Down the WordPress Rabbit Hole.
A long time ago, I was immersed in the WordPress ecosystem, a micro-verse full of similarities to the tech world but intrinsically different at its core, and here are my observations.
WordPress Quick History
WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS); it was forked from b2/cafelog back in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little.
Matt Mullenweg took the reins, founded Automattic in 2005, and yes he embedded his name into the company name, because, why not.
In 2006 he recruited Startup legend Toni Schneider, who took it to the next level, also groomed Mullenweg until his 30th birthday(2014) when, not unlike aristocracy, passed the crown to the Blog Prince. On the same year, Automattic raised 160 million dollars, with a valuation of over 1 billion dollars.
Automattic has raised $617.3 million, up until September 2019, acquired 20 companies included Tumblr and Woo Commerce, among many others.
So WordPress is a private company that gives it software for free?
Of course, not, is the very old and always good for community Opensource Model, where the creator uses the software for private purposes but commits to maintain/finance an open-source version for the community.
All its managed by a series of organisations, but at the core is Matt the Automattic CEO and the WordPress King.
The community then gets organise with the grace of the creator, and help maintain that code for free, as a symbol of gratitude to the creator’s vision and benevolence.
A Strange Ecosystem
Let’s start with the basics, Wordpress.org (free one) is where I learn about this ecosystem, and you can separate them into infinite groups, but for the sake of this post, I will choose 3:
- Founders
- Developers (Subgroup Committers)
- Groupies
You may be surprised to hear, but an all three of them mix within each other, in other words, a Groupie can be a Founder and a Developer, but let’s not complicate it too much.
A Founder is a blogger that with dedication and hard work found something that Wordpress.org or Automattic were not addressing and created a product or service to fill the gap.
A Developer it’s a committer and web developer that works for the founders or for him/her-self building themes, plugins, ad-hoc customisations, hosting infrastructure, you know dev stuff, some sort of elite part of them are the committers.
A committer is a developer, either independent or part of an organisation, that gives time to help the cause, and has some level of influence towards code submission, always bound by the admin and/or the software vision.
A Groupie is 90% of the ecosystem. Mostly bloggers or tiny agencies (1 or 2 people) they can hack their way into WordPress, but mostly use 3rd party services to deliver to clients, they are both a vast hired gun talent pool and paying customer for founders.
Is worth mention that in my time on the ecosystem, I’ve only met a handful of impressive developers and even fewer remarkable founders, groupies, however, are the most fun from the group. But it may be because I met most of them at WordCamps, where Founders feel like gods of the Olympus ruled by Zeus (Matt), and Developers (committers mostly)see themselves as the offsprings of gods and humans, demigods, non-different than Hercules, Aquiles or Perseus.
T̶h̶e̶ ̶U̶n̶i̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶S̶t̶a̶t̶e̶s ̶. The United Kingdom of WordPress
I only went to a few WordCamps, and to be honest, they were fun. I was among mostly great people, and coming from a different part of the tech universe, at times, it was as if we spoke different languages, and to be truthful we did.
I’ve never been a blogger, to be honest, I never read a blog post that wasn’t from an author I respected, or academically admired before I got involve with the WordPress ecosystem. So the blogger world in my head was a heavily overweight dude playing steam games and writing about how hot is his interstate “girlfriend”. I was wrong, not 100% wrong (there are still a bunch of those), but I found an ecosystem of opinions and how to’s, that make an honest living out of helping people increase their online presence, and that is good.
Most of this is thanks to the Groupies, who wear WordPress colours with pride, and trust. Walk around with nerdy shirts, and a sense of belonging that many other groups would envy if they knew. If Jesus walks on earth again, I’m sure he would start an open-source project to spread his message.
But this is not an ordinary group, and it is not a democracy. The mighty founders may listen to their groupies and order the developers to act fast, however, they have to be cautious, because they are all under the mighty of them all, and ruled by the fact that nothing they have is truly theirs, as they are all in borrowed land and must pay its dues in time and on-demand.
To much? Yeah, I got a little bit into the medieval vibe then, but the reality is not too far from it, just less dark and malicious.
WordPress it’s not ruled like a kingdom but is not a democracy either.
Founders that leverage from the ecosystem can be called to order through different venues, but if they keep their noses clean, they can make millions, and employ thousands.
Developers are multiplying, PHP is not a hard language to learn. Devs are happy because there are tonnes of dull work, minimal responsibility, more straightforward code and tonnes of companies that need them. Ah! And all they got to do is to deliver, weirdly enough WordPress is one of the last tech ecosystems who welcome, and encourage the recluse “genius” developer, very 80s and 90s.
Committers well they are the most different ones, their feeling is they have a more prominent part than the developers, fixing bugs and adding features, but in reality, are the most controlled of them all, it’s a developer who went cult.
Groupies my beloved groupies, they are everywhere. They are fantastic, in here you find future founders of smaller ventures, great people, most of them with no technical skills. Some of them have gone from bloggers, or not even, to working high up with the founders, and most of them earn it with hard work and sacrifice, others just stick to the right founder, keep the nose clean and made thousands (you see what I did there). Nevertheless, all good people, that work the land spread the word, and never defy their master.
The END is coming!
NOTE : Did you know that the Jabberwocky, name known as the beast slain by Alice, it’s a nonsense poem by Lewis Carol writer of the Alices Adventures in the Wonderland and all its subsequent work.
Every group in this strange ecosystem/society is fearful that the end is coming.
Founders fear that Matt will change something so drastically that they won't be able to adapt and/or will be run out of the ecosystem. Smaller founder fear the bigger ones, and the tiny ones want a place in the table, but is not until they become big that they learn the table is only for two and no founder is invited.
Developers are the less affected, even if the end comes (unlikely) there will millions of legacy website that need fixing and maintaining, millions!. And some brave group of commuter will keep the ecosystem alive, and swear to be the next Matt (also unlikely).
Groupies Uff, my people, I too see the end coming, not for WordPress as open-source software, but for the founders rule over you. Rebel and finally get the respect you deserve. Nothing works without you! you spread the word like nothing else, convince convert and welcome. You make it all work.
Between Us, WordPress is an awful piece fo software, hacky, broken and just flat out not good. But you make it work, with your blogs, how to’s, comments and videos. Most founders were just like you at the beginning, some forgot and now look down on you, don't let them.
For your peace of mind groupies lets debunk some Jabberwocky:
Jabberwocky: The fear that Matt will sell.
If you were Matt and command a legion of “loyal” founders, developers (committer included) and groupies, plus millions of dollars and non of the public scrutiny that the world puts on Google, Facebook or Twitter, would you let go? Nah, I’ll stay there until they have to manually operate my mouth to say WordPress its mine.
Nonsense!
Jabberwocky: Google will take over.
Sure this is feasible, they are bigger, greater, and more fun (in theory).
As per today, Google has 0 jobs advertised for WordPress, devs engineer or anything related. An acquisition is out of Google “what to buy next” hypothesis (agree at the moment) and it will cause a media nightmare. Many people will disagree, but cost-benefit doesn’t add up.
Nonsense!
Jabberwocky: One of the other platforms will take over.
Puff!
Nonsense!
I can write a book with all the Jabberwocky nonsense.
DONT PANIC
Whether you a Groupie-Founder or a Groupie-Developer a Groupie Committer or a Groupie in this strange yet familiar ecosystem/society DONT PANIC, you will be ok.
The ones that the Jabberwocky will get ride of are just founders, just developers and just committers. They stop believing, helping, improving changing and evolving.
Groupies, keep it up! get intensive with good data! don’t be a fool, don’t become a self-serving twat, learn from everyone take notice of everything, record it, sort it, analyse it. You are going to be OK!. I look forward to the future to see some that I’ve met change the landscape and make a difference.
Alternatively, you can always change to GHOST ;-)
Love Oz.
