@"Derek" - Thanks for posting anonymously and thanks, too, for the racist "Lucky Charms" comment. Yes, I am Irish, and I am proud of it.

When you say that I have popped up on "a few different forums and blogs" discussing this subject, you mean here on WPTavern and once on Yoast.com.

Given that, like most online discussions, the current commercial plugins discussion is not occurring in only one place, I feel it was okay for me to comment in two places. In fact, it would be quite okay for me to comment in a hundred places if I wanted, that is the nature of online discussion. It is worth noting that, unlike you, I never post anonymously, so, yes, I may well "pop up" elsewhere - I guess it sucks for you that you have a problem with free speech.

On Yoast.com, someone asked why all the blogs were suddenly pushing Gravity Forms, I pointed out the affiliate commission bloggers receive, which was the correct answer. It prompted a discussion and I commented further to clarify that affiliate commissions do not necessarily mean that a blogger is writing about something for the money, but consumers should certainly be aware of these things and make a balanced judgement.

In this thread and the previous post's thread, I have countered the completely unfounded and just plain wrong insinuation that the WordPress project has an anti-commercial agenda. This gets repeated a lot, either by people who don't understand how WordPress has come into existence or by people who feel that it isn't enough that WordPress has given them a free, open platform to build their products upon and a huge potential market, they also want free links from WordPress.org, and are willing to say or do anything to get their way.

Some commercial developers, such as the Gravity Forms developer Carl Hancock, who commented above, understand that the disadvantages of changing the underpinnings of the WordPress project would outweigh the benefits of a commercial directory. Again, the people spreading this FUD either don't understand how the WordPress eco-system works or are too narrowly-focused on their own selfish self-interests to care that what they are demanding would kill the golden goose.

Personally, I like the idea of the paid plugins. I know that you get what you pay for, and the support and continuing development is worth the small price. It’s a no-brainer.. one client job and the price is covered. From there, it’s smooth sailing.

Commercial software can be great, last month alone I spent over £400 on it, but you are living in Cloud Cuckoo Land if you think that paying for any piece of software guarantees that it will work as advertised or continue to be developed and supported in the future. The only developers you can place any trust in are the ones who have established a reputation through years of hard work and a track record of actually delivering. That is the same whether we are talking about free or paid software. And, even with the best developers, "smooth sailing" is not a phrase I would associate with ANY software.

You know, "Derek", I value what WordPress represents and what it enables me to do every day, so, I will continue to call bullshit on deluded creeps in as many forums or comment threads as I want, it is just a pity that you didn't have the balls to comment under your real name, link to your website or in any other way identify yourself.