A place for developers to talk about building on Farcaster.

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What’s happening in the Wordpress ecosystem is insane to watch, and a grim look at what open source can look like if one bad party has total control of a platform.

What’s happening in the Wordpress ecosystem is insane to watch, and a grim look at what open source can look like if one bad party has total control of a platform. 

https://x.com/wp_acf/status/1845169499064107049?s=46

Full Stack Dev | Head of Developer Relations at /pinata | Technical Writer | Tinkering with everything | stevedylan.dev/links

What's your take on how WP Engine was using the open-source tool to make big profits without really contributing much back to its development?

I resonate with DHH

https://world.hey.com/dhh/automattic-is-doing-open-source-dirty-b95cf128

That’s true, and they’re some good questions. I think in the end there will always be some level of platform risk, no matter how “decentralized” something might be. Just a matter of where in that spectrum do things get more or less risky, and in the case Wordpress, it’s pretty bad 😵‍💫 especially with that login checkbox deal

Good take, but it raises broader questions about what open-source really means, especially when companies like Automattic can impose restrictions on WP Engine. From what I understand, WP Engine now has to put in the effort to fork and build things on their own, which I don’t think is necessarily a bad thing. To me, it seems like WP Engine wanted to have their cake and eat it too.

But the reason I find this whole debate interesting is because it reminds me of what's happening with Farcaster right now. We call it a decentralized network, but it seems like all the decisions and attention are controlled by a single, centralized company. If you upset Merkle, will there be any consequences?