[wp-hackers] Putting the P in WordPress

[Doug Stewart]

On 7/7/10, Matt Mullenweg <m at mullenweg.com> wrote:
> On 7/7/2010 9:11 AM, Stephen Rider wrote:
>> I laughed when Matt said we were approaching Godwin's Law. :-)  Some of
>> the rhetoric is getting a bit overwrought, but for the most part I think
>> it's remained pretty civil.
>
> We are -- someone is comparing the capitalization of the letter P with
> removing the sacred freedoms every WordPress user is given by the GPL.
> If you're someone who is frequently personally attacked, lied about,
> having cartoons drawn about you, etc for trying to protect that freedom
> it pushes it too far. There is a huge magnitude of difference.
>

You're doing it wrong. Not a single soul brought out a comparison to
Hitler or Nazis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwins_Law

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison
involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."

You self-Godwinned, thus I invoke Quirk's Exception.

> The rest of your message is a bit long to respond to individually, but
> in summary:
>
> Core development is a meritocracy. People pay their dues by working on
> *hard* issues that matter to end-users, like widgets, upgrades, speed
> and performance, and then they're then trusted with increasing rights
> and responsibilities.
>
> The more attention paid to a trivial issue by a new contributor, hence
> the more distraction from the core people on the things that matter,
> that new contributor is spending their default community currency on
> something that is generating no returns.
>

I thought "we" were taking a release cycle off to work on community
issues. What better time than when the core devs have no pressing code
need?


> If you want to map the decline of this mailing list, to the point it
> might as well be shut down, look at the number of words generated by
> people who don't contribute to core over time, or over "bikeshed" issues
> that don't really matter. ( http://bikeshed.com/ ) (And also the
> atrocious email etiquette and quoting style that's taken over here.)
>

So then shutter Hackers. If it's really the wretched hive of scum and
villainy that folks make it out to be, nuke it from orbit.

> Eventually, the good people unsubscribe entirely, or go silent for
> months/years at a time. Why? Because they didn't get involved with
> WordPress because they love arguing on mailing lists. I'm involved
> because I love making it easy for people to build beautiful dynamic
> websites. I'm involved because I think the more people publishing, the
> better place the world will be. I'm involved because I love figuring out
> elegant code or architecture solutions to tricky problems or UI challenges.
>

Your suggestion that those who disagree with you DON'T value those
things truly rankles.  If you're trying to engender reasoned debate
and healthy contributions, publicly impugning others' motives is a
lousy way to start.


-- 
-Doug
@zamoose
http://literalbarrage.org/blog/