diff --git a/content/images/mash.gif b/content/images/mash.gif new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5ca30409 Binary files /dev/null and b/content/images/mash.gif differ diff --git a/content/posts/2014-08-19-youre-not-alone.md b/content/posts/2014-08-19-youre-not-alone.md index 7f69b71a..0d321e15 100644 --- a/content/posts/2014-08-19-youre-not-alone.md +++ b/content/posts/2014-08-19-youre-not-alone.md @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ title: "You're Not Alone" date: 2014-08-19 categories: [business] -tags: [community contribution, HackTheStigma] +tags: [community-contribution, hack-the-stigma] slug: youre-not-alone --- diff --git a/content/posts/2014-10-30-motivation.md b/content/posts/2014-10-30-motivation.md index f1785044..d1b65d5d 100644 --- a/content/posts/2014-10-30-motivation.md +++ b/content/posts/2014-10-30-motivation.md @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: "Ways To Keep Going" subtitle: "When You're Going Through Hell" date: 2014-10-30 category: tech -tags: ["community contribution", "mental health", HackTheStigma] +tags: [community-contribution, mental-health, hack-the-stigma] slug: motivation --- diff --git a/content/posts/2016-01-06-shipt.md b/content/posts/2016-01-06-shipt.md index 80bc2b5e..fed03014 100644 --- a/content/posts/2016-01-06-shipt.md +++ b/content/posts/2016-01-06-shipt.md @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ title: "From Developer to Shipt Shopper" date: 2016-01-06 categories: [business] -tags: [something different, shipt] +tags: [something-different, shipt] aliases: - "/2016/01/06/from-developer-to-shipt-shopper" --- diff --git a/content/posts/2016-01-06-strengthsfinding.md b/content/posts/2016-01-06-strengthsfinding.md index d312ec1b..36bd58f9 100644 --- a/content/posts/2016-01-06-strengthsfinding.md +++ b/content/posts/2016-01-06-strengthsfinding.md @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: "Finding One's Strengths" subtitle: "A Different Way To Build Teams" date: 2016-01-06 categories: [business] -tags: [personal growth, diversity, culture] +tags: [personal-growth, diversity, culture] slug: strengthsfinding --- diff --git a/content/posts/2016-01-13-a-week-of-shipt.md b/content/posts/2016-01-13-a-week-of-shipt.md index 9f866e83..858f4aab 100644 --- a/content/posts/2016-01-13-a-week-of-shipt.md +++ b/content/posts/2016-01-13-a-week-of-shipt.md @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: A Week Of Shipt subtitle: (What It's Like To Be A Shiptster) date: 2016-01-13 categories: [business] -tags: ["something different", shipt] +tags: [something-different, shipt] aliases: - "/blog/2016/01/13/a-week-of-shipt" --- diff --git a/content/posts/2016-01-13-pelican-travis-and-github.md b/content/posts/2016-01-13-pelican-travis-and-github.md index 021c61b8..391dfa09 100644 --- a/content/posts/2016-01-13-pelican-travis-and-github.md +++ b/content/posts/2016-01-13-pelican-travis-and-github.md @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: "Pelican, Travis, and Github" subtitle: "Setting Up Autmated Blog Updates" date: 2016-01-13 categories: [tech] -tags: [blog, tips, automation, continuous integration] +tags: [blog, tips, automation, continuous-integration] aliases: - "/blog/2016/01/13/pelican-travis-and-github" --- diff --git a/content/posts/2016-04-18-shipt-pt-2.md b/content/posts/2016-04-18-shipt-pt-2.md index 7dcd358d..7e996e0e 100644 --- a/content/posts/2016-04-18-shipt-pt-2.md +++ b/content/posts/2016-04-18-shipt-pt-2.md @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: Being A Shiptster, Three Months In description: It Starts... date: 2016-04-18 categories: [business] -tags: [something different, shipt] +tags: [something-different, shipt] aliases: - "/blog/2016/04/18/shipt-pt-2" --- diff --git a/content/posts/2017-09-01-pelican-travis-github-pt-2.md b/content/posts/2017-09-01-pelican-travis-github-pt-2.md index ddcdd1a5..819b7817 100644 --- a/content/posts/2017-09-01-pelican-travis-github-pt-2.md +++ b/content/posts/2017-09-01-pelican-travis-github-pt-2.md @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: "Pelican, Travis, and Github, Part 2" description: "Updating Pelican and the Travis config to account for changes in both. Yay for simpler configs!" date: 2017-09-01T23:00:00-05:00 categories: [tech] -tags: [blog, tips, automation, continuous integration] +tags: [blog, tips, automation, continuous-integration] aliases: - "/blog/2016/01/13/pelican-travis-and-github-pt-2" --- diff --git a/content/posts/2018-03-08-core-values.md b/content/posts/2018-03-08-core-values.md index 0ca055bb..00ce8d85 100644 --- a/content/posts/2018-03-08-core-values.md +++ b/content/posts/2018-03-08-core-values.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ subtitle: "Exploring and Codifying Guiding Principles" description: "I see core values communicated most often at the organization level, but I believe we have them at a personal level, too. We just don't (usually) codify them." date: 2018-03-08T19:00:00-05:00 categories: [personal development] -tags: [culture, personal growth] +tags: [culture, personal-growth] aliases: - "/blog/2018/03/08/personal-core-values" --- diff --git a/content/posts/2018-04-01-autism-awareness-and-the-blue-ranger.md b/content/posts/2018-04-01-autism-awareness-and-the-blue-ranger.md index 2c635147..97c826a5 100644 --- a/content/posts/2018-04-01-autism-awareness-and-the-blue-ranger.md +++ b/content/posts/2018-04-01-autism-awareness-and-the-blue-ranger.md @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: "Autism Awareness And The Blue Ranger" description: "Musings on the protrayal of neurodivergence in entertainment." date: 2018-04-01T06:00:00-05:00 categories: [community] -tags: [community contribution, HackTheStigma] +tags: [community-contribution, hack-the-stigma] --- It's the start of "Autism Awareness Month," which, for those of us *with* Autism, tends to be "the month to run and hide and wish I didn't like blue, because we get inundated with neurotypical people who think they know our experience better than we do." I don't often write about the effect of Autism on my life (either my son's or my own's), because to be honest, 99% of the time, it's boring and uneventful. diff --git a/content/posts/2020-06-11-language-of-the-unheard.md b/content/posts/2020-06-11-language-of-the-unheard.md index f0c4695b..27f1ce61 100644 --- a/content/posts/2020-06-11-language-of-the-unheard.md +++ b/content/posts/2020-06-11-language-of-the-unheard.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ description: "I hear you, and I won't keep my voice down any longer." date: 2020-06-11 categories: [community] tags: [diversity, civil rights] -series: ["Black Lives Matter"] +series: [black-lives-matter] --- So I attended a protest the other day. It was the first time I'd been downtown since it started and I had walked there (and back) from one of the suburbs. A nearly 5 mile walk each way, with the inner-most mile or two containing a lot of plywood covering up a lot of damage. diff --git a/content/posts/2020-07-03-what-we-owe-each-other.md b/content/posts/2020-07-03-what-we-owe-each-other.md index 16b085d8..649e7c14 100644 --- a/content/posts/2020-07-03-what-we-owe-each-other.md +++ b/content/posts/2020-07-03-what-we-owe-each-other.md @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: "Little changes really can have a big impact, and we really don't h date: 2020-07-02 categories: [community, tech] tags: [diversity, culture, civil rights] -series: ["Black Lives Matter"] +series: [black-lives-matter] --- diff --git a/content/posts/2020-09-04-on-rejection.md b/content/posts/2020-09-04-on-rejection.md index ddb9177e..d13c8958 100644 --- a/content/posts/2020-09-04-on-rejection.md +++ b/content/posts/2020-09-04-on-rejection.md @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: "On Rejection and Mental Health" description: "Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria. Yeah, it's a thing." date: 2020-09-04 categories: [community] -tags: ["community contribution", "mental health", HackTheStigma] +tags: [community-contribution, mental-health, hack-the-stigma] --- I was turned down for a job today. diff --git a/content/posts/2020-10-21-problem-solving.md b/content/posts/2020-10-21-problem-solving.md index ac4bc44f..111be9bd 100644 --- a/content/posts/2020-10-21-problem-solving.md +++ b/content/posts/2020-10-21-problem-solving.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ subtitle: "(And Effectively Asking For Help)" description: "With ducks!" date: 2020-10-21 categories: [teaching, tech] -tags: ["personal growth", tips] +tags: [personal-growth, tips] --- The most important skill in tech isn't the technology. It's problem-solving. Whether you get into cyber security, system administration, or programming, the heart of all of it is really the ability to take a problem, break it apart, and work out a solution -- very often coming up with solutions that didn't previously exist at all. Even on the more everyday scale, you'll be constantly faced with error messages, odd software behavior, broken tests, and more that you'll be expected to triage and if not fix yourself, hand off detailed information about the problem to those who can fix it. diff --git a/content/posts/2021-02-10-a-look-back-at-shipt.md b/content/posts/2021-02-10-a-look-back-at-shipt.md index 577eedab..a7f9daa2 100644 --- a/content/posts/2021-02-10-a-look-back-at-shipt.md +++ b/content/posts/2021-02-10-a-look-back-at-shipt.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ subtitle: "And The Gig Economy More Generally" description: "It's a sad, downhill path, IMO." date: 2021-02-10 categories: [business] -tags: [something different, shipt] +tags: [something-different, shipt] --- So I happened to notice the other day that my site gets a _lot_ more traffic than I realized (thanks, PointHQ!), so I tossed a little, lightweight analytics thing onto it so I can see where people are going and maybe we're they're coming from. (Hi, people! :wave:) diff --git a/content/posts/2021-02-11-that-one-where-i-talk-for-an-hour.md b/content/posts/2021-02-11-that-one-where-i-talk-for-an-hour.md index 5b549473..fc88fdcb 100644 --- a/content/posts/2021-02-11-that-one-where-i-talk-for-an-hour.md +++ b/content/posts/2021-02-11-that-one-where-i-talk-for-an-hour.md @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: "That One Where I Talk For An Hour" description: "...I can't believe I actually did it..." date: 2021-02-11 categories: [community, tech] -tags: [community contribution, events] +tags: [community-contribution, events] --- Holy shit, I *actually* just did a talk..."in front of" a few hundred people...for over an hour... :scream: diff --git a/content/posts/2023-12-09-year-in-review.md b/content/posts/2023-12-09-year-in-review.md index d0e92a95..fa43aa25 100644 --- a/content/posts/2023-12-09-year-in-review.md +++ b/content/posts/2023-12-09-year-in-review.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ description: "Or...two years, I guess" date: 2024-01-02 series: "financial independence" categories: [finance] -tags: [debt, "community contribution", "mental health", HackTheStigma, "personal growth"] +tags: [debt, community-contribution, mental-health, hack-the-stigma, personal-growth] --- _Looks at dates on blog posts._ Oh...other than my Google Sheets thing, it's been...almost three years since I last posted... diff --git a/content/posts/2024-01-27-work-is-not-family.md b/content/posts/2024-01-27-work-is-not-family.md index afc0d3c4..2ba398ad 100644 --- a/content/posts/2024-01-27-work-is-not-family.md +++ b/content/posts/2024-01-27-work-is-not-family.md @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: "Companies are not family" description: "But they can be teams" date: 2024-01-27 categories: [business] -tags: [culture, civil rights] +tags: [culture, civil-rights] --- "We're a family here!" diff --git a/content/posts/2024-05-13-open-3d-engine.md b/content/posts/2024-05-13-open-3d-engine.md index d3cfb55f..a1034aa8 100644 --- a/content/posts/2024-05-13-open-3d-engine.md +++ b/content/posts/2024-05-13-open-3d-engine.md @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: "Open 3D Engine" description: "First Impressions, Thoughts, and Diving Into The Deep End" date: 2024-05-13 categories: [tech] -tags: [o3de, dev dive, gaming, game dev] +tags: [o3de, dev-dive, gaming, game-dev] series: "Open 3D Engine" --- diff --git a/content/posts/2024-09-28-modernizing-react.md b/content/posts/2024-09-28-modernizing-react.md index 4a258969..7a636f6c 100644 --- a/content/posts/2024-09-28-modernizing-react.md +++ b/content/posts/2024-09-28-modernizing-react.md @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: "Adventures in Modernizing React" description: "Something, something, new paradigms" date: 2024-09-28 categories: [tech] -tags: [react, legacy code] +tags: [react, legacy-code, javascript] --- I spent the better part of my first year at Custom Ink upgrading an Electron and React application. That was an adventure unto itself, let me tell you. It also resulted in a list of "things I need to do when my priority isn't just get this thing working again to unblock the other team." Among that list was updating the code to modern standards -- something I got to make a bunch of headway on in the second half of my second year. diff --git a/content/posts/2024-10-20-javascript.md b/content/posts/2024-10-20-javascript.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..35ca3092 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/2024-10-20-javascript.md @@ -0,0 +1,8 @@ +--- +title: "On Javascript" +description: "" +date: 2024-10-20 +categories: [tech] +tags: [javascript] +draft: true +--- \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/content/posts/2024-10-20-wp-and-oss.md b/content/posts/2024-10-20-wp-and-oss.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..44637d29 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/2024-10-20-wp-and-oss.md @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +--- +title: "Thoughts on the WordPress Saga" +subtitle: "Lawsuits, trademarks, and open source" +description: "When the pursuit of money overtakes community" +date: 2024-10-20 +categories: [tech] +tags: [community, culture] +draft: true +--- + +As a long-time PHP developer, touching WordPress in some way at some point in my career has been all but unavoidable. I even [once wrote a conversion tool](https://github.com/ShaunaGordon/wp2k) when a former employer was migrating from it to a .Net CMS, and am a long-time friend and former coworker of [Steve Grunwell](https://stevegrunwell.com/), who's quite well known around those parts (he's a great guy, if you ever have a chance to work with or hang out with him, definitely do so). However, I don't follow it *too* closely, as it's not my main niche within the broader PHP ecosystem. + +That is...until the creator of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, Matt Mullenweg, got into legal battles with WP Engine for...wait for it...trademark violation. + +![I admire your courage, but not your intelligence. Good luck.](/images/mash.gif) + +(If you don't know what I'm talking about and are feeling masochistic, [the Verge has a good rundown](https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/20/wordpress-vs-wp-engine-drama-explained/?guccounter=1).) + +There's just...there's so much to unpack here. + +I'm going to try to stay away from the legal nitty-gritty, but it's kind of hard to talk about drama with a legal element without doing so, so before I continue, the usual disclaimer - I'm not a lawyer, this isn't legal advice, yadda yadda. What I am is a software engineer who has educated herself on things like contract, copyright, and trademark law, for purposes of protecting myself. + +## Trademark Enforcement Requires...Enforcement + +Matt's allegations fall on their face before they even leave the gate for this reason alone. You see, in order to legally enforce your trademark, you have to...you know...*enforce your trademark*. Implicitly (or perhaps explicitly, I'm not sure), you're expected to send a cease and desist letter as soon as possible after you're made aware of the violation. This is why organizations like Disney, Lucas Arts, and the Tolkien Estate are so draconian about enforcing their trademarks and copyrights (hence the common addage "don't mess with the mouse"). + +The problem is, **WP Engine was founded in 2010**. If what they're doing violates trademark now (it's not), then it's been violating it for nearly 15 years, and Matt's done nothing about it. And there's no *possible* way he didn't previously know about the company, because they maintain the famous Advanced Custom Fields, contribute to WordPress regularly, and sponsor WordCamp. Oh, and *Automattic invested in WP Engine for years* (until recently, as I understand it). They're not an unknown entity, by *any* stretch of the imagination. + +This alone should make any lawyer laugh him out of the office, in my opinion, but I'm guessing the lawyers listed on the stationery are on retainer of some sort. + +*But it gets better.* + +The other half of trademark enforcement is...you know...*having* a trademark. Now, "WordPress" and "WooCommerce" are, indeed, trademarked, and that's fine, but the alleged infringement isn't over those (other than a rather flimsy "you're using it in a way that causes confusion" argument), but "WP" is not, by [Automattic's own admission](https://archive.ph/rT0SE), trademarked: + +> **The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks,** but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress. + +(If the above isn't obvious retaliation, I'm not sure what is.) + +Sorry Matt, a trademark can't be violated if it doesn't exist. And through all this, all signs point to the motive for this not actually being about trademark violation, anyway. + +## His Complaints About Silver Lake Are Far Too Late + +From what I can find, this spat ramped up this past September, starting with a keynote speech in which Matt basically demonized Silver Lake (the main investment company behind WP Engine). He talked about how venture capital companies don't care about open source and blah blah blah. + +...Except...Silver Lake bought WP Engine **in 2018**. Now, maybe he talked about it in years prior...but WP Engine seems to track WordPress news pretty closely, and it seems to me like this would have happened in like...2019 or maybe 2020 after private negotiations or whatever, if it was actually about Silver Lake owning a majority share. + +Maybe he started taking umbrage when WP Engine bought the company that created ACF? Except...they put the timeline from private talks at 18 months (so circa April 2023), and that purchase happened in June of *2022*, and since ACF and Delicious Brains' other plugins are (or *were*) hosted on wordpress.org, there's no way it wasn't known that it was under new management. + +### And Kind of Hypocritical + +I get it, venture capital is a vulture of an industry. It often robs companies of value, arguably more than it gives them, and getting funding from them is a bit like selling one's soul to Asmodeus. + +[And yet, Automattic has taken its share of venture capital,](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/automattic/company_financials) including, apparently, from BlackRock, one of the biggest, most powerful, and most controversial investment companies out there. + +(His complaint that WP Engine is trying to curtail his first amendment rights is also pretty hypocritical in light of the amount of banning he's been doing lately, but we won't get into that one.) + +## This Is So Clearly About Money + +Alright, let's call it for what it is, really -- a money grab. Everything Matt has said and done has pointed to that, because it's in everything he's had to say about the matter. + +[It's particularly evident in his response to DHH](https://archive.ph/UZZit) (sorry-not-sorry, Matt, the internet is forever. If you don't want things like this to stick around, then don't post them to begin with), where he basically goes into a dick-measuring contest about company size (apparently neglecting to acknowledge or realize that the small size of DHH's businesses are an intentional decision on his part), how much DHH makes, and how much money he's supposedly leaving on the table by letting Shopify and other big Rails shops to use Rails for free. Matt...that's not the flex you seem to have thought it was, dude. + + + +[From the cease and desist letter, itself](https://automattic.com/2024/wp-engine-cease-and-desist.pdf): + +> WP Engine promotes its services as bringing “WordPress to the masses”. See https://wpengine.com/about-us/. In reality WP Engine brings almost zero aspect of WordPress to the world: **It claims to contribute 40 hours per week to WordPress** (see https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/pledge/wp-engine/), while, by contrast, **Automattic is contributing almost 4000 hours per week to WordPress.** \ No newline at end of file