On Thursday, a prominent developer, YouTuber, Twitch streamer, and journalist posted a video titled This might be the end of WordPress. It was very harsh. In that video you’ll hear him say about me, “he’s a chronic hater” (7:55), “seems like he’s been a pretty petty bastard for a long time now” (10:22), “I hate this shit, I hate when people are assholes and they get away with it because I’m doing it for the greater good, the fake nice guy shit. I’ll take an asshole over a fake nice guy any day, people whose whole aesthetic is being nice, I hated it.” (11:25), “Honestly I’d rather the license just be explicit about it than this weird reality of ‘If you get popular enough you can still use it but the guy who made WordPress is going to be an asshole to you.’ That seems much worse than most open source models.” (14:39)… it goes on.
Ouch!
However, one of my colleagues Batuhan is a follower of Theo’s and suggested I engage with him. It turns out we were both in San Francisco, and he was game for a livestreamed, no-conditions interview at his studio. I believe discussion is the best way to resolve conflict, that’s why my door is open to Lee Wittlinger, Heather Brunner, Brian Gardner, or any WP Engine or Silver Lake representative who wants to talk to resolve things.
Saturday afternoon I went to Theo’s studio, we had a vigorous two hour debate and discussion with some real-time chat polling that also changed my mind on a few things, and his, too. I left feeling like I had a new friend. ️And met some awesome cats. Check out the video.
ThePrimeagen > Theo
Anyway, Lex needs to be next.
It was a good discussion. Thank you for the openness.
Great discussion. Love that Matt “believe discussion is the best way to resolve conflict”. Would be interesting if Lee answers his invitation to a public discussion.
Is Theo’s interview also available as podcast? Seems like there’s isn’t one, but it would be handier to listen during a walk or drive.
Great discussion, I watched it until the end! From the discussion I understand that dialogue with honesty can clarify this rising issue. I agree that communication strategy are very much needed especially for people in leadership positions.
Watched the whole thing. It’s still crazy to me that so many think a Private Equity Firm getting their way will do more good for the community than the guy who created and maintained the open source software. If all you cared about was money WordPress would’ve been very different today.