I was quoting Doctor Who ;)

Don’t you think he looks tired?

The WordPress codebase is open source, with Automatic being a major contributor. Automatic also offers WordPress hosting via their .org domain. WP Engine (WPE) is a separate company offering its own WordPress hosting and products like ACF, which enhance the WordPress ecosystem.

The issue between Automatic and WPE is that WPE relies on Automatic’s update servers to support their for-profit service. Given WPE’s scale, it’s questionable why they continue to do this, as many smaller companies set up their own servers for updates.

I work with WordPress and CI/CD systems, and even one man operations maintain independent build systems to avoid vendor dependencies. When updating, they use copies of original code hosted on private GitHub accounts and their servers rather than relying on external resources.

This matter should have been resolved in court. While Automatic’s actions have caused some backlash, they’re understandable as protective measures. WPE’s reliance on free resources without their own package/update servers is, frankly, inexcusable at their scale—it’s essential for customer support and product quality.

In short, this is about a competitor misusing free resources under “reasonable use” terms, facing consequences, and shifting blame rather than helping their disrupted users.

I like the idea social media is for kids only and adults are banned. If that applies to advertisers and bots too then it could be a winner!

What on Earth are you on about? This has nothing to do with licensing. The issue is a business using another organization’s resources without paying for it, all while earning a profit for themselves.

This isn’t about open source, personal attacks, or “brain cells.” It’s about fairness and the responsible use of resources. WPEngine is a profitable company that has the means to manage its own infrastructure instead of relying on WordPress.org’s updates system. If you’re going to run a business that depends on open-source software, there’s an expectation of contributing back or, at the very least, not exploiting the resources of a non-profit.

So let’s focus on the actual problem: a large company exploiting a shared ecosystem to run a commercial service.

As a career WordPress developer, I fully support WordPress’s stance on this issue. It’s unreasonable for a company to siphon resources from a non-profit to fuel their own hosting business.

For smaller companies, lacking the ability to manage their own updates or CI/CD processes is understandable. But WPEngine is a large organization—they have the resources and capacity to handle these issues in-house. They could have easily avoided this situation without turning it into a turf war.

Edit: I see the WPEngine fans have arrived. Feel free to downvote, but that doesn’t make you right!

Check out the Mistborn and Wheel of Time series for books that are waaay better than Harry Potter. Anything by Brandon Sanderson and Neil Gaiman is a good time.

Also highly recommend any comics by Moebius and/or Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Neil Gaiman. Some incredible mind altering works to enjoy there like The Incal and Sandman.

I think the games industry will start to use open source tools like Blender and Godot more and more. These options have really matured over the years and compete on features and productivity with commercial options.

From a business POV - open source makes a lot of sense when you need a guarantee your investment won’t evaporate because a vendor has cancelled a feature or API your game uses. With open source, if you don’t like a path the upstream code is taking you can fork off and make your own!

Part of the dynamic is also how people are inspired and learning skills. You can learn how to do very advanced stuff in Blender for free on Youtube - why would you pay some private college thousands of dollars to learn an expensive program like Maya to do the same thing?

Here are the number of hours I’ve spent on indie games VS AAA titles, according to my Steam library:

• Indie - Valheim - 435 hours
• Indie - Space Haven - 332 hours
• Indie - Satisfactory - 215 hours
• Indie - Dyson Sphere Program - 203 hours
• AAA - Skyrim - 98 hours
• AAA - Control - 47 hours
• AAA - Far Cry 6 - 29 hours
• AAA - Max Payne 3 - 43 minutes

If we’re talking about value - the amount of playtime I’ve gotten out of games with simpler graphics and unique ideas blows the billions spent by the industry out of the water.

My biggest gripe with big tech is how governments of the world encourage their worst behaviours. Governments and businesses have failed to maintain their own level of expertise and understanding of technology.

Today everything relies on tech but all the solutions are outsourced and rely on “guidance” and free hand outs from vendors like Microsoft. This has caused situations where billions are poured into digital transformation efforts with fuck all to show for it but administrative headaches, ballooning costs and security breaches.

I’m so tired of silicon valley frat boys being the leaders of our industry. We need to go back to an engineer and ideas led industry. Focused on solving problems and making lives better. Not making bullshit unsustainable business monopolies with a huge pile of money. Right now big tech is the embodiment of all of capitalisms worst qualities.

P.s. apologies if my comment is a bit simplistic and vague. didn’t want to write a 10 page rant but still wanted to say my 2c about the state of things.

On all fours, arched backwards like a crab.

Ah yes, the original unviable silicon valley businesses! I love how they used their VC money to undercut and kill small businesses all over the world.

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All that matters is the sponsorship tier - will you be flying the judge out to a vacation? Buying their mother a house? The outcome is solely dependent on your investment in the court. Justice.

No sane court? So it has a real chance of being decided by The Supreme Court…

One is a work tool and for men, the other one a toy and for little boys.

I’m self employed and have been reducing my hours worked per day cause I found I was more effective with a good rest and without forcing myself to work those extra 1-2 hours each day. Crazy hey.

Hey that’s not fair - he invents his own narrative about reality all the time.

Yeah that’s actually a very good suggestion.

Also interested in Germany as even diminished today it’s got a lot more in line with my and my partner’s values - namely sausage, beer and being anti Nazi.

Show me where in the Western world / developed world where to go… please.

I’m in Australia and it’s just as bad here. Totally insane bullshit being normalised by a comatose media and populist scoundrels.

I miss the days when conservatives at least had a sense of real nationalism. Now they’ll commit treason and openly support foreign enemies like Putin and no one bats an eye.