Reactions to Your Writing
Recently, I wrote a rather lengthy post on my personal/business blog, BrandingDavid.com, where I talked about my thoughts on the current state of the WordPress project. The post got a bit of attention on both sides of the fence regarding what I wrote, and was linked to by a few people. It was exciting and interesting and I hope to see more people voicing their opinions, and remaining calm to the reactions, whatever they may be.
Here’s a snippet from my post:
Matt Mullenweg is probably the smartest person I’ve ever met. His ability to manage his brand image is almost supernatural. Fighting against any ideal he comes up for the WordPress community seems to be like fighting mother nature herself. Matt has made himself the word of God when it comes to WordPress, and millions of people follow that blindly.
When WordCamps started, I wondered how long it would take before the Church of WordPress was created. Matt traveled the world like a holy crusader, talking to his flock about the good that was WordPress. He was their Messiah, and saved them from the horrible web publishing systems of the past.
He isn’t infallible though and has made mistakes. The issue today is that most of the major mistakes he has made either happened before mass adoption of WordPress (Pre-2.0) or have been relatively unknown as they’ve happened behind closed doors, or outcries have only existed on smaller blogs.
The most amazing part about the post, and the thing I most enjoy about blogging is the discussion, both on-site and off-site, that occurs surrounding something I’ve written. So far there have been over two dozen comments surrounding the post, and my follow-up comments. And one of the biggest conversational centers surrounding some of the ideas and thoughts in the post came up on WPTavern, a WordPress related site and forum managed by the host of the WordPress Weekly Podcast, Jeff Chandler with threads like the following:
wp + microsoft = wp hypocrisy
Interesting comment from Matt on paid stuff
Replacing Matt With What?
GPL and Ethics
Some of these have very little, if anything to do with my post, but fit both the idea and theme nicely, and showcase how a thought can spread through a segment of a major community.
If you want conversation to happen surrounding your posts and ideas, first you need to have an opinion, and then you just need to stand up and write, speak, or record what you want to say, and let other people decide how right or wrong you are.
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Interesting. I agree, to have an opinion means nothing if you don’t argue for it. And a heated argument probably implies one or both sides are defending their point of view. I am too new to appreciate the value of Matt as God, but I understand that what has transpired in the world of Wordpress is essentially the result of his efforts.
I am struggling to understand how all of this works. I just created my first blog (see website) and I have questions. Perhaps they are so basic as to be a nuisance to those more experienced than I, but a dialogue would be nice, to help steer me in the right direction.
I see some parallels between LifeSnips and what interests me. Thank you for sharing!
~ John