Sadly, the recent drama has revealed that WordPress dot org is 100% owned and administered by Matt Mullenweg. People are getting banned for disagreeing with him, even if they do so respectfully. Plugin developers are loosing the ability to log in and provide support or updates. A new rule which hasn’t been published yet prohibits the transfer of a plugin by someone who has been banned without a manual review. This means that the developer may no longer have access and dot org can take over the plugin by just changing the name. It may be better, though not as convenient, to host free Cwicly on GitHub, with a zip download. Thoughts?
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While I don’t want to get too deep into the current WP org happenings, it’s exactly the repository that is the big opportunity for Cwicly.
For now, I can’t see Cwicly being affected, and besides, a lot of time will pass and things will change. No one can be naive enough to believe that everything that has happened and will happen will not have legal consequences. It will all take time, but we all have to be patient.
Cwicly is already available for free on their website. I don’t see the point of a github upload unless it is eventually made open source. It’s also far too inaccessible for the average user, imo.
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@David I agree with you. I would be extremely disappointed if Cwicly were taken over by MM for no valid reason. Cwicly is such a great tool and considering all the drama, it should stay away from the WP repo.
I think that the main reason to add Cwicly to the repo is to promote it and make it mainstream. I hope Louis can find a way to promote Cwicly further without adding it to the repo.
It’s a material world, and nothing is truly free.
Even in the open-source realm, the reality is that the GPL allows WordPress, its plugins, and themes to be forked, but WordPressOrg has to maintain the integrity of its ecosystem, especially in disputes.
In this particular case, we’re looking at a battle between two organizations, WPEngine and Autommatic, each generating almost half a billion dollars in revenue.
The key reason WordPress is “free” is because the real money is in hosting, not in the builder or CMS.
Automattic supports the free builder and CMS with the aim of growing Automattic into the largest hosting platform for WordPress.
Smaller businesses make money through freemium models for plugins and themes, offering free versions of their products on the repo and upselling premium versions.
Just like Apple, Google, Amazon, or Shopify, if you play within an ecosystem, you have to respect its rules. You can’t just ignore Apple’s guidelines or show them the middle finger or start eating their lunch without any payback if you want to stay in their App Store, and the same principle applies here.
For Cwicly to remain a successful free builder, it would require a long-term patron with deep pockets, similar to what we’ve seen with WPGraphQL, which became a canonical plugin with backing from WPEngine and now Automattic.
Ideally, the long-term goal for Cwicly should be to stay in the repo, gain traction, and eventually aim for canonical status, supported by a powerful patron, like Automattic, so that engineering resources can be allocated to making it a stable, reliable builder in the ecosystem.
Else how long can Louis or any other developer realistically keep investing their time and resources without any payback?
Achieving canonical status or finding a major backer could provide the long-term resources Cwicly needs to ensure stability, regular updates, and an expanded feature set.
This would ultimately allow Cwicly to grow as a reliable builder within the WordPress ecosystem, while maintaining its open-source nature.
https://www.wpgraphql.com/2024/10/07/wpgraphql-becomes-a-canonical-plugin-my-move-to-automattic
It depends. If Cwicly has zero intent on ever engaging with or otherwise disagreeing with Mullenweg, the repo is the best place to be. Otherwise, it’s safest serve from GitHub.
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More and more drama happened in WP’s world.
It looks like Pods is the next victim.
This is getting out of hand here. Unfortunately there will be more to follow unless someone can rein in the instigator.
Pods isn’t the next ‘victim,’ as the original poster clarified two days ago, correcting any such insinuation for anyone who has read the entire thread.
They updated the post, I think. It’s good to know.
Still some shenanigans going on there.
