Jan Dembowski

I’ll regret this, I know I will. To avoid Jeff name confusion I’ll be a little formal here.

*I wish I had more coffee, coffee is good*

My question to Mr. Yablon is a simple one: what do you hope to accomplish using those “nine letters” in your domain name? A short and concise answer would be appreciated even though I’m posting a whole essay here.

I’ll preface that question and ask anyone replying to put aside the following vitriol:

* anti-Matt
* anti-GPL
* anti-Jetpack
* anti-Automattic
* anti-core team
* anti-establishment
* anti-anyone-connected-with-WordPress-in-any-way-volunteer-or-not

The WordPress Foundation has very clear and unambiguous guidelines for using the WordPress in any domain name.

http://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/

That’s something that is respected by the community not necessarily because the community is legally bound to but because the WordPress Foundation asked people not to do that.

Just because you think you can legally do something does not mean you should.

For example, as an amateur photographer I know I can capture images of anyone on the street in NYC. And if anyone asked me to I would without hesitation delete that image of them. That’s the respectful and community thing to do regardless if I had to delete it or not.

What I would not do is get into an argument about my rights or engage the person I snapped with “Let me use your image, here’s a model release form.” If they refused I would not say “I offered you a compromise, why won’t you negotiate with me?” It would not matter; I do not try to compel people to do something they clearly do not want to do.

IANAL but there’s two possible outcomes here. Mr. Yablon prevails and there will continue to be a flood of people going against the foundation’s wishes. There currently are hundreds of domains out there with those nine letters it them. They are also among the most disreputable, spammy and worthless hive of scum and villainy the Internet sees today.

If Mr. Yablon loses? Well that could be very costly to him personally. If there’s someway he can avoid that outcome then I suggest he takes that option now.

No matter what the result is for this case people will use, support and continue to make a living with WordPress. This “issue” doesn’t really impact the community one way or the other.

What he may not be aware of is that had he followed the established norms for the WordPress community and just had a WordPress support/consulting business then he would be welcomed with open arms. There’s not any gaffe that can’t be overlooked and passed over.

This is a community about cooperation and friendly competition. Not everyone agrees with decisions made by all groups in the community but meet these people and interact with them. They’ve all got good intentions. I assume that Mr. Yablon does too but I can’t see much past trying to use the domain to make a quick buck.

Mr. Yablon’s website does not representing anyone except one person. I do not believe he is doing this for the community, he’s not the David in a Goliath fight. That’s just a misrepresentation.

So back to my question for Mr. Yablon: What do you hope to accomplish using those “nine letters” in your domain name?

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