Slightly oppressive? This is nothing new. These type of decisions have been commonplace in the WordPress community from Matt's camp for years. Dating back to Automattic's old nick name Autocrattic for it's oppressive top down way of running things. This is how Matt does things.

Jane is just the messenger. She doesn't make all of these decisions. She's involved, sure, but ultimately the buck stops with Matt and he seems to get a pass by people in the community.

He wants anything and everything related to WordPress to be done the way he says it should be done. If you disagree with him, you are frowned upon and shunned. If Matt shuns you, his followers follow suit.

It's like high school. Matt's the popular kid with his group of wannabe's who hang on his every last word and will carry out his directive's at all costs. Which is ironic because i'm guessing Matt wasn't a popular kid in high school. So now that he has some power, he's rules with an iron fist and a big smile on his face.

Jane takes the heat, but ultimately it's the WordPress golden boy who is ultimately responsible for all of these rules and regulations being forced upon the community.

So much for WordCamp being a grassroots event. The ironic part is they aren't even the ones doing the hard work or funding the events... yet they get to dictate how it should be done.

WordUp is a great thing for the community. The idea that the WordPress Foundation and the official WordPress project should be the only people that can organize a WordPress initiative is absurd. I hope we see more WordUp events pop up here in Europe and beyond.

The Edinburgh organizers should have promoted it as WordUp Scotland. Not sure why they want with the city centric name, I guess since it was a smaller event. Hopefully more organizers go with the WordUp name and run the events the way they want to without interference from people who think they know it all.