Recently there has been a lot of chatter related to WordPress, Thesis and GPL and sometimes it’s hard to understand issues that surround us as people blast uninformed content down our throats. I know the barrier for entry is low online and because it allows us to freely publish, we shouldn’t publish simply for the sake of feeding the engine. CC Chapman talked about the term and issue of ‘feeding the engine’ last week in his podcast entitled Managing the Grey. I encourage you all to listen and be reminded that you’re welcome to have an opinion but to blast it out for sake of nothing more than getting attention and rattling you lips is not doing anything that adds value.
I want to help add values to this issue and I want to put everything into a different context. This is how I view WP and Thesis, and building upon the works of others. From this article you’ll see that I believe that Thesis should be GPL. I won’t get into the reasons why I will never ever send an affiliate link to Thesis or why I won’t ever recommend them to anyone. That’s for another article that’s in the works too. I believe there is a benefit to waiting until you gather more information on a subject before making ridiculous generalizations and criticisms. I’ve been amazed how some people can completely bash their own very market. I’ll mention more on my feelings in future content, but for now I simply want to paint a picture of the recent GPL chatter using a nation and province within that nation.
WordPress Country
WordPress is a nation with a great heritage. It is a country built up through the collaboration of it’s citizens. As a Country, they have no barriers to enter and thus anyone can freely enter and become a part of the community. With a population of around 25 million citizens, the nation is very large and improvements are starting to come at a faster pace because everyone is able to build upon the work of another. Some citizens have done great work and built upon the land to form a Province. Provinces include places like *WooThemes, Thesis, StudioPress, Headway, iThemes, and more. These provinces are build upon the great land of WordPress. Without the development of WP, there would be on place for them to become anything.
Province of Thesis
The province of Thesis contains a population of roughly 27,000 citizens. Thesis is build upon and within the land of WordPress Country. This province has created a great following because it’s helped many citizens out through it’s own infrastructure. The infrastructure of thesis is built upon that infrastructure of WordPress Country and thus it’s integration allows the citizens of WordPress to interact and live within it. People within Thesis are generally happy. However, there are some issues within the province that are at a boiling point. Many citizens are not aware of the underlying issues and they feel they may have no need to understand them. However, it doesn’t mean that the issues don’t exist. The citizens within cannot build upon their land. For a citizen to build within this province, they must pay. It is a gated community within the WP nation. It’s totally allowed to have this paid gated community – within WordPress Nation – and once you pay, you’re given a plot of land to live on. If you decide to pay the higher entry cost to get into the province, you’ll be able to live on as many pieces of land as you need. You can also purchase more land for someone new to join the province and become a citizen. There is a strict rule for the citizens that come into Thesis though. We’ll get into that soon. This is a problem for the country of WordPress and it’s heritage.
The Problem within the Province of Thesis and WordPress Country
What happens when a province within WordPress Country decides that they are the special one? What determines that one Province to have characteristics above all else within the Country?
WordPress Country was attractive to the 25 million citizens because it allows them to live and build upon the land for no cost. Anyone is allowed to be apart of the country and community. The citizens are amazed at how simple it is to get setup and become a part of a community with passion to pursue their dreams. Perhaps they heard about WordPress Country from a citizen that was able to build upon the land and leave their horrible life within a Country that didn’t interesting them.
WordPress was fully open due to the sharing nature of the Country. Anyone had the potential to be and do what they wanted in life. If you build upon the land of the nation and make improvements, cities can emerge and even lead to larger provinces, like the Province of Thesis. When you build upon the work of those that came before you, you must also allow citizens to later build upon your work of the land. For example, if you built a City and another citizen came along and built on your city, to improve it, they could help turn everything into a greater place. This city could become a metropolis or become it’s own province at some point.
There is a strict rule for the citizens that come into Thesis though: You cannot build upon your land within the province. That’s right, you are not to improve the land and build anything new upon the land of Thesis. You can only live within the structures already built.
The development within this province moves at a slower pace because of the lack of collaboration between it’s citizens. The only citizen able to continue the development of the province is that of the provincial leader. The citizens may have great ideas to improve and build upon WordPress; however, the Provincial Leader strictly forbids it. This leader feels the land is his own creation and if a city were to emerge, his time and work would be ruined. The restricted development by the provincial leader helps prevent low life citizens of WordPress nation to start living or possibly building on his land for free. This would hurt profits.
The Province of Thesis as a Parasite
The way the province is working allows it to benefit off the land of WordPress nation. The leader was able to freely build upon the land and create a large Province. It benefits from the citizens, infrastructure and beliefs of the entire WordPress Country but does not believe in the very ideology that allowed it to exist in the first place. Once built, the province did not put up the GPL sign in the sales office. Yes, Thesis is integrated with the community/country but it is a province feeding off the benefits WP gives it and allows for it’s very existence. This causes an uproar among the nation because they don’t know what makes the Province of Thesis so special compared to them. Meanwhile, many citizens could argue that because Thesis does not allow anyone to build upon it’s work, growth is stagnant and the innovation is lackluster. Many other provinces are glad their land is able to be built upon because it has improved their life and allowed other citizens to contribute to the province and country too. However, the success of other citizens and provinces does not mean they can simply ignore this province that doesn’t play by the same rules.
The issue could be very boring if the Province of Thesis would simply agree to place the GPL sign in the sales office window and allow it’s citizens to build upon their land. I’ll admit that the debacle does provide excitement and fuel the fire on both sides of the fence. In the case of WordPress Country, the parasite could aid in the success of the overall country.
How the Parasite of Thesis helps WordPress Country
This parasite wakes up WP Country. The entire nation is reminded of why it exists today, what they stand for, what they believe in, and why the citizens are all apart of it. The country of WordPress bands together and becomes stronger! The citizens of WP are grateful for the hospitality the country has provided them and for the ability to live their life on their own terms. The citizens of the WP nation are reminded of the possibilities that exist when they are able to build upon work of other citizens and create something greater than themselves.
What Happens to WordPress or the Province of Thesis?
Right now the Province of Thesis is not agreeing to put the GPL sign in their sales office window. The province will not allow the citizens to build upon their land (that is built upon the land of WP). Right now, it’s business as usual. I debated posting this article. It started out as a comment due to an article on the blog of the Blog World Expo. That article talked asked “what is community” and I wanted to say that just because you’re within the community doesn’t mean you’re a part of it. I’ve been frustrated that people think that Chris Pearson’s Thesis theme is the one getting ‘bullied’ by the ‘mob’ that is WordPress. When there is a large group of people telling you to fix your license, it might be time to listen up.
I wanted to further edit this post, but I am just glad that I’m publishing it and getting on with things. I hope you enjoyed playing out the issue like this and maybe it can help someone that’s still confused. Congrats to the smart decision making skills of the developers for Headway Theme. They have fixed their license to become GPL. Some people are now saying that Headway developers caved and were too weak, but I’d say they are smart. They probably saved a huge number for clients.
We’ll see what happens in the future.
*WooThemes actually does have provinces within other countries now, such as Drupal, Tumblr and Expression Engine.
I like wordpress, but it’s also what I’ve had the most experience with. Thanks for the info!