This is one of millions of opinions on this topic Matt… From my perspective, there’s no point getting involved, and your best friends/business partners should have pulled you out sooner. You’re beyond yoda status online, people are more eager to watch you crumble than win. You can’t win more than you have won, so now people tune in to watch you fall.. Here’s something I’m learning myself, I’m not perfect, a lot of EMDR/talk therapy landed in better place.. I still react, especially if my sleep or exercise if off base. Mostly, what I wanted to tell you in my last post is… When you react, no matter what the case, people will use your reaction to manipulate and control you.

When you don’t react, people can’t use it against you. Maybe you should could begin mentoring people, see that crazy inspiration in their eyes, and get back in touch with how great you are dude.

Just my humble opinion, you’re better off meditating, staying off social media, and doing what you love to do. I think you and a lot of really well established thought leaders have made your run, dominated, and you seem like you’re burned out.

Perhaps you’re beyond the point of retiring, in the zone, that’s a good thing and it’s helping many people around the world create amazing moments/experiences.

The fact that you stay is respectable but also a sign that maybe it’s time to pull a daft punk. Pass the torch or become a silent partner.

The fact that people have access to you, it’s inspiring, however at what cost. To what end?

best of luck.
Fan of yours,
Tyler

Thanks for setting an example. I know that feeling. In fact, I’ve been moderated twice this week and I’m sorry.

Starting to see your point and can why you’re going to “extremes”. Don’t agree on the listing takeover but have to give you the benefit of the doubt based on 21 years of history. I’ve made a living with WordPress for 12 years, so thank you.

Good night and good luck.

The lawyers are doing their jobs, but the legal system is prolonged and deliberate by design. In the meantime, we’re trying to ensure the world knows WP Engine’s behavior.

However, I am a small contributor to a big open source library so can say I have some insight into how a creator or maintainer has to divide time between “pet project” and “actual cash flow”, even for one of the biggest, most widely used libraries on the planet.

So when I @see “Elastic and Amazon Reach Agreement on Trademark Infringement Lawsuit” on the elastic blog I’m struggling to see how ES gets any benefit. Strikes me as a Sybase / Borland scenario – anyone remember them? I thought so.

Btw, I happen to be a paying WP customer, very happy customer, thank you!

Agreed, Let the lawyers do their job. Let the public relationship people do their PR thing, and get back to solving problems.

I retract this statement, and it’s no longer in the post. But you left a comment before that so I’ll leave it up.

Personally, I’m thankful for your efforts in growing WordPress as an open source software. It has given thousands if not tens of thousands of people a way to earn an income and elevate themselves from poverty.

It has helped me even to go from just another developer looking for his next project (amidst the feast and famine cycle), to have a stable income which provides for my family.

I understand a lot of people are against what you do. And it frustrates you. However, perhaps the best way moving forward is to not do anything drastic about WPE and WPE related products. Or to communicate more before doing anything.

WPE’s winning the public opinion battle and long term, it doesn’t look good for both WPE and Automattic. I hope you can work something out with Lee Wittlinger.

Take care and God Bless, Matt 🙂

Leo of Leokoo.com

I’m so sorry that things have gone the way they have with WP Engine/Silver Lake. Truly unfortunate. But I think that every time you respond to one of these distractions it becomes an even bigger distraction.

If I had the opportunity to have coffee with you, I would encourage you to let these people do what they do, all they’re trying to do is take the attention off the real issue and distract people. They belittle others to try to make themselves feel like bigger people than they are. They’re playground bullies in ties and jackets.

You do so many cool things and contribute so much to the world around you (never mind the internet!) that if you never got to draw another breath, you should leave this world as one of the most satisfied people I know of for the contributions you’ve made. If you wanted to spend the rest of your life under a palm tree on a beach and never do another single thing, I would think the contentedness that comes from the contributions you’ve made should keep happy though going through your mind for a long, long, long, long, time.

Let the lawyers do their lawyering and don’t pay any of these small minds a bit of attention who can’t do anything except try to tear someone down to build themselves up. Of course that’s easier said than done, but ultimately, you’ll be the better person I think. And there are a lot of folks still in your corner!

You mean the community standard and encouraged method of distributing WordPress plugins? Where do you think Elliot should have published his plugin in, what was it, 2012? I don’t think it would have been possible for him to have predicted your actions and what would have become of it.

It takes courage and humility to admit you’re wrong and apologize publicly, as you did here.

There are companies out there that are paying some kind of license fee to Automattic, so you know.