… that you did something you thought was a good idea at the time, would serve the best purposes of everyone, and had it blow up horribly in your face?
I will not make this a commentary on the “WordPress SEO” debacle but I can and will add a vote of confidence. Matt Mullenweg is a good person, cares intensely about WordPress and its community and would not (and could not!) do anything to harm or undermine the community and software that he loves so much and has worked so hard to build and establish. He is unavailable to defend himself at this time and that makes it easier for people to level accusations without knowing all the facts or letting Matt make amends. I for one, firmly believe in Matt’s objective and in WordPress.
I will not try to anticipate how Matt is going to handle it, nor am I going to judge the events as they have transpired since I do not know the whole story.
The last time, for WordPress was “never” I guess. Matt knows best. How he uses wp.org is his business, IMHO, as long as he keeps WP kicking ass.
Yes I agree with the above, as long as he keeps WP free and the most powerfull blogging software out there I dont care.
In fact I saw those links a long time ago and it hasnt change my mind about WP and Matt. I didnt give it importance and I still dont care about that.
After reading some of the other comments on sites, it made me feel sick. Whatever Matt’s reasoning for what he did…I don’t care. WordPress is a kickass piece of software. I’ll continue to support it, link to it, and spread the word about it.
I agree 100 percent. Well said.
That all sounds a bit too much like defensive hero worshipping.
First of all: WordPress is not Matt and Matt is not WordPress. There are many great people out there donating their time and knowledge to the project.
Matt – so far – always presented himself as a ‘true believer & player’ on the web. Doing such a cheap Google trick not only reflects bad on himself – but WP as well. If he would have done it on his personal site/blog it would have been absolutly his business.
If he wants to make a business out of wordpress.org he should inform the community and ‘major participants’. I have no problems with people making money – but please do it in an acceptable way, especially when you play the ‘OpenSource’ and community tune.
I personally donated some money to the WP cause – because I like to support such projects. If WP.org does not ‘earn’ enough money, then work with the community or invent a valid business around it – so all can see what’s going on. But don’t sneak in some very low level link whacking to make a few bucks.
Other ‘open’ projects like Metafilter, kuro5hin and Textdrive have shown how to do it.
Smart people should run a smart business. Matt is a smart guy. I can only imagine he was tempted by a quick solution, but I am sure he can do better.
Now flame me.
I’ve never had a piece of software as my hero…
This is not about being defensive, nor is it about flaming you or anyone else. I am not criticizng you (orangeguru) nor am I condoning what Matt did. If you read my post again, you will see that I believe that Matt probably had best intentions in mind when he made this decision. His credibility, his dedication to the project, nor his motives should be in question. His choice is what is questionable and I hope he can make amends.
Why are you so quick to judge a man that obviously wants the best for this product and this community? Just like I am giving you the benefit of the doubt in thinking that you have the best of WordPress’ future in mind when you are angered by this.
I’m with JuanManuel – I too saw them quite some time ago.
I’m also with Mark,Nick,Carthik and Carla 100%
This is all happening very close to April 1st…
Happy April’s Fool!!! lol
The road to hell is paved with ‘good intentions’.
At least we had a bit of conversation in the WP support forum. See there the different arguments:
http://wordpress.org/support/topic.php?id=29375
Yep, the forums were polluted by posts that belonged on people’s own web sites.
Yeah very polluted, so someone deleted them all.