Wordpress, Matt Mullenweg... And... Cardigans?  ## Metadata - Author: [[Téa Smith]] - Full Title: Wordpress, Matt Mullenweg... And... Cardigans? - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #WordPress - #Community - #OpenSource Author: Merlin Source: [YouTube Transcript](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB1ZXFiEgJY) Reference: [Transcript Link](https://merlin.foyer.work/) date created: 2024-10-07 13:30 --- # Title: Reflections on WordPress, Tech Bros, and Open Source Ethics ## Table of Contents:  - [📝 Summary](#📝-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#📖-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#🗒️-notes) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#🗣️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#📰-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#✅-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#🧪-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#📊-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#❓-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#🔮-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#💡-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#🧠-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#📊-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#🌍-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#✅-logical-validity) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#🔍-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#🎯-conclusion) ## 📝 Summary: Merlin offers a fiery critique of the open-source community's current state, particularly focusing on the behavior of prominent tech figures like Matt Mullenweg. The speaker delves into issues around community exploitation, the misuse of open-source contributions, and how individuals are often undervalued despite their contributions to projects like WordPress. There is an overall frustration with the way tech leaders are monetizing open-source work and how contributors feel betrayed. ## 📖 Main Content: Merlin reflects on his personal journey within the tech space, recounting his experiences with WordPress since its early versions. He critiques how tech giants have exploited open-source communities for financial gain, hiding behind friendly personas to push their agenda. The speaker emphasizes that WordPress, despite being built on community collaboration, has fallen victim to corporate interests, where contributors' work has been commodified without adequate compensation or recognition. Key areas of critique include the misuse of user-generated content, the ongoing litigation involving WordPress, and Merlin’s disillusionment with how tech figures like Mullenweg leverage the community’s trust to benefit themselves. Merlin also shares personal anecdotes about being an early advocate for WordPress, highlighting the difficulties in selling open-source solutions to clients in the early 2000s. He laments how those who took the risk on WordPress are now being marginalized while the big players profit. ### 🗒️ Notes - **Exploitation of Open Source**: Tech giants are monetizing the work of the community without properly compensating or recognizing contributors. - **Betrayal by Leadership**: Matt Mullenweg and other figures are accused of rewriting history, claiming success while ignoring the contributions of the larger community. - **Tech Bro Culture**: Merlin takes issue with the "Tech Bro" culture, where individuals in positions of power manipulate narratives to suit their financial interests. - **Community Contributions**: Contributors to WordPress, whether they developed plugins, wrote code, or promoted the platform, deserve more credit for the ecosystem's success. ## 📖 References: - Merlin, [YouTube Transcript](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB1ZXFiEgJY) - [Transcript Link](https://merlin.foyer.work/) ## 🗣️ Paraphrase:  1. Merlin argues that tech leaders like Matt Mullenweg have taken credit for the success of WordPress while ignoring the contributions of those who supported the platform in its early stages. He believes that the community’s hard work has been exploited without proper recognition or compensation. 2. The speaker reflects on the broader issue of tech culture, particularly the misuse of user-generated content. He criticizes tech companies for monetizing open-source work while rewriting the history of how these projects were built, marginalizing those who contributed the most. ## 📰 Newsletter: 🚨 **Open Source Betrayal? Merlin’s Take on WordPress and Tech Bros** 🚨 In a recent video, Merlin dives deep into the exploitation of open-source communities, focusing on WordPress. He calls out tech leaders for profiting off community work without proper recognition or compensation. With a fiery critique of Matt Mullenweg, Merlin reflects on how WordPress grew from a small community effort to a corporate machine. This is a must-watch for anyone in the WordPress space. Check out the full analysis here: [Watch now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB1ZXFiEgJY). 🔥 ## ✅ Action Items: - **Advocacy Focus**: This aligns with open-source advocacy by showcasing the need for better recognition and compensation for contributors. - **OSPO Leadership**: Use these insights to drive conversations around governance and community management, particularly in establishing transparency. ## 🧪 Hypotheses: - Increased corporate involvement in open-source projects dilutes community contributions and leads to community disengagement. - Better recognition and financial support for contributors would lead to increased participation and innovation in the WordPress ecosystem. ### 📊 Methodology: - **Data Sources**: Survey data from WordPress contributors, financial records of WordPress-related companies. - **Research Design**: Comparative analysis of community engagement before and after corporate involvement. - **Analysis Techniques**: Statistical analysis of community participation rates and contribution patterns. ### ❓ Questions: - How can open-source communities ensure that contributors are fairly compensated? - What role should tech leaders play in managing the balance between corporate interests and community welfare? ### 🔮 Future Research: - Explore alternative governance models for open-source communities that protect contributor interests. - Investigate the long-term impacts of corporate involvement on the health and sustainability of open-source projects. ### 💡 Implications:  These research areas could lead to better governance models for open-source projects, ensuring that contributors are recognized and rewarded, potentially transforming how we approach open-source community management. ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment: - **Visual Learners (Spatial)**: - **Present**: Lacks visuals. - **Improve**: Add infographics explaining the structure of WordPress and its governance issues. - **Aural Learners (Auditory-Musical)**: - **Present**: Engaging audio format. - **Improve**: Provide podcast versions or discussion groups on these topics. - **Verbal Learners (Linguistic)**: - **Present**: Rich narrative with strong language. - **Improve**: Add more structured definitions of key terms like GPL and open source. - **Physical Learners (Kinesthetic)**: - **Present**: Limited interaction. - **Improve**: Provide real-world application exercises for those managing WordPress projects. - **Logical Learners (Mathematical)**: - **Present**: Good logical flow. - **Improve**: Add statistical data to support arguments about community exploitation. - **Social Learners (Interpersonal)**: - **Present**: Emphasizes community dynamics. - **Improve**: Encourage group discussions on alternative governance models. - **Solitary Learners (Intrapersonal)**: - **Present**: Reflective content. - **Improve**: Provide prompts for readers to reflect on their own contributions to open-source communities. ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment: - **Screen Reader Compatibility**: Likely compatible, but could be improved. - **Improve**: Ensure alt-text for any visuals. - **Keyboard Navigation**: Could be optimized for navigation. - **Improve**: Implement better keyboard focus indicators. - **Contrast and Readability**: Could improve readability. - **Improve**: Increase contrast for text. - **Text Resizing**: Responsive but could break in some formats. - **Improve**: Ensure layout remains intact with larger text sizes. ### 🌍 DEIB Assessment: - **Cultural Relevance**: Lacks global perspectives. - **Improve**: Incorporate stories from non-Western contributors. - **Inclusive Language**: Generally inclusive, but could improve. - **Improve**: Provide definiti - Document Tags: [[Matt Mullenweg]] [[open source corporate contribution]] [[wordpress]] [[wordpress contribution]] [[wpdrama]] [[wp engine]] - URL: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CB1ZXFiEgJY&si=jOFCcAuVU00zw5c9 holy Tech bro ego SL master class and how to punch yourself in the dick repeatedly and kill a whole Community Batman what the fuck love me a good old holy war in Tech it's good it's been a while it's been a while since we had a good old hly war huh good timing it's perfect timing and lead up to an election what we should do is um uh start a hly war on a uh content management system that powers 40% of the internet including the White House website can't see any problems here what do you even say what do you even say at this point like I have written um so many different versions of this like a serious explainer what's happening uh but obviously once things start to get legal you've got to be really careful right okay so just a bit of a disclaimer here okay cuz we do have to be careful as funny as it is that um it's pretty much one of the few times I've seen every person on Reddit very strongly say they're not a lawyer all at once I was like well you fucking were yesterday it's like all of Reddit is always a lawyer this must be bad but anyway I am not a lawyer okay I'm not a practicing lawyer I am in my final year of my juror doctor however okay the Common Thread across uh a lot of what I talk about in Tech was uh that there's these Tech Guys Who got very very wealthy post economic if you will off the back of people like me like users like me and you and you know user generated content moderating communities for free writing plugins writing code you know this is the same old shit which is this stuff was taken from us without our consent our code our words our thoughts our dreams our data everything and these guys keep saying that it's theirs it isn't theirs they're trying to rewrite the story okay and I'm here to remind you that I was there I knew what the promise was and you didn't deliver and we want our shit back okay and that's that's the Common Thread here whether it's Twitter whether it's Facebook whether it's WordPress whether it's Reddit you it's not theirs like alltech Community Wass a like super Niche right it's very hard to explain there's a lot lot of Presumed knowledge which is why uh I've sort of sat on this for so long because I don't know really where to begin because some of this is what is WordPress what is com and.org and all this stuff I kind of have to explain an awful lot of Internet history for you to even begin to understand this I'll do the best I can I think it's very important that I qualify uh where I'm coming from here I am extremely personally invested in this because I hitched my wagon to Wordpress early okay um I think I've been using it I think it was 1.5 um the timeline isn't quite correct but I was around for the fork I was around for the the Mambo Miro jumla Wars okay I've been around for every since then over these things um these wounds always run deep and they always keep resurfacing and that's just um it's part of the fun of being being in the industry because it's um not only extremely Niche and difficult to explain so you look crazy to anyone outside of it uh but it also gets you're combining all of the great things which is um um people's passion uh money and autism so it works out really well it always goes really well that's all I'm going to say um but I just want you to know that this stuff is just my opinion based on my experience okay okay the details are still unfolding and um it it's getting pretty litigious and um um Matt seems to be a little uh I I don't I don't know what's going on there I don't know why he feels the need to post through it because he just keeps making it worse I hope he's well um maybe maybe be sure that he's in his right mind before you do anything because you won't feel good about it in the end if he he's actually just having having some sort of episode that's a possibility as well again I am not qualified to say that and if I was qualified to say that I wouldn't do it based on from it from outside um I'm just saying that in my experience this is just abnormal destructive behavior and I don't know what the fuck is going on and that's okay I'm just saying now so a lot of this is me trying to communicate my upset disappointment distress uh and uh concern for future of the WordPress Community I'll explain what that means in a minute uh and um but I'm not a lawyer yet uh this is why I'm training to be one but I'm not one okay but even if I was a lawyer you need to understand that the details of this particular issue there are many many causes of action here many different facets to it uh there's a lot to unpack here and so it's going to take a while to really get to the sort of meat and bones of the stuff okay cuz you're looking at like just the trademark issue alone needs a trademark specialist lawyer you know the GPL Tech lawyers you've got um then you've got corporate lawyers then you've got tax lawyers then you've got your not for-profit stuff there's so much expertise here and there's this is why I think a lot of Reddit have gone no because there is the general I'm a like I'm not a lawyer and then all of the lawyers are going I'm not that kind of lawyer to give this advice like it's it's getting to the point where it is so Niche and so specialist that even people who are lawyers are saying I'm not the lawyer for this I can give you my f opinion on it like on its face to me this looks fucking this looks messy okay um but I am not qualified and even if I was qualified I still probably wouldn't be qualified in anything but one part of it okay that's how complex this issue is so anyway I just want to make it clear that for those who are doing um analysis on this uh that you should be very very careful to make it clear that it's your opinion and make it very clear that this is now sort of this is like Global litigation Triple A big law money like teams of lawyers um going back and forth on this this is going to be expensive it's going to be complicated and you don't want to be in it I do but not you don't want to be in it the way I want to be it you don't want to be fucking hauled there and F you know you get what I'm saying I want to work in it if you know anyone let me know I will um okay so uh if you've seen my stuff you'll know that my main beef has been around uh the rewriting of the story around the internet around Tech these Tech Bros who have stolen everything whether it's users data code um uh Goodwill uh all of this stuff trust they've taken the p and they've just basically stolen it all from us claimed the credit and give nothing back right any platform that has had user generated content in it or um has had uh some sort of collaboration or input from the community uh you've had people working for free or cheap you know in the case of Wordpress you've had uh developers uh building plugins Building Solutions learning it recommending it playing with it all those sorts of things but you've also had people like me like I was a developer in and designer in the early days I can code right um but people like me who were uh on the client services side having the meeting with the it manager who's like oh fucking WordPress oh it's like no I was having to sell WordPress WordPress was a harder sell in those days okay we got it to the point that powered so much of the internet okay it wasn't just you it wasn't just people who contributed code to core for X number of hours or uh people who only worked for the benefit and betterment of Matt Mullen work in the early days WordPress was a hard sell I would sit across from middle-aged men Microsoft Partners selling my clients $110,000 cms's they didn't need because they just wanted a brocher Weare website like they were sitting there trying to get them on things like sitecore or.net Nuke remember that or like a propri ASP um website I was always in the room having to talk my clients out of that and go with something like WordPress go with a solution like WordPress and I would have to have that conversation I'd need to reassure them that it was better software I'd need to make sure that it was Secure I'd need to get the hosting and the maintenance and all of those things in place to reassure the client that they'd made the right choice up against people who were charging them you know $1,000 minimum a year just to use the CMS not even design or build on top of it right or proprietary which easily 50 to $100,000 for your average medium business right this is not like it was now where you could just sign up to Squarespace and have a website in 5 days brocher wear websites and um basic cms's ran expensive one of the other big selling points was that when you're first starting out or you're a small business the website can scale with you so you need to pay um these exorbitant uh licensing fees just to get started and you could just get a website and get your Basics done and build a sort of minimum viable uh product if you go to e-commerce store or something like that um you could set it up fairly easily and cheaply invest more as time went on right and the website pays for itself and you've got a good little business on your hands in theory that went badly didn't it like it it reduced your startup costs and all of those sorts of things things as well and so now with the ability for one guy to just turn around and decide that you owe him $38 million because on his period for for whatever the fuck reason for I I don't know obviously that sends a ripple through the industry uh that is uh very much undermines everything that the uh WordPress Community um and when I say WordPress Community I don't just meanor repository uh people I mean the entire uh Global movement who power for % of the web who sell it implement it maintain it support it talk about it training it write for it like um they any one of those could be sued because they said something on Reddit attacked publicly um told that they don't contribute when they fucking do uh that's the thing that got me I was on his side up until that moment I was up I was on his side until he said um he just you know like yeah anyway this whole uh Richard Hendrick stick that he's got going on it's like well okay sure WP engine is getting money from Silver Lake but you're funded by Salesforce like how are you any different it's no different this whole a Shucks cardigan sneakers bullshit I'm not falling for it this is a fucking private Equity war between Tech Bros who stole our shit they they stole it it's not theirs it's not yours it's not yours give it back oh Shu I'm sorry I'm doing my best for the community they use the community when it suits them they like to rewrite history and pretend that we just gifted them all of this and misrepresent and sort of memory hole this whole idea that they actually promised us something different they said that they were disrupting they said we would be going up against those Microsoft Partners if we bought into the ideas of the internet and the ideals that we could do things differently and then we ended up here in basically a techn feudalist situation where we cannot get paid for all of the uh work we're doing um we're having all of our stuff stolen from us all of our data stolen from us and weaponized against us at every turn in the form of algorithms none of this is okay it's not theirs they took it on under false pretenses uh they keep unilaterally changing the the policies they cover their tracks I I don't know how just suddenly changing a policy retroactively changing it is um uh at all legal like it's just it's just on its face a lot of this stuff is illegal now I'm not a specialist a lot of people are conflating the ethical argument um WP engine and how much they contribute back uh with legal one they don't have a legal obligation to do that okay that is the spirit of the GPL okay um legally they have no real obligation to do so okay um so they don't really have a leg to stand on at all okay that's the GPL bro okay that's what it's for okay um but do they have a moral one of course okay but also the thing that has concerned me is this sort of redefinition and learning about what actually counts as contributing to the WordPress community and that's where I take exception because this idea that somehow you only contribute if it is going directly into the pockets or um back to the foundation is is baloney it Powers 43% of the internet if you can fathom that okay Powers my website I run WordPress on WP engine okay WP engine's my host i' been quite happy with them um um because a lot of it is because it's said and forget and I don't have to deal with the uh the problems of uh hosting anymore I can just just get on with it right um and they provide a good service and I've never had any real problems with them like in terms of their support or anything like that I don't have any real beef with either okay and I think that the problem is that the positioning WP engine as Equity back like automatic is supposed to be separate from the org so um I'd be careful about accusing WP engine of doing uh anything that you're also doing and uh if automatics um WordPress experience is more butchered and hacked up on there.com than it is on WP engine because at least on WP engine you have you can install a plugin I'm just saying so anyway um but like this WordPress Saga is just fucking another nail in the coffin for me like um of this internet dreams now obviously I'm getting as you get older things change okay um I'm just so disappointed with all of this um it's just it's just yet another big like fuck you to people like me who were around when this stuff was new and we were there and we know what the deal was and we thought that um we trusted them we trusted the guys in the sneakers we trusted that if we followed them they wouldn't fuck us and they keep fucking us like I don't understand what benefit I got from any of this I could have just gone and sold proprietary cms's I would have made a lot more money I would have had a lot less grief I would have had a lot less risk uh my contracts would have not had glaring fucking holes in them because of this problem with the GPL I wouldn't have had I wouldn't have to talk clients down I wouldn't have to do all this stuff I wouldn't have to explain I I have personally been sued over a WordPress website because of um a client's misunderstanding around open source and stuff and then they like I I obviously I didn't um lose that but at the same time like that is what it meant to provide WordPress which was that you couldn't provide a warranty right it really is just another big fuck you to people like me and it's just another big fuck you in the line of another a whole heap of fucku from Tech Bros and their libertarian brain rot these guys are sitting here huffing their own farts and convincing themselves that it was them and them alone who did all of this when we know full well what the promise was they hide behind their Cardigans and their sneakers and their sort of rich Richard Hendrick fucking you know oh I'm sorry I mean whatever the fuck is going on with Zuck and his gold chains I don't anyway that's a whole other thing fucking hell um and like but they sold us on something that um if we put in a little bit more work little bit more effort if we contributed to this movement it was a movement it wasn't a um it wasn't a theft it wasn't a scam it was a mve Movement we you know you sold open source and you believed in it and you sold it you know they got rich off of our backs you know our work our our reputations like in my I I I built my reputation on backing these projects okay um you know when WordPress plugins failed or things failed guess who had to have the conversations guess who had to build that trust guess guess who had to fix it it wasn't just you okay um you know we the Salesforce so to speak for WordPress okay like you're all corrupt it's not yours give it back money please it's ours not yours you stole from us stop lying and take that fucking cardigan off you're a grown man I'm not falling for it anymore with the fucking Cardigans and the stupid fucking glasses and the idiotic nerd shit no you're evil at least if you put on a shirt and tie like the fucking Microsoft guys before we'd at least have known who the fucking bad guys were fucking cardigan nothing pissed me off more than that cardigan turning up like that Jesus Christ I'm cool guys trust me no you stole me from me at least you can do is put on a fucking shirt while you fuck him in the ass at least Mafia bosses have the decency to dress up in a suit for the occasion fucking cardigan get fucked you're not I see right through it now this a Shucks bullshit there's nothing left between all of this social media shit and word WordPress is just the final nail in the coffin for me so anyway so um having a um so having a private Foundation has certain obligations attached to it okay um now this is separate from wordpress.com so it's funny because a lot of the complaint is about how it's confusing between WordPress and WP engine I think I I think more people are confused about wordpress.org versus wordpress.com I've had to explain that way more times way more even to lawyers that I have talked to about this particular case where I'm trying to I'm like and I've had to explain to them that wordpress.com is different from wordpress.org it has a different structure and all that stuff and they still don't get it and I've had to explain it repeatedly and these are people who know Tech and know and work in that and I go okay um yeah I think it's pretty clear where the confusion is coming from don't you it's like fucking hell WP engine is however a competitor for wordpress.com automatic funded by Salesforce which people seem to be forgetting which is that they have private equity backing too okay now wordpress.org owns the trademark trademarks are different from the software GPL so the GPL which is open source only covers the code it doesn't cover the marks or the WordPress Identity or the you know how that is used okay now trademarks can expire if they're not enforced or if you're not doing sort of especially something that is um like WordPress where it is a descriptor as well um you know you'll see this with uh Coke Google uh thermos is a famous example of that where um you can lose they can risk losing their trademark because something becomes a descriptive but also uh so common in the um so common in its usage right it's called dilution right it will become so common that it becomes diluted and therefore you can't claim um ownership of it right and WordPress finds itself in this mess because WordPress is the name of the open source software every agency host anyone like I mean even we did at the time optimized our websites um for uh so you've got SEO copy as well so you got to optimize your web copy around WordPress because the people are searching for WordPress developers and so you've got to do that so you're not even necessarily using it to pass off you're using it to compete and it's like the way that this like just just for SEO purposes you need to use the word WordPress in your copy more than you would like because you need to rank right or if you want to run ads or anything like that uh you need to um so they haven't been enforcing any of this at all um up at the spur out of last week uh WP was perfectly fine to use WordPress is largely descriptive um all of the hosts use WordPress hosting WordPress manage hosting uh WP they use it freely again I am just shocked that anyone thinks that this is um actionable at all anything other than a personal beef I I don't I don't understand anyway um but I'm going to I'm not going to go into too much of the technical stuff because there is just so much of it I want to get to how I feel about it because I'm just really disappointed the problem is if you start to explain you got to explain it all because people are going to go what's this what's this what's this what's this it's a lot of stuff okay um every WordPress uh website by default connects to the WordPress repository okay or repo um now that part of the business um apparently or supposedly or theoretically or whatever the fuck cuz no one knows anymore um is uh controlled by the WordPress Foundation okay which uh is a 501 C3 which is a uh a private Foundation but those Charities they those codes actually have very very specific uh and very narrow requirements okay which is that they are um uh for public benefit um they're in uh in this case it's I think in the interest of education so it's only really like some narrow areas like you're not allowed to get involved in politics you know there's all of these rules around it right um and also like obviously you can't be affiliated with a commercial entity uh or if you are you need to be um very clear about whose interest or what interest you are acting in when you're doing it okay um now again I'm I'm just trying to get over this so I can explain quickly but it is run by a foundation a not a not for-profit Foundation uh and uh theoretically the uh WordPress repository is public for public good everyone can access it and that is where all of the plugins themes um updates and all those sorts of things Run for the software which is open source okay that means that you can anyone can download it install it modify it do what you want with it okay and um there's a whole ecosystem built around that okay my business was built around like implementation of Wordpress websites okay um but the best analogy I can think of is um to explain these different relationships is that um imagine that you need a house okay you need somewhere to live um and WordPress the software provides you with uh the basic uh plans and a kit home so free you just give them the the kit in a box okay um and uh it's free okay uh obviously it's no good to you right a box house in a box is no good to you you need someone to build it or put it together or assemble it uh and you need land to put it on you need you utilities you various number of services you need to sort of maintain that sort of thing okay so wordpress.org the software the core software is a free house in a box okay with the the basic structure and Scaffolding for the house it's not much good to you without the land okay which is hosting okay so you need to put it somewhere um the land provides you with you know You' got different types of land okay so you've got um uh obviously you can put it on a lot in the middle of nowhere that is you know not connected to Mains It's All Off the Grid and you can just manage it obviously that takes a lot more time and hassle like red tape and all that sort of stuff to do that um you've got uh sort of your your your standard lot numbers that that provides you an address and it's got running water and electricity and you can put your house on it and it's whatever but then you've also got things like apartments and service departments okay um WP engine provides a managed service which is like let's say you've got a free house or apartment whatever right in the kit um you that's like the service department version of accommodation I know this analogy is not great but it's the best one I can think of um which is you still get the free house it's still yours but uh you're paying for someone to come and build it for you install it for you um you know you might have a manag service where they manage all of the details and all the stuff and you just kind of working the back in okay that's very over extremely overs simp ified it kind of scales up depending on your level of understanding um it's for people who don't really want to have to deal with web hosting because especially with something like WordPress you security can be an issue okay because WordPress being the most popular content management system is the most frequently targeted so um it's not that it's less secure it's that it's more popular and more vulnerable because it's more likely to have more failure points but anyway um like WP engine provides a great set forget kind of uh experience as does wordpress.com um I've never had a good good experience with wordpress.com I find them a little bit gouy but you know they're going to do that okay that's part of it so um so again they all different hosts have varying degrees of that where you can anywhere wanting a um self-hosting thing with WordPress which I've done that in the past managed hosting to uh for people so off um so what I would have done is just um um install WordPress on behalf of a client and charge them for the service the server maintenance and the updates and all that sort of stuff WP engine uh does that for me and I just um can just go in supervise it so basically my client wins because they're not paying me for too much support I don't want to do it I don't want to do support I can't be asked um because I'm not running the agency anymore there's no no real benefit for me doing it okay I really just don't want to do it um but they do it and I manage to maintain those relationships and they and I they provide a good service okay um and the client wins because um they're not having to um pay me for support I don't have to be available for support uh it's just mostly sad and forget so anyway so that's that's that's the service that they provide um so um but that this is where sort of the drama kicks in a little bit okay which is um okay where do I start so Matt Mullen WG okay is the benevolent dictator for life of wordpress.org okay so.org is the foundation the charity okay that has tax exempt status um and there's a whole bunch of like extremely strict rules around the running of a 501c3 okay here in Australia that would be an association right they've got you're supposed to have minimum number of like board members all that sort of stuff now what I find interesting is that he has since confirmed that it's only him running it but for these things you're supposed to have like a minimum number of three office bearers and stuff so already it's shady as fuck okay so I don't know what the fuck's going on but just alone his conflict of interest alone his conflict his conflict of interest alone is enough to just it's amazing okay I would because one of the biggest arguments with open source uh to was that you had no one single bottleneck so uh with WordPress because everyone's working on it everyone's looking at it it's it's everyone's should something happen or should something go wrong The Hive mine sort of fixes it uh one of the biggest arguments against proprietary software the Microsoft products or a bespoke thing or something where you've developed it from scratch but so w penin is just another hosting they're just the host okay and they provide uh services on top of that like most agencies would uh use the software and sell the services on top of it so take the free kit home and then uh anyone who wants to pay me to in assemble it and uh put it together customize it put it on in the land and all that sort of stuff then you get a home but you still got to pay for other things okay you still got to connect your utilities and all those other things anyway I've explained it terribly but I have to move the fuck on now it allows for easy website uh creation customization you can put whatever plugins you want uh themes you can choose and you get you there's a whole ecosystem built around that so some people sell their plugins some people give them away for free some people have a combination of those things uh and there's an entire massive economy I think there's like 160,000 WordPress plugins on the repo um and several I think there's tens of thousands of themes uh you can also just build your own theme I've um there's I know um a few people who've built entire applications off of the back of the API of Wordpress uh you've got moves for things like uh headless WordPress which doesn't need themes there's all these Innovative things that are on on top of uh WordPress that like yeah it it's it's a marvelous marvelous starting point for anybody who wants to uh do uh web development okay um but yeah I mean White House Disney New Yorker I think a bunch of really big websites a lot of you a lot used webs so uh so WordPress is a a open source CMS right and itself like WordPress itself is a fork under the GPL you can take a piece of software you can copy it and Fork it okay that's what you mean by creating a fork fork in the road okay it is a fork of B2 okay um and he actually took B2 and forked it and it became WordPress okay not even remotely close to the WordPress that you see today but you know we have to remember that WordPress was also a fork and it was was also something that he used talk modified someone else's code and and turned it into WordPress another GPL you can do that like you're free to do that okay uh you can um take someone's code modify it release your own version of it add features remove features um butcher it hack it so to speak and uh do what you want with it so long as you um uh make any subsequent soft we releases GPL as well Matt Mullen wig reaped the rewards of that and he used our labor our data our faith and trust in him and his ability to um make this uh happen um and thinking that he might actually pay it forward one day uh you know he sold us up the river to Salesforce the first chance he got and it's like okay well uh if we want to talk about VC money and private equity profiteering and uh Ren bullshit well let's talk about Black Rock and Salesforce and all of the people and you know who's backing automatic in this thing while you hide behind a cardigan acting like you didn't just uh use the all of the Goodwill of people like me who absorbed the risk of Wordpress who constantly had to fix WordPress who worked uh tirelessly on behalf of Wordpress uh and uh helped you to become post economic you you shifted all of the costs and all of the risk and all of the the work dare I say the hard work uh and um sold it to the highest bidder and now not content with that you are going after a competitor using the Goodwill that you've earned through the community like I don't understand how this is a good idea I might whatever substantive agreement I might have with the very simple thought terminating um cliche that is if you earn money from WordPress you should put back to the community yeah of course you should you should also acknowledge every agency or freelancer or plug-in developer that that was not yours to become post economic over I wasn't active in the community but I was on board with it I paid my dues I did my part I defended WordPress when it needed defending I sold it it was a hard cell you know it's all these I I've just got no words for this because it's just I find it disgusting the more I think about it the more disgusted I get like I started out going okay I understand in principle support him I in principle understand what where he's coming from but his behavior over the last few days has just made it worse and worse and worse what about another Sol I don't know you want another solution to the governance of word oh I'll do it I'll be on the board have more people on the board I'll do it sounds like a better solution I'll do it for free I love WordPress I wait for you I I I await your call okay that's a solution more people on the board I'll be on the board done I'll operate in the interests of the foundation at all times even if I'm just on the Australian part done put more people on the board okay absolve yourself of the conflict of interest that you've got with automatic going after competitors using the foundation all of the social capital and Goodwill of the foundation for your own corporate greed not falling for the cardig again fucking stop it I'm tremendously grateful to Wordpress for the career that it gave me but I could have sold other things I could have made a lot more money doing other things I could have made a lot more money selling out of the Box proprietary shit with a $1,000 a year license and then some uh plus all of the support and everything else I could have been a Microsoft partner with a lot less grief because I believed in open source and I believed in WordPress and I truly truly believed that WordPress and druple and those things um were better for clients um I absorbed some of that risk I absorbed that stuff I put the work in and then to suddenly find out that that was all for not uh um you know that's very disappointing you know I I I think that we need to look at the governance structure of of the foundation watch how people behave when they think they're on the righteous side of things like this is a pattern of behavior for him and I'm sorry but it doesn't if matter if you agree with him it doesn't matter if you think he's a good guy his actions show otherwise just because you agree with someone it doesn't give them the right to do whatever they want want because they're right that's not how you you run things and also um whether he's personally been nice to you is irrelevant I've actually found him to be quite defensive and rude every time I've interacted with him um he cannot handle even the smallest amount of push back and um in any igy biy I've had with him in the past has always been extraordinarily rude and defensive and dismissive uh but also what what happened to like watching help maybe it's not about you maybe he's nice to you because you've got something he wants maybe you should be looking at how he treats people that um aren't you maybe your video saying I like him and he's a nice guy and he's always been nice to me is completely fucking beside the point because you should care about how he treats other people like the guy from The Thesis thing or the trans person who made a joke and he fucking harassed and got on Twitter publicly grown ass man harassing a fucking small account it's like for making a I think it was a joke it was a bad joke as far as I remember but like I'm sorry but this is a pattern of behavior you know I'm not going to sit there and oh well he oh well this person was nice to me no more questions my impression of him when I had something he wanted and said what he liked he was perfectly lovely and fine and he's always been fine yeah well I'm sorry but how you behave all of the time to everyone is also relevant you're not the center of the universe okay like this is the thing this is for any activist or anything it's like oh I agree with them therefore they must be right therefore everything they do is Justified I like them um there can't be anything wrong me me me my perspec i i i i me me me well what about all the other people what about other people maybe just consider that other people exist and have different views different experiences and you should actually take less of your own perspective and a little more of others and that might help a little bit this narcissism of like it's insane I don't understand how he's always been good to me and nice to me and um nothing more to discuss no followup questions is even remotely relevant the fact is he's doing a shitty thing to someone else that should be a factor but it's not a shitty thing because what he's doing it for is the right reasons like get your head straight okay righteous cruelty is a hell of a fucking drug where you think that you can just if you're on the right side that somehow everything that you do from there is Justified and it's it's that's not the case I could agree with the substantive part of what Matt's uh saying but I actually also don't think it's genuine I have a feeling that he is using the community and the good willll of the community to manipulate us for some bigger play that is not apparent to me because oh my God talk about like fucking self- imulation in public like what the hell um I I feel just disappointed by this whole thing I feel very disappointed by all of it um and I know that I haven't really gone into the details because um at the end of the day I mean I can if you people want me to I can but there comes a point where things get so Technical and need so much explanation that it's a 2hour video that's not worth doing it's not worth my time I don't make money you know I don't make any money doing any of this um it you know cost me money and time and all that stuff and Sanity I just want to talk about how I feel about it and um not let them rewrite history we were of the view that if we all work together that we would lift each other up and now it's it's just um I've just been let down so many times with this shit I I look around and all I just I just see destruction and selfishness like uh just pure evil wherever an exploitation and all of it for nothing it's just all for nothing that's that's really how I feel there a lot of this feels like it's all just for nothing um I felt that way for years that's why I got out um I backed the wrong horse that fuck up is mine I shouldn't have believed them I should have known there was a catch to all of this stuff um whatever okay but don't fall for it if you're like if you're younger don't fall for it don't let these guys and their fucking Cardigans and sneakers and jeans and shit I'm not going to let them use my hard work to manipulate anyone else I'm going to tell you that they fucked us over okay conmen go through lots and lots of people and they always find a new Mark I'm not going to let you be a new Mark okay they fucked us okay they're not the heroes they're not benevolent leaders they are conmen who exploited the labor effort um Goodwill love trust dreams they exploited all of that for us they have taken it without our consent repackaged it and sold it off to Salesforce sold it off to Silver Lake sold it off to whoever the fuck would benefit them when you actually Express that you've got a problem with that they use the goodwi of the foundation or um worse in other their algorithms and the state and all this other shit okay to weaponize it against you to the point where it's like no hang on I want my payday cunt it's mine you didn't I didn't consent to this I didn't sign this contract just because you changed the fucking contract on the day that you like served us with the notice that you breached it that's not how it works you can't do that it's not you just can't and at some Point yes I get it you got so much money you got all the best lawyers but at some point some of us are going to become lawyers and some of us are going to fucking beat you and it's like what they're doing is wrong and Matt mullenweg like I'm surprised he's not the first won't be definitely won't be the last a person to like really highlight that we are just mere collateral damage in his pursuit of more money and power and control and his Petty personal bullshit between another uh competitor he's going to he he doesn't give a fuck if he sinks the foundation he doesn't give a fuck if he takes down all our businesses he doesn't give a fuck if our websites get hacked he doesn't give a fuck about any security risk in the leadup to the election of all the sites that are running on WordPress he doesn't give a fuck but he will show up in the cardigan and start like hiding behind the community when it suits him don't fall for it that's all I'm all I don't know what the takeway here is which is don't fall for it okay first of all if you're an agency and you want you're looking for advice I think it'll be fine either way the community will figure it out okay um I'm just disappointed having invested so many years of my life uh in this particular uh cause movement product um and um some people see it purely as a product I see it as more than that and uh you're using people like me who do see it as more than that uh you're taking the piss and I've had enough I've had I've had a gutful of it I've seen it with Facebook I've seen it with uh with x in particular the everything app um the everything wrong with the Internet app um you know and now fucking word open Ai and now fucking WordPress of all things it's like not you two like we we can do this better and different but I'm I'm not going to sit by and let you abuse good faith members of the community who are just trying to help well people who have tried to do the right thing who are just being fucking um abused by uh Matt Mullen WG on on X like a lawyer who's doing um great analysis Richard best is a New Zealand lawyer who's just he just has been offering some of his insights into this stuff and he's got no skin in the game he's he's been perfectly nice and Matt starts going after him and it's like go fuck yourself who the fuck do you think you are who are you speaking for when you do that are you speaking on behalf of the community or are you speaking on behalf of the corporation because you're not speaking on behalf of me when you behave that way so don't pretend that you are because that's not what the community stuff is about you're pretending to speak for the community but you when you do speak for the community you're doing it in a way that makes us look terrible and no I don't endorse any of this fuck you who are you speaking for are you speaking for Salesforce Black Rock and fucking the New York Times and your own pocket post economic pocket or are you talking on behalf of the community if you're talking beh on behalf of the community as part of the community I'd like to object to the way that to I would like to object to your PR skills fuck you grow up have a good day I will sit on the board I will happily do that I will work for free I've been looking for a really cool project to throw my throw my fucking time into hit me up I'm sure there's like hundred other people that will quite happily take that from under you anyway to those members of the WordPress Community every contribution matters no matter what these guys say don't let yourself be gas lit over what you've contributed if you've sold WordPress supported WordPress built on top of Wordpress if you set up a website on wordpress.com if you have done anything to help move WordPress forward as somebody who knows how hard a sell it was in the early days you've contributed okay don't let anyone tell you otherwise and it's the same thing Reddit or Twitter or anything don't let them rewrite who built this stuff just because they're greedy assholes evil people advising them about every little loophole so they can Harvest us they can extract as much from us as possible and give nothing back okay don't let them Gaslight you and and tell you that you're not doing enough because you fucking are if anything you're you're doing too much you're putting up with too much if anything it's not that you're not not doing enough it's that you're putting up with too much and we shouldn't be doing it we shouldn't be putting up with it we need to figure out a new way to do this stuff because it's just unacceptable to me they're getting post economic off of our back it's not theirs it was never theirs and they knew that because if if they didn't know that they would have told us up front what they what they're about but they didn't they built these lies in these communities and exploited all of our Goodwill and trust and weaponized it against us so thank you for everyone who has contributed to Wordpress over the years I appreciate you more than words can say and um if I can ever be of help past the torch because I've got a lot of stuff up here a lot of L A lot of knowledge about the solutions and stuff if I can ever help you if you're a little player and you need a bit of help in any way let me know obviously I don't run an agency anymore but but I'm always always happy to help and give advice especially if you're a young freelancer or you know setting up a new agency or something I've got a world of experience in that stuff um my voice is about to give out so have a good one hopefully I have made something uh that makes sense and um I appreciate everyone who has contributed to this over the last 20 years and I have absolutely no fucking time or love for the people who ripped everyone off give it back it's not yours pay me fuck you goodbye e e e e for, Wordpress, Matt Mullenweg... And... Cardigans?, Téa Smith, 01j9j4mzcjhz80p9qh775pv7kd.