'Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of the open-source blogging platform WordPress, writes: Wix, the website builder company you may remember from stealing WordPress code and lying about it, has now decided the best way to gain relevance is attacking the open source WordPress community in a bizarre set of ads. They can't even come up with original concepts for attack ads, and have tried to rip-off of Apple's Mac vs PC ads, but tastelessly personify the WordPress community as an absent, drunken father in a therapy session. I have a lot of empathy for whoever was forced to work on these ads, including the actors, it must have felt bad working on something that's like Encyclopedia Britannica attacking Wikipedia. WordPress is a global movement of hundreds of thousands of volunteers and community members, coming together to make the web a better place. The code, and everything you put into it, belongs to you, and its open source license ensures that you're in complete control, now and forever. WordPress is free, and also gives you freedom. So if we're comparing website builders to abusive relationships, Wix is one that locks you in the basement and doesn't let you leave. I'm surprised consumer protection agencies haven't gone after them. Wix is a for-profit company with a valuation that peaked at around 20 billion dollars, and whose business model is getting customers to pay more and more every year and making it difficult to leave or get a refund. (Don't take my word for it, look at their investor presentations.) They are so insecure that they are also the only website creator I'm aware of that doesn't allow you to export your content, so they're like a roach motel where you can check in but never check out. Once you buy into their proprietary stack you're locked in, which even their support documentation admits.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/21/04/08/2011222 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
FWIW, one of the more frequent recommendations in my InfoSec circles is "just block *.wix.com and *.wixsite.com", due to the volume of malicious junk hosted on various Wix pages. E -------------------------------------------- Q: Why is this email five sentences or less? A: http://five.sentenc.es On Fri, 9 Apr 2021, at 10:10, Peter Reutemann wrote:
'Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of the open-source blogging platform WordPress, writes:
Wix, the website builder company you may remember from stealing WordPress code and lying about it, has now decided the best way to gain relevance is attacking the open source WordPress community in a bizarre set of ads. They can't even come up with original concepts for attack ads, and have tried to rip-off of Apple's Mac vs PC ads, but tastelessly personify the WordPress community as an absent, drunken father in a therapy session.
I have a lot of empathy for whoever was forced to work on these ads, including the actors, it must have felt bad working on something that's like Encyclopedia Britannica attacking Wikipedia. WordPress is a global movement of hundreds of thousands of volunteers and community members, coming together to make the web a better place. The code, and everything you put into it, belongs to you, and its open source license ensures that you're in complete control, now and forever. WordPress is free, and also gives you freedom. So if we're comparing website builders to abusive relationships, Wix is one that locks you in the basement and doesn't let you leave. I'm surprised consumer protection agencies haven't gone after them.
Wix is a for-profit company with a valuation that peaked at around 20 billion dollars, and whose business model is getting customers to pay more and more every year and making it difficult to leave or get a refund. (Don't take my word for it, look at their investor presentations.) They are so insecure that they are also the only website creator I'm aware of that doesn't allow you to export your content, so they're like a roach motel where you can check in but never check out. Once you buy into their proprietary stack you're locked in, which even their support documentation admits.'
-- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/21/04/08/2011222
Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/ _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list -- wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz | To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: https://list.waikato.ac.nz/postorius/lists/wlug.list.waikato.ac.nz
On Fri, 9 Apr 2021 10:10:06 +1200, Peter Reutemann quoted:
'Wix, the website builder company you may remember from stealing WordPress code and lying about it ...'
Found this report <https://wptavern.com/wix-takes-a-jab-at-wordpress-with-bewildering-new-marketing-campaign> which references the background to that incident: This isn’t the first time WordPress and Wix have been at odds. In 2016, Matt Mullenweg [called out Wix for copying GPL code](https://wptavern.com/mullenweg-takes-aim-at-wix-over-gpl-abuses-wix-response...) from the WordPress mobile app and distributing it in its [proprietary app](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wixcom-launches-wix-app-providing-a-...). This rendered the entire app in violation of the GPL. Instead of complying with the GPL, Wix responded by [removing the GPL-licensed code](https://wptavern.com/wix-removes-gpl-licensed-wordpress-code-from-mobile-app...) and forking the original MIT-licensed library that the WordPress mobile app code was built upon. The fork was relicensed under an absurd modification of the MIT that prohibits the code’s redistribution under any copyleft license. Wix also acquired artist site DeviantArt back in 2017, and made some theming and functionality changes that annoyed a few users.
participants (3)
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Eric Light -
Lawrence D'Oliveiro -
Peter Reutemann