Comments on: Is WordPress.com Hurting the WordPress Brand? http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/2009/06/24/is-wordpress-com-hurting-the-wordpress-brand/ News, plugins and themes for blogging applications Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:49:03 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Mark Jaquith http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/2009/06/24/is-wordpress-com-hurting-the-wordpress-brand/comment-page-1/#comment-221494 Mark Jaquith Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:07:35 +0000 http://www.bloggingpro.com/?p=3038#comment-221494 Make that "the recent <strong>fork</strong> of MTOS" Make that “the recent fork of MTOS”

]]> By: Mark Jaquith http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/2009/06/24/is-wordpress-com-hurting-the-wordpress-brand/comment-page-1/#comment-221493 Mark Jaquith Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:06:14 +0000 http://www.bloggingpro.com/?p=3038#comment-221493 I don't think that WordPress.com hurts WordPress. On the contrary, I think it's great that there's a canonical hosted WP solution that we can point people towards to get their WP "training wheels." What's harmful is <strong>confusion</strong> between the two and <strong>misinformation</strong> that spreads around about ways that WordPress might be limited (when they mean to say that WordPress<strong>.com</strong> is limited in those ways). I think the cat is out of the bag. I wouldn't support a re-branding of WordPress and I very much doubt Automattic would ever consider rebranding WordPress.com. The best thing that WP or WP.com advocates can do is to always be clear to differentiate when appropriate, and to correct people when they confuse the two. Within the WP developer crowd, we've taken to calling them "dot-org" and "dot-com" to differentiate. <blockquote>I don’t know what the numbers are, but I’m pretty sure many more people host with WP.com than they do self-hosted.</blockquote> It's just about evenly split at this point. <blockquote>Wordpress.com usage pays the bills – wordpress.org is really just their free gift to mankind.</blockquote> As far as Automattic is concerned, yes. But WordPress.org is composed of much more than just Automattic. I'm not an Automattic employee, but am intimately involved in WordPress.org development and goings-on. That's an important distinction. WordPress.com is an Automattic service... WordPress is a free, community-supported-and-developed publishing platform that you can install anywhere with no restrictions and can use for any purpose. Those freedoms and that community involvement is fundamental to WordPress. The community involvement level is a big differentiating factor between WordPress and Movable Type Open Source (as highlighted by the recent for of MTOS to "Melody", intended to be a more community-driven platform than MTOS is). I don’t think that WordPress.com hurts WordPress. On the contrary, I think it’s great that there’s a canonical hosted WP solution that we can point people towards to get their WP “training wheels.” What’s harmful is confusion between the two and misinformation that spreads around about ways that WordPress might be limited (when they mean to say that WordPress.com is limited in those ways).

I think the cat is out of the bag. I wouldn’t support a re-branding of WordPress and I very much doubt Automattic would ever consider rebranding WordPress.com. The best thing that WP or WP.com advocates can do is to always be clear to differentiate when appropriate, and to correct people when they confuse the two. Within the WP developer crowd, we’ve taken to calling them “dot-org” and “dot-com” to differentiate.

I don’t know what the numbers are, but I’m pretty sure many more people host with WP.com than they do self-hosted.

It’s just about evenly split at this point.

Wordpress.com usage pays the bills – wordpress.org is really just their free gift to mankind.

As far as Automattic is concerned, yes. But WordPress.org is composed of much more than just Automattic. I’m not an Automattic employee, but am intimately involved in WordPress.org development and goings-on. That’s an important distinction. WordPress.com is an Automattic service… WordPress is a free, community-supported-and-developed publishing platform that you can install anywhere with no restrictions and can use for any purpose. Those freedoms and that community involvement is fundamental to WordPress. The community involvement level is a big differentiating factor between WordPress and Movable Type Open Source (as highlighted by the recent for of MTOS to “Melody”, intended to be a more community-driven platform than MTOS is).

]]> By: Wogan http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/2009/06/24/is-wordpress-com-hurting-the-wordpress-brand/comment-page-1/#comment-221483 Wogan Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:08:35 +0000 http://www.bloggingpro.com/?p=3038#comment-221483 Understandable, really, how you could get those two confused, especially since even wordpress.org recommends hosting your blog on wordpress.com. I don't know what the numbers are, but I'm pretty sure many more people host with WP.com than they do self-hosted. Automattic hasn't really done a whole lot to break that opinion, either. Wordpress the CMS is only really known to hardcore tech-savvy bloggers, developers and their clients. Wordpress the Service is what the rest of the world sees - but maybe that's what Automattic is gunning for? Wordpress.com usage pays the bills - wordpress.org is really just their free gift to mankind. Understandable, really, how you could get those two confused, especially since even wordpress.org recommends hosting your blog on wordpress.com. I don’t know what the numbers are, but I’m pretty sure many more people host with WP.com than they do self-hosted.

Automattic hasn’t really done a whole lot to break that opinion, either. Wordpress the CMS is only really known to hardcore tech-savvy bloggers, developers and their clients. Wordpress the Service is what the rest of the world sees – but maybe that’s what Automattic is gunning for?

Wordpress.com usage pays the bills – wordpress.org is really just their free gift to mankind.

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