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WordPress retaliation impacts community

(lwn.net)
238 points chmaynard | 5 comments | 17 Oct 24 04:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.207s | source
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dovin ◴[17 Oct 24 04:51 UTC] No.41866511[source]▶
I've been trying to wrap my head around why this feels so wrong. If the project had been run like this from the beginning, in an opinionated way that prioritizes what the few creators of the project think are important, then that's one thing. But it seems like Wordpress has generally been the stable, boring, slow-moving project that isn't run like a personal fiefdom, and Mullenweg is trying to force it from the one model to the other. I haven't used Wordpress in years, and this drama makes me never want to use it again.
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1. bad_user ◴[17 Oct 24 05:49 UTC] No.41866773[source]▶
Initially, I was taking the side of WP.org and Automattic; however, I changed my mind completely once they took over the “Advanced Custom Fields” plugin, and replaced it with another plugin that broke people's websites. So Matt weaponized the WP package repository, and stole the users of a well-maintained package, making WP site admins work over the weekend to fix the breakage.

This isn't opinionated, this is theft.

If the project had been run like this since the beginning, it wouldn't be where it is today. Automattic is a rich company partially due to the community around WordPress, and the trust that community has had in the governance of the project.

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2. usaphp ◴[17 Oct 24 06:11 UTC] No.41866878[source]▶
> replaced it with another plugin that broke people's websites

What makes you think it broke someone’s website? AFAIK they just patched the security issue that wp engine team couldn’t patch because they were locked out from pushing to repo?

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3. bad_user ◴[17 Oct 24 06:26 UTC] No.41866943[source]▶
Firstly, the security patch was already published by the ACF team, and that wasn't the code that was pushed. This was a package takeover, slug, reviews, users, everything:

https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/acf-plugin-no-long...

People woke up to their website being updated to “Secure Custom Fields”, an alternative (or a fork) that's not fully compatible. Here's one such report from HN:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41830709

4. danieljacksonno ◴[17 Oct 24 08:40 UTC] No.41867603[source]▶
They turned off all pro features
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5. skhr0680 ◴[21 Oct 24 10:00 UTC] No.41902466{3}[source]▶
What Wordpress did is insane, but let’s not spread misinformation. There were no pro features in the free plugin to turn off, they removed advertising for the pro version.