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35 points snackernews | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.204s | source

All of the coverage and opinions I’ve read have focused on the longer term impact to the WordPress ecosystem itself.

I’m an enthusiastic longtime paying user of Pocket Casts and Day One.

Now that employees are leaving in droves (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41872046) I fear for both.

Pocket Casts is the only podcast app that has ever clicked for me.

I’ve invested significant time and personal writing and media into Day One journals. Privacy concerns aside, it’s an app and platform I enjoy using.

How many of the employees fleeing Automattic couldn’t care less about WordPress but are the product and technical expertise behind these other products?

1. runjake ◴[] No.41905772[source]
Consider your personal threat model.

Due to his conduct, I consider Matt a bad actor, at this point. Combine that with other perhaps dubious allegations in other lawsuits[1] against Matt.

If I were using SimpleNote, I'd question the privacy of my notes. The notes aren't encrypted[2]. I'd have concerns if my notes have been/will be grepped through for "juicy" content, or if I were to publicly criticize the owner, embarrassing details be made public in some fashion.

Same for Day One. I'd stop using it immediately and cut my losses. Obligatory link[3].

I don't use any of Automattic's products except WordPress, but previously, if I were going to use a cloud-based notes app, I'd have probably used SimpleNote, based on my previous impression of Matt as this stoic do-gooder.

This is a good lesson in that you don't really know the real person behind these public personas. Do not make critical decisions based on these personas.

1. https://github.com/bullenweg/bullenweg.github.io (I have zero affiliation with this site)

2. https://simplenote.com/help/#encryption

3. https://dayoneapp.com/guides/day-one-sync/end-to-end-encrypt...