Ads against the WordPress open source project and what it stands for or ads against the money-making business wordpress.com?

Sometimes it isn’t easy to see a separation of the two.

I can see some merit in banning companies or individuals that go out of their way to disparage the WordPress open-source project values, democratising publishing, from sponsoring or speaking at WordCamps.

However, competitive marketing against WordPress – the app functionality, the money-making business – I don’t see any issue with that at all.

WordPress core isn’t perfect. WordPress isn’t for every web solution.

Sometimes people do find it difficult to use or find other systems easier to accomplish what they want to achieve.

Most of us live in a democracy with the right to express our thoughts and feelings freely, and that includes advertising and marketing.

Banning everyone from WordCamps who say something negative about WordPress seems like an over-the-top reaction, IMHO.