Andrew Nevins
(@anevins)
WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support
The software at WordPress.com is entirely different from the WordPress software that is distributed on WordPress.org, so it should be expected that themes will be different.
Thread Starter
DBJ
(@dbj)
Well I would like to disagree.
It is definitely not “entirely” or “totally” different. It is WordPress on both sides.
It is obviously more developed WP version. Even if we ignore the fact dot com is one huge WPMU topology.
I still see no reason not to give us the same WP on both sides? After all WP is free, AFAIK?
If above is official, and the decision is dot org and dot com are different, then we on the dot org side should be noted that WP free is not WP dot com and we should have the exact list of differences. For both sides benefit.
This will convince “civilians” even more to stay away from “Free WP”. So no harm will be done to the Automatic image.
And it will clarify issues considerably on the dot org side.
To clear up any confusion, WordPress.com and WordPress.org are two different entities: https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_vs_WordPress.com
WordPress(.org) is software built and supported by volunteers, then offered for free to the community to host themselves. WordPress.com is WordPress(.org) with further customizations (kind of like built-in plugins) made by Automattic and offered for free (ad-supported) with optional paid plans.
Automattic does contribute a lot of their customizations back to the greater WordPress community by way of their plugins: https://profiles.wordpress.org/automattic/#content-plugins
Mostly by way of Jetpack specifically though: https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/
If Automattic makes an enhancement you love, I’m sure it will make it’s way to WordPress(.org) eventually by way of Jetpack or a separate plugin, but we don’t really have any control over that process.
Thread Starter
DBJ
(@dbj)
1.
Thanks to James & Andrew for time taken.
2.
I am not confused (I hope) but lot of customers are and will be.
I think everybody knows what are we talking about here: ambiguity. Which is especially time consuming when dealing with customers coming from the dot com side. It is painfully clear re-branding of dot com or dot org side is necessary.
3.
I am not asking about any enhancement I “love” or “hate”. I am just asking for differences to be listed and detailed. That will save me a lot of time when migrating sites from dot com over to dot org side.
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I am just asking for differences to be listed and detailed.
Besides https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_vs_WordPress.com on our end, there’s also https://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/ on WordPress.com’s end.
It is painfully clear re-branding of dot com or dot org side is necessary.
WordPress.org *is* WordPress, the WordPress foundation (which backs .org) owns the trademark. WordPress.com may change some day, but that is something we don’t have control over.
