Blog

So today was fun, wasn’t it WordPress & Thesis people? In case you missed it, here’s a brief rundown of what happened:

Update: Thesis now sports a shiny new Split license which should appease all you GPL lovers. Can we get some work done now?

1. Bill Erikson sent out a Tweet explaining that WordPress had dropped him as a developer because he suppports Thesis (they feel Thesis violates the GPL).
2. A bored 12-year old in Elbonia injected some malicious code into the Thesis 1.7 and 1.8 Beta releases, so that anyone installing the theme from these downloads got infected. It’s fixed now
3. Matt smacked Chris across the face with a wet fish, suggesting he doesn’t know how to code (how many times has a WordPress site been hacked, Matt?)
4. Chris shouted at Matt for an hour on Mixergy.
5. Matt sounded bored, like he was reading from a script his lawyers prepared.
6. Chris challenged Matt to a duel in the highest court in the land.
7. Matt said he might just do that.
8. Andrew Warner gave up trying to convince (a) Chris to go GPL with Thesis, and (b) Matt to leave Chris alone.
9. #thesiswp trended on Twitter and everybody from me to a dodgy affiliate in Delhi chimed in with an opinion that at the end of the day, doesn’t matter one little bit. Even so:

My thoughts on Thesis vs. WordPress

Chris Pearson has built a product that’s allowed me to build a business. Of course, so has Matt Mullenweg. So both of these guys are kind of a big deal in my life and I don’t like the way the argument is going.

Yes, I agree that Matt has licensed WordPress under the GPL and he staunchly supports that. And yes, I understand that Chris doesn’t like his business being indirectly controlled by WordPress’ illogical (in a traditional business sense) choice of licensing.

But going to court will end in tears for someone, and both business models will be harmed in the process.

What could WordPress do?

They could relax the GPL. Custom theme designers get paid money by their clients to use WordPress’ code on their projects, and you don’t see them releasing the fruits of their labour under the GPL. So how is this different for a premium theme developer?

They could stand by their guns and sue DIYthemes. Maybe they’d win. But if they don’t they’ll be the laughing stock of the Internet.

They could ignore Chris Pearson and Thesis, and focus on making their software so damn good that people no longer have an incentive to buy premium themes, thereby winning the fight with a superior product.

What could Chris Pearson do?

He could carry on as is, and maybe get sued, maybe not. His community (me included) are very loyal and most of us simply don’t care about the GPL. We just want a development framework that makes sense. For me, Thesis does that.

He could develop a competing platform to WordPress; Thesis as a standalone product. Personally I don’t think this would work because the sheer number of WordPress plugins that would need replicating to make the framework commercially viable is staggering.

He could accept the GPL and change the way he does business. This is probably the easiest way out, but Chris is a very opinionated person and has some of the strongest beliefs of any man I’ve ever known. I don’t see this happening unless it makes perfect sense for Thesis. And in Chris’ mind, it doesn’t.

What I’d like to see happen

I’d like every single plugin and theme developer to release their work outside the GPL, and charge money for it. This would instantly get rid of 90% of the crap plugins, themes and add-ons that don’t work and aren’t supported. And it would leave behind a core product offering that is easily robust enough to be used for any Enterprise web project.

I’d like WordPress to charge for their product too. The money they make from sales could be spent on Forum moderators that answer questions in a helpful manner instead of shouting ‘SEARCH THE FUCKING FORUMS, MORON’ every time someone new asks something. DIYthemes has some of the best forum moderators known to man. I dare you to ask a Thesis question on the forums and not get an answer from Godhammer, Girlie or Phil. And if they can’t help, another developer will.

I’d like to see Matt and Chris get in the ring and fight it out. It won’t solve anything but it’ll be fun to watch…

I know a lot of people have opinions on this matter, and I’d like to hear yours.

{ 17 comments }