WPE is the most profitable business in the WordPress space, and they haven't changed a single line of code in WordPress or so much as contributed a dime. So if you're eager to volunteer to be their free labor, be my guest.
Several of the most popular plugins are maintained by WPEngine.
WPEngine donates/sponsors hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to WordPress community events. Indeed, the convention where Matt went "nuclear" was sponsored by WPE to the tune of $75,000 (and despite these all being supposedly independent entities, somehow WPE was banned from attending by the Foundation. No refund, though).
> So if you're eager to volunteer to be their free labor, be my guest.
Matt is demanding that WPE provide his for-profit company, Automattic, free labor, to be directed as Automattic see fit. Not the Foundation, not the open source project.
> WordCamps come in all different flavors, based on the local communities that produce them, but in general, WordCamps include sessions on how to use WordPress more effectively, beginning plugin and theme development, advanced techniques, security, etc. To get an idea of the types of sessions typically seen at WordCamps, check out the WordCamp channel at WordPress.tv.
Maybe setting up a proper independent governance of the WordPress project would encourage more independent contributions.
>"it's free but only until the project owners deem you too successful and then you'll have to pay 8% of your revenues to support the project".
https://world.hey.com/dhh/automattic-is-doing-open-source-di...
Among all the more visible issues with this whole situation, he calls out a few things that I think need more awareness:
1. Matt decries Private Equity as leeches and freeloaders on free software, open source, and their community.
2. Automattic invested in WPE in the early days. In fact, Silver Lake, the PE firm that owns WPE, bought Automattic's share! Automattic sold to PE.
3. The WP Foundation has three members, two of whom show any sign of activity: Matt himself, and another person that Matt personally appointed who is... drum roll... the Managing Partner of a Private Equity firm.
Somewhat ironic for someone who shit talks their competitors and Private Equity so vocally.
He chose to use an open source license and benefit from all that open source entails.
You can’t turn around and ignore the terms of the license just because it doesn’t suit you.
Open source is based on idealistic and community based mindset and modern tech is now based around extracting the dollars. The two aren't really compatible and it's really quite sad to see.
That being said this the most stupid way to go about it.
The moral obligation to not screw over a million innocent users also outweighs Matt's driving desire for more money.
They don't get secretly blackmailed and publicly shamed for failure to do so. There are a lot of other WP hosts too (Pantheon, Cloudways, etc.) and they also don't get this same treatment, unless they all silently paid up and we just didn't know...?
Sure, there's a gentleman's understanding that companies with resources should contribute back to the projects they use, but it's not a hard and fast moral or legal code.
It's disturbing and frankly terrifying for all downstream WordPress companies and users for Matt to blow this so out of proportion to the actual crime of "failing to contribute back to open source", which so many of us are guilty of every single day.
If a 'company' is just digital landlordism it's not surprising makers don't want to subsidize your free ride...