Comments on: WordPress & Deception?

By: WordPress belongs to the community | AiS.web | internet services

WordPress belongs to the community | AiS.web | internet services — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 20:13:29 +0000

[...] I initially bumped into one of these when a friend of mine asked for a tip. I've been reading about the issue since on Andy Wibbel's blog and on Kenneth Stein's blog. [...]

By: Teli Adlam

Teli Adlam — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 19:34:13 +0000

You're spot on Wank.

One of my design clients, who I'd installed WP for, assumed that "all those little boxes in [his] admin panel" were official WordPress News, but was a little unsettled because he saw some links to entries of a personal nature and thought something was wrong. I can understand his assumption because of the "Other WordPress News" text just above them. I promptly informed him otherwise, and removed the feeds leaving only the WP Dev Blog feed.

Point is, not everyone who just starts with WordPress will have someone to explain that those boxes aren't official news stories/sources sanctioned by the WP team or Automattic.

IMO, and only my opinion, the dev blog feed should be the only one there by default, especially for the less WP savvy/newbie users, or create an official WP news blog that's moderated. No one starts out as a WPFanBoy(orGirl) from jump and those feeds in the dashboard can be confusing unless there's a very clear explanation of what there are, right there next to them.

By: that girl again

that girl again — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 13:30:46 +0000

Regardless of whether Lorelle's post was officially commissioned or sanctioned by Automattic, its appearance in the Dashboard of thousands of users makes it look official. I don't think this really registers with Matt. I think he takes it for granted that all WP users already know that the Dashboard feeds are a selection of posts by him and his friends syndicated for the purpose of boosting traffic to their blogs, and are not an official source of information about Wordpress.

That's a big assumption to make and I have no idea how accurate it is. Probably most people who care enough about Wordpress development to read the Dashboard are aware of its status, but I'm sure there are some people out there assuming that Lorelle's on staff.

By: Wordpress Trademark Scammers? at Andy Beard

Wordpress Trademark Scammers? at Andy Beard — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 01:58:20 +0000

[...] Kenneth Stein goes into some of the issues and questions Lorelle on Wordpress involvement (Matt quickly cleared up any misconception in the Automattic relationship with Lorelle) Matt has been portraying a “squeeky clean” image of Wordpress and Automattic since the small incident last year. [...]

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 22:36:36 +0000

Sorry I thought I answered the question.

No one from Automattic reviewed her entry, or wrote it with her, or edited it, or sent subliminal messages in the WordPress interface suggesting she write anything.

I'm happy to do an interview, send me the questions via email and I'll reply in a day or two.

By: Kenneth Stein

Kenneth Stein — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 22:33:10 +0000

Matt,

She might write her “own stuff,” but the question I have is whether anyone from Automattic reviewed her entry about the trademark and/or co-wrote it with her. You didn’t answer the question. That’s telling.

Perhaps we could clear all this up with an interview. Instead of communicating through comments. If you’d be ameniable, let me know and we can set something up.