Shackling a free market: WordPress canonical plugins

[chipbennett]

I think it was something to do with WordPress being clearly run by Matt, rather than community managed and so I'm not so bothered by stuff like this happening now. I used to find it odd that the WP community wasn't consulted heavily before moving ahead with stuff like this. But I hadn't realised until recently that Matt intends to maintain complete control over the project rather than moving it towards a community managed setup. I seem to have misread the direction of the project previously; probably because I was reading too much into comments by those in the community rather than Matt himself and others more closely connected to the project.

Yeah but problem is that on the one hand people in upper management says its all public its all easy to find etc and then the actual reality.
If they just made it clear that Matt is the one that decides the direction and everyone else somewhat comply with it then I wouldn't have a problem with it either.
I just want people to be open and honest really. Don't think thats to much to ask for in a open source project like WP that really relies a lot on its contributors.

+1

I don't have a problem with Matt being, for all intents and purposes, solely in charge of the WordPress project.

For me, the primary disconnect is, at the same time, claiming that WordPress is a "community" project. It isn't.

Sure, "community" code contributions are allowed; but to me, in terms of being a "community" project, allowing community code contributions is far less meaningful than allowing community contributions with respect to project decision-making.

But, what that (community contributions with respect to project decision-making) would mean and how it might work, with respect to the WordPress project, is basically irrelevant. It is run by an SABDFL, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. *

Life is much easier when we accept that reality, and refrain from trying to pretend otherwise.

* Though, I still have my long-tem questions and concerns regarding Matt as a project manager and business owner. The actual product of the WordPress project (and complementary Automattic-owned projects) is outstanding, however; so I tend not to focus too much on those questions/concerns.

[andreasnrb]

I don't think it's reasonable at all to expect the devs to make public everything they discuss at WordCamps.

Misread this first. I agree and disagree. If their discussions are public in so what that people other than themselves are made aware of them and dev people ask for feedback from people at the WordCamp then its should be made public to everyone.
And why not have a wordcamp dev chat summary. I think that is an excellent idea. Especially if the chat deals with big game changing stuff.

Did you read the quote from June? About this going to be discussed a lot in the months to come? Canonical Plugins, different WordPress packages etc.

Maybe that Wank blog has a point in all its ranting.

[chipbennett]

Originally Posted by Ryan
I don't think it's reasonable at all to expect the devs to make public everything they discuss at WordCamps.

Misread this first. I agree and disagree. If their discussions are public in so what that people other than themselves are made aware of them and dev people ask for feedback from people at the WordCamp then its should be made public to everyone.
And why not have a wordcamp dev chat summary. I think that is an excellent idea. Especially if the chat deals with big game changing stuff.

Did you read the quote from June? About this going to be discussed a lot in the months to come? Canonical Plugins, different WordPress packages etc.

Maybe that Wank blog has a point in all its ranting.

I also agree and disagree:

I agree that, since there is no committe for making decisions, decision making shouldn't be treated as if it were done by committee. Let the decision-makers make decisions, and then announce those decisions.

I disagree that what the devs discuss shouldn't be made public - primarily because of the above-all-else priority placed on the WordPress project being completely in line with the Free/Open Source Software philosophy.

Generally speaking, though, everything the devs discuss is made public (through many, if disparate, channels). Summaries/minutes of in-person dev chats (such as at WordCamps) should probably be added to those channels, however.

[hallsofmontezuma]

Cory Miller of iThemes and webdesign.com just made a post about commercial plugins, and has a good section on the core/canonical plugins issue.