General Wordpress VS WP Engine

[Arantor]

There's been a level of 'but he controls WordPress' and no-one ever wanted to push him that far out of fear what he might do because he is a firmly entitled individual.

This time, though, he picked on someone who can fight back and whose capacity to fight back actually has teeth. The rocket is firmly lodged at this point, we're just waiting to see how high it's going to go when it actually launches.

 

[Tyrsson]

Nobody in their right mind would fork WP as a start to a new application. I just can't see it as a viable path. @Arantor you are 100% correct in that its ecosystem is the only reason it's still a viable solution. Eventually someone will break through though. I truly think the application that empowers those that will provide that ecosystem with the best possible plugin workflow will most likely be the one that will achieve it with all other things roughly being equal.

 

[Arantor]

ClassicPress did - and that's a clear demonstration of why you shouldn't. Forking was always the last point of refuge as a check and balance against a BDFL gone rogue, or other members of the community taking fundamental umbridge with the direction of the project and its leadership - and it immediately puts you at several disadvantages that are in no way immediately obvious.

I don't envisage that there will be a successful WP fork. The ecosystem is too big, the project too mature; where does a radical new fork even go? Any major changes of any value immediately break the ecosystem to some degree, and my view has long been: if you are going to fork, you need to not just subtly break the ABI but fundamentally break it and rebuild it back better for your purposes.

 

[Tyrsson]

Not to mention the amount of technical debt you would inherit.

 

[Arantor]

You're forking, that's immediately a given no matter what you fork and no matter how perfect it is (or isn't) before you start.

 

[Tyrsson]

I might fork a component, but never an application. I would build my own. Period. No fork.

 

[Arantor]

I might fork a component, but never an application. I would build my own. Period. No fork.

I’ve forked entire applications before. It goes about as well as you’d expect.

 

[Arantor]

Matt is flexing again, and he is demonstrating how unhappy he is about being made to do things.



(Yes this is real.)

 

[Cedric]

There is just a slight obligation vibe here...

 

[2TonWaffle]

Pineapple is actually pretty good on pizza.