The Deal With WordPress
There's a lot of drama going on regarding WordPress. I will try to sum it up as succinctly as I can in the few minutes I have to write this post:
- Automattic's CEO, Matt Mullenweg, has beef with WP Engine
- Matt drags WP Engine through the mud at the big annual WP event
- One thing led to another
- Matt banned WP Engine from accessing the plugins and themes directory on wordpress.org
- Matt then reverted that ban, with an ultimatum that it would be reinstated October 1
People much better at writing than me and generally more knowlegeable about the whole situation have written about it. Here's a couple of more comprehensive posts by Josh Collinsworth and Geoff Graham.
An important thing to understand if you're unfamiliar with the WordPress ecosystem - being cut off from the public directory is a huge deal. WP Engine is the biggest managed WordPress hosting company operating today. NONE of those sites can install new plugins or themes, or even update the ones they already had. Plugins make the world go round in WordPress Land. All of those sites are essentially beginning to rot in real-time, as many depend on plugins for critical functionality: forms, analytics, caching, redirects, being able to effing copy a post, it all falls apart. How many hospitals, schools, libraries, community centers, non-profits, etc are affected by this?
I don't have a horse in the race of company v company. I don't care "who wins" in this debacle. Here's what this means to little old me, a weirdo with a website:
Matt has sent a message to the entire world that WordPress is not a stable platform to be on.
If WP Engine drew his ire and got cut off from the mainland, no other company is safe either. Except for his own, that is.
Even if you self-host WP yourself, who's to say Matt won't decide that you should be silenced and cut your site off from accessing critical updates? Or, more likely, decide that the public resources will only be available from within his own hosting companies?
This egregious firing of the Death Star (to use Josh's very apt metaphor) tears the WordPress community to pieces. There are actual factions now. Whatever side you're on, WordPress is inherantly no longer stable.
This very site, while it's not powered by WordPress, gets its content from an instance hosted elsewhere. I will be moving. Thankfully, it's only a handful of posts and images. I can't imagine the anxiety of exporting years of posts to-- go where, exactly? There isn't really a runner-up to WordPress that would be a smooth transition. There are alternatives, but they cost more, are more complicated, don't accept importing, etc etc. Pick your poison. For what it's worth, here's a quick list, if anyone is wanting more options to look at.
Leaving Tumblr and Newspack off the list because they're also Automattic products, but they're options too.
For the record, I haven't vetted or tried any of these, so I'm not vouching for them in particular - just listing stuff I found after searching for blogging/newsletter software.
Really, I just imagine two warlords on nearby skyscrapers taking shots at each other. They'll both be fine, but debris is raining down on the masses below. I have no words. For all you looking to get off the WordPress train, I wish you the best of luck. I'm happy to help as I'm able.