WordPress.com

“And only last week, another developer went ballistic when one blogger merely suggested setting up a paid support service for WP.”

Incorrect. That developer ranted about an accusation that the WordPress.org support forums were failing. Later, the author of the comments withdrew them and apologized, and good wishes were exchanged.

Dear Amused,

I TRY to be open minded and accept all input, but your ignorance puts me to the test. I set up the OpenDomain program specifically to help protect from Squatters.

1) I can give several examples of domains that we have given to the Open community.
2) None of our domains have ANY type of revenue – no ads, no pop-ups, nothing.
3) The average cost of each domain is $3800. This is my own personal money. You have hidden you identity, so I can not know if you have done ANYTHING for WordPress.
4) It is obvious you know less about Open Source than I do (not very much). In my opinion, people donate as they see fit. Some people are great coders, some people can test, some do great on documentation. Because I got burned a few years back by squatters, it is my ambition to help in my way – by giving domains.
5) I bought this domain off an obvious squatter less than one month ago. You had the chance to buy this yourself, but did not.
6) We are offering for the WP community to help drive this site. I can just simply setup a hosting service, or advertising, or even pr0n if I wanted. Instead, I am trying to help.

To prove I am honest I can put it this way:
I have NOT hidden my identity or my intentions. If any member of the development team would like to use this WordPress.Com as intended by the OpenDomain program, I will let any democratic community use instead.

So, I am not AMUSED.

Sorry to everyone else for the rant, but I DO NOT LIKE BEING CALLED A SQUATTER.

Ric, I’m sorry I called you a squatter. It just seems your primary “business” is buying domains you don’t use. You said “WordPress dot Com gets a large amount of traffic because people expect it.” If people are expecting the WordPress project and get you, whatever you do, how is that different from phishers who register domains that sound like eBay or PayPal to draw them in? I’m not saying that’s your intention, but that’s what you’d end up doing.

Let’s say you paid $3800 for the domain, why not just ask the WP community for double that, then you’ve made a nice profit with a minimal amount of work and everyone is happy. Agree not to sell it to anyone else while WP.org raises the money and you’ll be painted as the Good Guy who rescued the domain. If you want to “help” that’s the best way. I would happily chip in some of my hard-earned money to the fund to buy the domain back.

If you were just “giving” the domain away with no strings attached, why hasn’t Matt taken it yet? I trust the WordPress developers more than I trust you, so there must be a good reason.

I think what macmanx is trying to say is that perhaps this is not the proper place to discuss this.
All my further comments may be found at WordPress.Com

MacManx,
I did post a reply on my blog, but as you said I may still post here, I must disagree with you.
I did approach Matt via email first, but perhaps I lack eloquence.
I think this should be public so as to be democratic.
However, I am willing to listen to your suggestion to settle this. I will be available for a conference call for all the seniors involved if someone wants to set it up (Matt has my number)

As a side issue: while WordPress is available for free download, that doesn’t mean the developers might not welcome some cash. This is what the DONATE tab at the top is for.