The open-source side of WordPress is pretty pissed off at Matt right now. The Slack is heavily downvoting/disliking all of this.
Comment on WordPress.org bans WP Engine, blocks it from accessing its resources
TwitchingCheese@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Wow Matt really looking bad on this one. This just reeks of trying to push out a major business competitor to wordpress.com and abusing control over wordpress.org to do it.
ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
NostraDavid@programming.dev 1 month ago
ThePrimeagen invited Matt to explain what’s going on.
TL;DW Matt’s claim is that he tried to get WP Engine to pay for a Trademark license (or whatever it’s called - I’m recalling from watching yesterday), over several months, and they tried to legally block him in every way. Their self-claimed contributions to Wordpress were (as he tells it) that they held conferences where they promoted their own stuff only - code contributions have been minimal.
So the combination of not willing to pay for the trademark + not contributing back (not in code, not in helping the community) is Matt’s reasoning for blocking them from using Wordpress’ resources.
He also mentioned that he has good relations with other Wordpress hosts, so it’s not like he’s trying to block anyone else from hosting, but they were all willing to pay for the use of the Trademark (and/or contribute back).