There is some controversy going around right now in the WordPress community, but when isn’t there? As someone that has been part of the community for nearly twenty years now, I feel like I should give my two cents though my title probably says it all.
I feel like the best way to get corporations to spend more time and money on WordPress and giving back to the open source community is to create positive partnership opportunities.
Why are there not better ways to determine as a community member if a company is giving back “enough” to the project? Which hosts are meeting the five for the future “obligations”? What size company should be giving back in such a way? What are the advantages of doing so?
Should the fear of the leader of WordPress speaking out against your company be the main driver of actively giving back to the project? I get that sometimes you need the stick but sometimes, no matter what you do, you can’t get someone to sign on and do what you think they should. That’s free will. That’s market dynamics. That’s open source.
What is the real concern with companies not giving back? Is it that those that don’t give back have an economic advantage? Is it that WordPress will die if more companies don’t provide free labour towards the project? Can we get more transparency on this? If there is an existential threat to WordPress due to not enough volunteers (paid or free), then let’s discuss that openly and focus on helping make it easier for people to contribute. If people aren’t contributing because they don’t feel valued, let’s focus on improving the feeling of community and value that comes with contributing.
At this point, despite having WordPress as part of my career for nearly twenty years, I have never contributed to WordPress core. I wouldn’t even know where to start. I have no idea if anything I can do would be valuable. How many people are like me?
I feel like what makes WordPress great is the abundance of choice. Choice in web hosts, plugins, themes, support vendors and more. If you don’t like one company, you can move to another.
The only difficulty that I see right now is that there is no system of positivity to point out those that are helping secure WordPress’ future and I don’t think that the messaging has been handled well.
Growing market competition, an aging volunteer force, and so many other factors could eventually see WordPress move into the minority of the web if it isn’t careful. I believe that keeping a positive, unified community matters most. Who wants to contribute if their contributions might be highlighted as not being enough? Who wants to go all in on a piece of software where the founder might cast you or your company in a negative light?
Instead of name and shame, why not award and promote?
We have this already with WordPress VIP partners. Why not with WordPress.org? Or why not set-up a separate company to rate, rank, and award companies giving back to the project? Why not have more ways to measure what people are doing and allow for a creation of value for that? Maybe companies are giving back more than is known? Maybe companies think they are giving back, but they aren’t doing so in a way that is currently counted or valuable beyond their bottom line? Who knows?
At the end of the day, WordPress needs cohesion, positivity, and joy to continue forward. Seemingly capitalistic infighting will sour the community and likely see the WordPress.org open source project spiral downwards and shrink away.
Sidenote: I have seen WordPress from so many points of view and when it comes to brand confusion, I can safely say that WordPress.com and WordPress.org confusion is the most common issue that I experience.
Some Great Posts About This Whole Drama
- Matt vs WP Engine: Too Far?
- The WCUS Closing I Wish We’d Had
- WCUS: Freedom Isn’t Free
- You Can’t Single Out Just WPEngine
- The Complex Dynamics of WordPress: A Passionate Critique
- Matt Mullenweg calls WP Engine a ‘cancer to WordPress’ and urges community to switch providers
Disclosure: As I write this, I work for Acquia, the “mothership” company for Drupal like Automattic is for WordPress. Acquia can be considered a competitor to Automattic in so far as they both are companies that own hosting platforms for their respective CMSs. What is expressed here are my opinions as a WordPress community member and not as an employee of Acquia. This is my personal blog and was written by me and not reviewed by my employer.
Malcolm's Ramblings 