As Much of What’s Left of the Web I Think...  🔗 **Source:** [As Much of What’s Left of the Web I Think...](https://twitter.com/davewiner/status/2098813966231158843/?rw_tt_thread=True) > [!note]+ Document Notes > tags: [wordpress, open-web, web-independence, wordpress-governance] > author: Dave Winer > source: X (@davewiner) > reference: https://twitter.com/davewiner/status/2098813966231158843 > date created: 2026-09-12 > > > [!info] Generated analysis — not the author's words. Sections below are machine-written > > from the captured source. Only text inside `> [!quote]` blocks is verbatim from the author. > > Do not quote or attribute any other line to the named author. > > <!-- deep-read: light-touch --> > Light-touch by design: about 80 words of new commentary on top of Winer's own quoted essay, "My two cents about WordPress," which is captured and checked as its own doc. This note covers only the new lines. > > # 🏷️ Title: As much of what's left of the web I think WordPress has become the web fighting with itself > <!-- deep-read:sections start --> ## 📝 Summary Dave Winer quote-posts his WordPress essay with a sharper frame: WordPress has become "basically the web fighting with itself." He asks whether the fight is about money or about developers' freedom to innovate so users benefit, says that for him it has always been about creativity, and says "the money people" treat the situation as a joke. His fix: the community has to relearn how to be independent. ## 🗒️ Who said what **Dave Winer** (@davewiner): > [!quote] > As much of what’s left of the web I think Wordpress has become basically the web fighting with itself. > [!quote] > Not speaking for anyone but me, it’s always been about creativity. > [!quote] > But the money people seem to think this is a big joke. This can be fixed but we have to learn how to be independent again, we seem to have forgotten. ## 🔗 Context - Posted 2026-09-12, quoting his own X post of the same day, which also ran on Scripting News (http://scripting.com/2026/09/12/143822.html). - The quoted essay: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Tweets/My two cents about WordPress|Dave Winer: My two cents about WordPress]] (claim checks there: the "89 percent of the web" figure and the Bill Gates promise both fail). - It lands two days after Automattic's board put Matt Mullenweg on paid leave and a day after he told staff he was back in control, per TechCrunch (2026-09-11). The post doesn't name either event. ## ⚖️ What it does not establish - **Who "the money people" are.** No person, company, or incident is named, so the charge can't be checked. - **The money-or-freedom question** poses a choice the essay itself doesn't hold to: the quoted essay asks people who made billions to fund the web, so money and developer freedom aren't opposites in Winer's own argument. - **What "independent" means in practice.** Independent of whom, and by what mechanism (hosting, governance, funding), isn't said. - **Copy note.** The thread contains a stray paragraph holding only a period. ## 🎯 Conclusion A framing line worth keeping, "the web fighting with itself," with an unnamed target. Read it with the essay it quotes, where the substance and the checkable claims sit. <!-- deep-read:sections end --> 📄 **Full text:** [[Full Document Contents/Tweets/As Much of What’s Left of the Web I Think....md|As Much of What’s Left of the Web I Think... by Dave Winer]] ## Highlights - As much of what’s left of the web I think Wordpress has become basically the web fighting with itself. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2bjzv5g7ke3mmv475bmpk7t)) - Note: Winer's framing of the WordPress disputes: not a product fight but the open web's factions fighting each other. - Tags: atom/literature/h1 - But the money people seem to think this is a big joke. This can be fixed but we have to learn how to be independent again, we seem to have forgotten. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2bjzxzdt7ntpap1v596srdk)) - Note: Independence as a skill the web community has lost and has to relearn. "The money people" are unnamed. - Tags: atom/zettel/z1