorry I missed this when you were live. We actually had a group on a two hour conversation about all this stuff. Hopping on and immediately calling out WPE - come on, man. They're probably not speaking up yet because they have to figure out all the legal liabilities, etc.
The possibilities that the wide variety of 3rd party plugins offer is why I keep using WP, the core CMS side has been lacking for more than a decade if you're not a coder. Wish WP would focus on the CMS part instead of Gutencrap
Matt! So you're who I got Covid from! Great episode. Thank you for bringing this content to us even while you were sick. Great work and get better soon!
its always the user that suffer at last not the upper management or companies i dont like having so much power in hand of one person ! are we forgetting the meaning of opensource and gpl ?
It is free to use as anyone wants under the GPL license. WPEngine can clone the functionality of the plugin directory and security that Automattic gives to the WordPress community completely for free, even though it costs a ton to run.
It's under GPL license. If you modify and sell it as you like, you need publish it under your own name and license. And of course, make your modified software's source code open as well. Your users have freedom to modify or redistribute it.
Matt made a huge mistake! He knows it! He just won't admit it. The license permits WPEngine to modify the Wordpress code anyway they want and use it anyway they see fit. Saying they "hacked it" when what they did is make use of the already provided hooks to modify it... That's just not right. 25:43 ... It's hard to trust that this won't happen again and get innocent people in the crossfires. Plain bad. And Webflow is going to have an awesome week this week.
lets be honest. Matt has an inherent conflict of interest one that we have ignored and just took for granted he’s someone benevolent. He runs a for profit corporation that competes with WPEngine. This is not a good look for him.
Does the Automattic vs WP Engine issue affect Studio Press Genesis framework, themes, and plugins if you are not hosted on WP Engine? WPE bought Studio Press a few years ago.
Are people even using Genesis anymore? I liked Genesis. I even paid $260 for a "Pro Plus" licence. It gave me lifetime access to all past, current, and future Studio Press themes. They then stopped making themes and put all their resources into Genesis Pro. One might think if you had a lifetime Pro Plus licence, you had access to Genesis Pro. Nope. So I have no love for WP Engine.
I find it contradictory to accuse WPE of hacking WordPress and modifying it, but then telling them to create their own version of the plugin directory. I don't want a WPE version of the plugin directory, I want a standard version that every other WordPress user has access to. I don't want WPE controlling what plugins I have access to, or how they are being presented to me in the admin. If Matt wants to raise money for the foundation then he should just sell banner ads at the top of the plugin directory and then if hosting companies don't want their customers to see these ads then they have to pay a fee to have a vanilla version served to their customers.
If someone is profiting so much off of their plugin directory (which is not part of the WP Core or the GPL license and is paid for completely by Automattic), wouldn't make sense that the company benefiting off that to contribute back? If they want to not contribute they can make their own, this is an issue with WP Engine's greed not Matt.
@@KyleWebDev How is WP Engine profiting off my ability to install free plugins? The plugin directory is an integral part of WordPress. It's standard to all WordPress installs. It's not a feature of WP Engine, it's a feature of WordPress. If anything WPE are paying costs every time I install free plugins from the directory because they are paying for the server fees, also, they have to provide support whenever I have an issue that could be related to a plugin that I have installed.
I honestly cannot understand Matt (WPF)'s logic here about the plugin directory. The plugin directory is an integral part of WordPress, the amount of free plugins is what attracted me to WordPress in the first place. In other words, it's a feature of WordPress and an integral part of it. WPEngine are not providing it to me, WordPress is providing it to me. If I install a local copy of WordPress I automatically have access to the same plugin directory. If you are removing access to the plugin directory for certain people who CHOOSE to host with certain companies then you are basically engaging in discrimination against the end-user. What you are saying is that I don't like who you CHOOSE to get your hosting from, and therefore I am going to punish you by preventing you from accessing FREE plugins from your WordPress admin dashboard that other independent developers have created.
the plugin directory’s value isn’t really the free hosting although part of it. Its real value is the marketplace and one with critical mass. Effectively a monopoly. If you’re a plugin author whose livelihood depends on that marketplace i would be very concerned. The choice to move to github or some other host is a nonstarter.
From the beginning of this debacle, what has struck me the most is Matt's unprofessionalism. WP Engine is a competitor of Automattic. Matt is not only the CEO of Automattic, he's also the director of the WordPress Foundation When he calls WP Engine a cancer to WordPress, is he saying this as the CEO of a competitor or as the director of the foundation? At the beginning of Matt's five minute interview (22:54), he attempted to throw shade at WP Engine because they aren't They are acting professional. This is now a legal matter. Matt made it one when he accused WP Engine of engaging in trademark fraud.
You cannot offer something for free and ghen complain because one company in particular makes a lot of money out of it. Under the GNU licence, no one should make money out of wp - and yet they do. This has been allowed to proliferate to a point where it has become an accepted norm. Suddenly Automatic want to put the genie back in the bottle.
In any serious non profit foundation, the one who started it all needs to get out of the way at some point and leave it be. He started it, credits for it, but when something becomes so huge to be 40% of the web, and has been built and brought to popularity by the community (not by Matt), it's time to understand that he needs to be less involved. There's so much disconnection between what he's doing with his actions vs what he's saying in interviews, that he's starting to look and act like a psychopath. He's doing so much damage to the community, that i don't care, he could even be 100% right that he would still be 100% wrong. He's contributing to ruining the work and business of several millions people. The avg person profiting from WP has just a regular income, WE'RE NOT WP ENGINE. We don't have the wealth of the free time to deal with this stuff, we need to work. Get this manic guy out of the organization!
He keeps saying “they hacked this” or that… it’s BS. The GPL license says you can modify it! Hiding or showing something on the dashboard isn’t “hacking” it. This is utter nonsense and Matt comes off like a child.
If it's under GPL license, you're able to modify and sell it but you need to make it source code open as well to your users, release it under your own name and license. The users will have freedom to modify and redistribute it however they like. Do WPE users get all of these?
Matt is talking in circles and all he proving is that he's a child and doesn't really believe in open source. His ego is exploding and it's going to be the downfall of WordPress.
How much does WP Engine pledges to the WordPress Community? Zero. That's what it's all about. Who doesn't believe in Open Source, again? If they match Automattic in giving 8% of their revenue (not profits!) to fund the WordPress community and operation, then we wouldn't be having this conversation. Problem is, WPE only cares about their own profits, and ripping other people's GPL plugins for their own profit, "because if it's GPL it's free to grab anyway, right?"
Lots of others have predicted the downfall of WordPress, just like you are doing now. Time has proved them wrong. The same is going to happen this time as well.
I'm really sorry I missed this when you were live. We actually had a group on a two hour conversation about all this stuff. Hopping on and immediately calling out WPE - come on, man. They're probably not speaking up yet because they have to figure out all the legal liabilities, etc.
WPR isn't speaking up because they're probably listening to legal council. And they're professional.
The possibilities that the wide variety of 3rd party plugins offer is why I keep using WP, the core CMS side has been lacking for more than a decade if you're not a coder. Wish WP would focus on the CMS part instead of Gutencrap
Matt! So you're who I got Covid from!
Great episode. Thank you for bringing this content to us even while you were sick.
Great work and get better soon!
Thanks man, get well soon!
Courtney is 100% spot on with everything she said
Matt went all Tim Ferris with that "5 minutes rule", love it!
its always the user that suffer at last not the upper management or companies i dont like having so much power in hand of one person ! are we forgetting the meaning of opensource and gpl ?
ACF is acquired because of its popularity. Not a good example IMHO.
Isn't that what open source is? that you can use the software however you want ?
It is free to use as anyone wants under the GPL license. WPEngine can clone the functionality of the plugin directory and security that Automattic gives to the WordPress community completely for free, even though it costs a ton to run.
It's under GPL license. If you modify and sell it as you like, you need publish it under your own name and license. And of course, make your modified software's source code open as well. Your users have freedom to modify or redistribute it.
Matt made a huge mistake! He knows it! He just won't admit it.
The license permits WPEngine to modify the Wordpress code anyway they want and use it anyway they see fit.
Saying they "hacked it" when what they did is make use of the already provided hooks to modify it... That's just not right.
25:43 ... It's hard to trust that this won't happen again and get innocent people in the crossfires.
Plain bad. And Webflow is going to have an awesome week this week.
lets be honest. Matt has an inherent conflict of interest one that we have ignored and just took for granted he’s someone benevolent. He runs a for profit corporation that competes with WPEngine. This is not a good look for him.
Does the Automattic vs WP Engine issue affect Studio Press Genesis framework, themes, and plugins if you are not hosted on WP Engine? WPE bought Studio Press a few years ago.
No.
@@MrBuzztone Thank you!
Are people even using Genesis anymore? I liked Genesis. I even paid $260 for a "Pro Plus" licence. It gave me lifetime access to all past, current, and future Studio Press themes. They then stopped making themes and put all their resources into Genesis Pro. One might think if you had a lifetime Pro Plus licence, you had access to Genesis Pro. Nope. So I have no love for WP Engine.
I find it contradictory to accuse WPE of hacking WordPress and modifying it, but then telling them to create their own version of the plugin directory. I don't want a WPE version of the plugin directory, I want a standard version that every other WordPress user has access to. I don't want WPE controlling what plugins I have access to, or how they are being presented to me in the admin.
If Matt wants to raise money for the foundation then he should just sell banner ads at the top of the plugin directory and then if hosting companies don't want their customers to see these ads then they have to pay a fee to have a vanilla version served to their customers.
If someone is profiting so much off of their plugin directory (which is not part of the WP Core or the GPL license and is paid for completely by Automattic), wouldn't make sense that the company benefiting off that to contribute back? If they want to not contribute they can make their own, this is an issue with WP Engine's greed not Matt.
@@KyleWebDev How is WP Engine profiting off my ability to install free plugins? The plugin directory is an integral part of WordPress. It's standard to all WordPress installs. It's not a feature of WP Engine, it's a feature of WordPress.
If anything WPE are paying costs every time I install free plugins from the directory because they are paying for the server fees, also, they have to provide support whenever I have an issue that could be related to a plugin that I have installed.
I honestly cannot understand Matt (WPF)'s logic here about the plugin directory. The plugin directory is an integral part of WordPress, the amount of free plugins is what attracted me to WordPress in the first place. In other words, it's a feature of WordPress and an integral part of it. WPEngine are not providing it to me, WordPress is providing it to me. If I install a local copy of WordPress I automatically have access to the same plugin directory.
If you are removing access to the plugin directory for certain people who CHOOSE to host with certain companies then you are basically engaging in discrimination against the end-user. What you are saying is that I don't like who you CHOOSE to get your hosting from, and therefore I am going to punish you by preventing you from accessing FREE plugins from your WordPress admin dashboard that other independent developers have created.
“this is what happens when everyone has guitars in the background… the podcast get [detuned]” 😂
the plugin directory’s value isn’t really the free hosting although part of it. Its real value is the marketplace and one with critical mass. Effectively a monopoly. If you’re a plugin author whose livelihood depends on that marketplace i would be very concerned. The choice to move to github or some other host is a nonstarter.
From the beginning of this debacle, what has struck me the most is Matt's unprofessionalism. WP Engine is a competitor of Automattic. Matt is not only the CEO of Automattic, he's also the director of the WordPress Foundation When he calls WP Engine a cancer to WordPress, is he saying this as the CEO of a competitor or as the director of the foundation?
At the beginning of Matt's five minute interview (22:54), he attempted to throw shade at WP Engine because they aren't They are acting professional. This is now a legal matter. Matt made it one when he accused WP Engine of engaging in trademark fraud.
Conflict of interest
Matt said things but yet didn't say anything! so frustrating
Great stream Matt! It was great meeting you at WCUS. Get well soon.
You cannot offer something for free and ghen complain because one company in particular makes a lot of money out of it. Under the GNU licence, no one should make money out of wp - and yet they do. This has been allowed to proliferate to a point where it has become an accepted norm. Suddenly Automatic want to put the genie back in the bottle.
In any serious non profit foundation, the one who started it all needs to get out of the way at some point and leave it be. He started it, credits for it, but when something becomes so huge to be 40% of the web, and has been built and brought to popularity by the community (not by Matt), it's time to understand that he needs to be less involved. There's so much disconnection between what he's doing with his actions vs what he's saying in interviews, that he's starting to look and act like a psychopath. He's doing so much damage to the community, that i don't care, he could even be 100% right that he would still be 100% wrong. He's contributing to ruining the work and business of several millions people. The avg person profiting from WP has just a regular income, WE'RE NOT WP ENGINE. We don't have the wealth of the free time to deal with this stuff, we need to work. Get this manic guy out of the organization!
He keeps saying “they hacked this” or that… it’s BS. The GPL license says you can modify it! Hiding or showing something on the dashboard isn’t “hacking” it. This is utter nonsense and Matt comes off like a child.
If it's under GPL license, you're able to modify and sell it but you need to make it source code open as well to your users, release it under your own name and license. The users will have freedom to modify and redistribute it however they like. Do WPE users get all of these?
They're literally using a WordPress provided function to turn off optional features. "Hacking WordPress" I call BS
What up?!?! Sorry to hear you're sick
Matt is a jerk. His actions make me want to use other alternatives.
Matt is talking in circles and all he proving is that he's a child and doesn't really believe in open source. His ego is exploding and it's going to be the downfall of WordPress.
How much does WP Engine pledges to the WordPress Community? Zero. That's what it's all about. Who doesn't believe in Open Source, again?
If they match Automattic in giving 8% of their revenue (not profits!) to fund the WordPress community and operation, then we wouldn't be having this conversation. Problem is, WPE only cares about their own profits, and ripping other people's GPL plugins for their own profit, "because if it's GPL it's free to grab anyway, right?"
Lots of others have predicted the downfall of WordPress, just like you are doing now. Time has proved them wrong. The same is going to happen this time as well.