WordPress.org bans WP Engine, blocks it from accessing its resources
WordPress.org bans WP Engine, blocks it from accessing its resources
WordPress.org bans WP Engine, blocks it from accessing its resources | TechCrunch
The blocked resources in question? Automatic security and features updates and plugin/theme repository access. Matt Mullenweg reasserted his claim that this was a trademark issue. In tandem, WordPress.org updated its Trademark Policy page to forbid WP Engine specifically (way after the Cease & Desist): from "you are free to use ['WP'] n any way you see fit" to a diatribe:
The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/26/wordpress-vs-wp-engine-drama-explained attempts to provide a full chronology so far.
Edit:
The WordPress Foundation, which owns the trademark, has also filed to trademark “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress.” Developers and providers are worried that if these trademarks are granted, they could be used against them.
Would it be wrong to hope they manage to commit some gross act of mutual destruction, and that the outcome would be that I never have to deal with Wordpress ever again?
That would be great but the reality is that client’s mindsets need to change. I tried to explain to a client that Wordpress is not a good fit for their complex web application and yet they didn’t wanna switch to anything else. People are way too worried about new tech and wanna stick with whatever they know, even if it causes massive problems.
Seriously. People want to shove everything into Wordpress then get cranky when you can't make Wordpress into a ecommerce store, marketing platform, personal blog, file sharing service, and NFT marketplace.
And then it gets hacked because they needed 14 SEO plugins, 2 different form plugins, and were not going to pay for managed updates because that's easy they can do it themselves.
Wordpress is the Excel of CMSs. It can do just about anything, but at this point it barely manages content well.
Wordpress is not a good fit for virtually any modern application. It's designed as a blogging platform and basically no one makes blogs anymore. That functionality kind of got eaten up by Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn, so no one needs blogs.
Instead of letting WordPress die the death it most definitely deserves they shoehorned in functionality, which would be fine if it wasn't such a bodge job.
This year I stopped to let my clients pick the CMS. I tell them you wouldn’t ask a carpenter to make a chair, but restrict them to only use metal.
I've been pushing Squarespace for most people who come to me asking about setting up a small store or just simple business website.
Yeah, it's closed source and blah blah blah, but the end of the day, it's not about my opinions on software, it's about the most cost-effective, simple, usable option for the client who is asking me for my expertise, which is almost always not something they're going to have to keep paying me to maintain.
Like if you really really want Wordpress, I'll get you set up, and then quote you a couple thousand a year for maintenance.
Unshockprisingly, very few people think that's the right choice once they see what the keep-it-from-being-exploited cost is.
(And for anyone who thinks that's an unreasonable amount, okay cool. But maintaining a staging environment and testing updates and then pushing everything into production assuming there's no regressions you have to address takes a lot of time.)
Drupal? About as old as WP ;)
Wix and Squarespace managed to be even worse options anyway.
Anyway who cares what the client thinks, they don't know anything that's why they're hiring a professional. The professional thing to do would be to convince them of the advantages of one of the listed options.
Anytime I've ever had to deal with WordPress I've always run up against the fact that it has limitations that the client doesn't understand, and then at some point you end up redesigning it custom anyway. May as well save time and start out custom.
What's wrong with html/css/js? It can do anything you want it to do.
Any suggestions for a free easy to use alternative to wp?
There really isn't one that's a true alternative to WP.
There are plenty of nice static site generators, but those are significantly harder to use and not just drag and drop, they also don't have the huge plugin marketplace that WP does.
Everyone loves to complain about WP (rightfully so in some cases, it has its own problems), but will suggest alternatives that are nothing like it.
I have one that you may not like, but fits your description.
I don't know what wordpress is, so I would suggest just not bothering at all with whatever that is. Maybe use wordpad.
https://kbin.melroy.org/m/technology@lemmy.world/t/480078/WordPress-org-bans-WP-Engine-blocks-it-from-accessing-its-resources/comment/4249030#entry-comment-4249030
I have off-and-on searched for alternative software for personal blogs that can be self-hosted and it doesn’t seem like there are many options anymore. The only ones I’ve seen are WriteFreely and FlatPress. Are there any other options you’re aware of?
There's Contao, Drupal, Blogger, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace...
Depends on if you need a CMS, or if you can use a static site generator.
For a CMS, I'm still a fan of Ghost and it has (mostly) not enshittified to the point it's unpleasant to use.
If you don't need the whole CMS thing, there's an awful lot of options. (And hosting them is super simplified since you can just stuff the output into a S3 bucket/Cloudflare Pages/Github Pages/a dozen other providers for basically free.)