Hot take — it's *much* better for Automattic to stop providing free hosted services to a commercial competitor than to do the whole "we need a new license we claim is open but which really isn't" thing.
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Matthew Millerreplied to Rafael Kassner last edited by
We may have to just disagree on this point, but I do not think "please don’t use [the abbreviation] in a way that confuses people" is _at all_ unreasonable.
If you are not, actually, trying to confuse people, there's no problem and won't be.
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Matthew Millerreplied to Rafael Kassner last edited by
Like I said at the start — would you _really_ rather they switch to a proprietary license?
If "the community" is on that side, well... I am not.
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Matthew Millerreplied to Matthew Miller last edited by
If you want to blame someone here, blame WP Engine for making things difficult for all of the good actors in the space.
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Joe Brockmeierreplied to Matthew Miller last edited by
@mattdm WordPress.com also disables features unless you pay for the $300 (and up) accounts. (e.g., you can't install plugins unless you are on the Business plan.)
But, even assuming that Automattic is in the right, I think turning off access to updates without any notice is not a good practice.
The potential victims there are people who've paid WPE for hosting in good faith who are having to scramble to react to this. It is not their fault that two corps are having a spat.
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Matthew Millerreplied to Joe Brockmeier last edited by
I will give you that that's not a great approach. I did say I had a hot take. But WPE should have had a risk mitigation plan in place, yeah?
The fact that so many people were under the misapprehension that they were paying for official WordPress and are now shocked kind of underscores the trademark problem.
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Matthew Millerreplied to Matthew Miller last edited by
Look at https://wpengine.com/blog/tag/press-this/ -- the podcast is actually called "Press This", but don't tell me those graphics aren't intended to make you think "WordPress Community Podcast" = "Official WordPress Podcast"