@donnacha | WordSkill -

efore I say anything else, I should make it clear that I am not Donncha O’Caoimh, the WordPress MU developer, I think you may have us confused, it’s an easy mistake to make, so, I always post as “donnacha | WordSkill” to differentiate. Note, too, that my name is Donnacha, his is Donncha – mine is longer.

Wow, that explains and clears up something that has been confusing me for a really long time!

Pretty much all the people who have done the heavy lifting in the WordPress project (and the Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP projects upon which your installation of WordPress depends) would be appalled and insulted to see you refer to the Free Software movement, with the word movement in inverted commas.

Well, perhaps I can allay some of that anger right off the bat. I intended absolutely no offense whatsoever to the many great Free Software projects. Heck, I'm a Linux user! I admit to having a problem with some of Richard Stallman's beliefs, but I don't associate the entire Free Software community (or movement) with him or his beliefs.

So, hopefully, that was just a misunderstanding, and I apologize for causing it.

This is want I meant by hateful and sloppily argued, it is straight out of the Bill O’Reilly playbook: you set up a proposition, that Matt is somehow trying to hide a belief in the ethics and philosophy of the Free Software movement, as if it is his dirty secret and you just want him to come clean, when, in fact, he has been repeatedly, consistently and eloquently espousing FOSS right since the beginning of WordPress.

You give me way too much credit. I have no ulterior motive, nor did I attempt to set up a canard or straw man. Matt and others have (often, and incorrectly) used the term "spirit of the GPL" when what they really mean is "Free Software principles and philosophy", and that choice of phraseology has led to no end of confusion in the community. That's my whole point: not that Matt or the WordPress community shouldn't espouse Free Software principles or philosophy, but that those principles and philosophies shouldn't be confused or conflated with the GPL, which is only and entirely a matter of copyright.

Again, you can disagree with his position but, please, do not try to spin the argument, we are not morons in the WordPress community, we are people with an interest in and a deep understanding of ideas and meaning, we are not sitting in front of Fox News drinking cheap beer and potato chips, we actually notice when someone uses cheap rhetorical tricks to smear someone else.

Again, I've used no rhetorical tricks, cheap or otherwise (unless you question that Matt and others have, in fact, used the term "spirit of the GPL" when what they really mean is "Free Software principles and philosophy"). I never imputed any motive for such use of the term "spirit of the GPL", but rather have merely pointed out that its use is incorrect and leads to confusion.

I don't doubt Matt's (or anyone else's) sincerity.

And, for the record, I don't watch Fox news. I don't watch news. If I did, I would watch Fox news. Likewise, I neither drink beer nor eat potato chips. Perhaps it is possible that I don't fit the rest of the stereotypes with which you have labeled me? I am a conservative (politically and socially), but I really don't see how that has any bearing on the discussion. I have no problem with the GPL, or with the Free Software movement. I love both WordPress and Linux (and the many projects on which they are built), and do what I can to contribute (which, admittedly, isn't much).

I have no desire to smear Matt (or anyone else). At the same time, I'm not a sycophant, and if I believe that Matt's actions or decisions are wrong or detrimental, then I have no problem airing that belief. After all, if I love WordPress, why would I keep silent?

I do not mean to level this complaint entirely at you, you are just falling into line with a quite recent increase in rudeness towards Matt and the deliberate misinterpretations of the GPL, orchestrated by a very specific group. I have been around WordPress long enough, and have observed the community closely enough, to know that these memes are being stirred up by a handful of guy with a personal financial interest in using the WordPress eco-system to sell products, usually products that are not very good.

Well, I'm not one of those people. I have no financial interest in WordPress. I'm just a user. Granted, I'm a user who has discussed GPL at length with a lot of other users and developers. I don't think I share the misconceptions about the GPL that you ascribe to the people you describe, and I am equally critical of third-party developers who try to abuse the GPL as I have been here in this discussion.

There is a huge, mostly silent majority of WordPress users who don’t necessarily have time to hang out on WordPress forums, or to maintain a high profile in blog comments, mainly because they do not have a vested interest in doing so, but they are the real stakeholders and contributors to the WordPress project, you can be pretty sure that they are glad that its leaders are holding firm to the simple philosophy upon which it was founded.

I'm one of those users. I just choose to participate (as I am able, not being a developer/coder), because I believe that I *do* have a vested interest in WordPress. I've been a user for almost five years, which to me qualifies as a vested interest. I wouldn't ever want to have to explore using another platform, so I want to see WordPress exceed to the greatest extent possible.

Anytime anything worthwhile is created, the hustlers gather, the vultures circle. From time to time, someone has to kick the money changers out of the temple.

Well, again, I'm no money-changer. And I have no problem with "kicking the money changers out of the temple". For example, I have no problem with Matt removing 180 obviously spam-ridden themes from the repository, although I have a bit of a problem with the way the other removals were handled.

Certainly we can have a discussion about these various things, without assuming each other has ulterior motives? Because I have none. I am interested in what is best for WordPress and the WordPress community (to which I consider myself to belong).