matt mullenweg & the wordpress "drama"
hey listen,
i don't like wading into heated discussions. i usually try to say something before it blows up, or after. but considering i use wordpress and tumblr, both of which are currently under the control of matt mullenweg, i do feel like speaking on it is a big deal. however, it's also quite literally my job to be impartial. so, you're not going to get many opinions here. i apologize if that's not your thing -- but i have a really big point here that you might not necessarily expect, so please bear with me!
alright. obviously @photomatt has been pissing a lot of people off online. that's a fact. so, i want to focus on a couple key things i've been seeing online and try and bring this down to a simpler level.
yes, the WordPress Foundation granted Automattic a non-revocable license that covers the commercial side of its trademarks. Automattic explained this in a recent blog post. we'll see how folks respond to that, but the basic TLDR is this: Automattic holds commercial rights, Foundation holds the trademarks and non-commercial rights, so there's technically two owners. that might still be confusing--but that's what was said. don't shoot the messenger.
yes, it does appear that matt may have a conflict-of-interest by sitting on the board at the Foundation, being the CEO of Automattic (who was granted non-revocable commercial rights, which we talked about earlier), and fully owning WordPress.org personally. that last one is perhaps particularly egregious to many online, but could also be a legacy thing that just hasn't been dealt with.
what do i think he should do? i don't know. once again, i want to be crystal clear that i'm staying neutral on the issues at hand. we'll stick to facts here on this blog. i don't know anyone at Automattic otherwise i'd sit down with Matt myself and try and clear this up for the rest of the internet. for now, i'll settle for a Tumblr post:
until everything resolves, we frankly do not have all of the information to make an educated determination. thus, we cannot jump to conclusions. to do so is dangerous and leads to misinformation spreading like a wildfire across the internet. let's avoid that, hey?
and finally, to close: i don't want to be that guy but... PLEASE remember when it comes to something you're passionate about, constructive criticism is always the correct path. attack IDEAS, not people. mental health is a very important thing to remember when engaging with social media in general. i'm not asking you to drop your feelings, i'm asking you to consider other people's feelings when you go to write in that text box. let's be more considerate with how we use our words. i know what it's like to be on the receiving end of what seems like endless hate... NOBODY deserves that.
okay. i really need to sleep and then pack a bunch of boxes. (long story, might share it later.) if anything else happens with the WP stuff, send it my way so i don't miss it...or just drop me an email and say hi. doesn't matter, you can hit me at [email protected] as always.
hope this helped some of y'all. i tried to be as impartial as possible and not inject any feelings into this. good night, folks.
