In reply to Alec.

Wasn't really meant to be self-promoting, but you know how it ends up - becomes automatic probably! You've mentioned your projects too. It's kind of hard not to, right?

We do share a lot of stuff, but we have a few things we keep to ourselves. It's still GPL though, and that's what our customers get. Perfectly and entirely within the spirit and intention of the GPL. We don't put some of that onto Github or WordPress.org because you wouldn't believe the support overhead a popular plugin can generate - and if there's no revenue stream (there often isn't) then you end up with an increased cost. Especially when some of that code needs to be implemented with care or you'll end up bringing your site down. Documenting and testing in a way that's suitable for a general public user is a *big* undertaking, and they do find your github repos eventually.

Lots of WordPress.com's stack is closed away from the world. They're never going to switch to Affero. There's a reason why - it's viciously hard (but not impossible) to make money from publicly released GPL code and you immediately equalise yourself with your competitors. And sometimes, to protect your investors and your staff, you have to keep some things secret. It may not be the best thing for society as a whole, but sometimes a balance needs to be struck.