I’m sure you guys have been following along the latest drama in WordPress, Automattic and WP Engine. I’ve been looking for alternatives and came across ClassicPress. Interesting project! I have read everything in the site, including the 10 reasons why.
Now I want to know more about the organization, the community and what is different about how it is set up that would prevent another Automattic fiasco from happening?
I am not concerned that Automattic exists and not concerned that companies are profiting off WordPress. My concern is it seems to be just one person in control of everything when we have been under the impression that there were a lot more people in the WordPress Foundation and Automattic that could provide checks and balances.
Automattic cutting WP Engine’s users off from org updates was just not a cool move. It affected end users, community contributors, businesses, etc who should have not been caught in the crosshairs.
I want to hear from you guys what checks and balances are put in place that would prevent something like this from happening to ClassicPress.
Hi Tia,
I don’t want to speak on behalf of a founding member. However CP does provide this in their governance:
Our Structure, Rights & Responsibilities
No single person within ClassicPress has the power to force through a valid change that affects ClassicPress. Instead, we make all decisions based on community feedback and needs. This ensures that we stay true to our goal of being a community-driven fork.
All changes to core code are discussed openly and transparently. You can see all the PRs on the ClassicPress Github repo. Most of them stem from conversations and decisions that the community has debated at some length first (e.g. improved hashing algorithm for passwords, replacement of old JavaScript libraries, improvements to media management, easier ability to disable things like emojis).
The other thing to be aware of is that ClassicPress maintains a directory of plugins and themes rather than a repository. In other words, we don’t store the code. It resides instead in the developer’s Github repo. So we can’t lock anyone out even if we wanted to. (And, of course, we have no such desire.)