Dear Matt
First I want to thank you for all the hard work you and your team put behind Wordpress which fuels the entire wordpress ecosystem a.k.a the wpverse. Like Steve Jobs, I believe you also put a dent in the universe.
SCF: What the fork just happened!
Suggestions for a more balanced approach
Growing up my big brothers always told me “when you go on a date, watch how your girl treats the waitress, that will tell you a lot about the quality of your future relationship.” After absorbing ACF in the wordpress.org repository instead of offering an alternative, you allegidly signaled to the wordpress community that no plugin is safe from absorptions. A lot of developers contribute to this very ecosystem with their plugins because they do believe that “code is poetry” indeed.
Solutions
Solution 1 - Fork:
Consider letting the community decide between ACF and SCF, let the number of downloads demonstrate how the community feels about this whole situation with WP Engine. Competition is good, it tends to improve a product. Taking over ACF from the wordpress.org will most likely do more harm than the intended purpose.
Solution 2 - Crowdfunding Feature Request Model:
I believe wordpress is made up of the following groups:
- Open Source enthusiasts aiming to improve the internet
- Those who appreciate convenience and free resources
- Businesses of all sizes profiting from and supporting the ecosystem
- Businesses seeking profit with little regard for Open Source principles
- People with small means who really want things to improve in Wordpress the CMS but simply don’t have the funds to make a difference.
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And I would like to focus on the last group for a moment.
How The Crowdfunding Plaform Will Work
Create a new section at wordpress.org or elsewhere in case a different Open Source licence is needed so that the community can submit their feature request as follow:
- With the help of AI tools their feature request can be clear and concise for everyone.
- Some vetted developers submit their bid to create these features.
- The community vote up wiht their financial contribution by chip in a few bucks until the project is fully funded.
- The project starts, the feature is developed (as a new plugin, or a plugin addon, or a new wordpress core feature, etc).
- The feature ships and everyone benefit from the new feature
- Manpower is geared toward developing the kind of features the community actually wants.
- Everyone is happy
This approach empowers everyone to contribute in diverse ways to the future of WordPress, transforming the community into a guiding compass for its evolution.
