The WordPress, Thesis, GPL Issue Teaches a Lesson in Leadership

Users of  DIYThemes Thesis Theme are currently migrating to fresher water, aka a brand new GPL WordPress Theme.  If Thesis had 27000 users last week, that number is down this week. That number was actually down 1, for a long time because I opted to not even use my developer license.  I moved to fresher water and the view is much more beautiful, I feel at home.

This article is not going to try and convince you that the GPL is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  The article is not going to try and convince you that Thesis does not need to become GPL.  I’ll let you know right now that I don’t care if WordPress or Thesis go to court and battle out this issue.  WordPress Country will still exist and many brilliant designers and developers will continue to do amazing work in collaboration to build amazing things. With or without a GPL Thesis Theme, I’ll continue to work at building a business with the intent to help others do what inspires them in life.

Mullenweg finds that remaining faithful to open source ideology while making money can sometimes be difficult, although ultimately it’s worth the effort.

This article is actually about some lessons I learned in leadership and the importance of beliefs, meaning, purpose and cause. I’ll talk about why I kept being drawn away from Thesis to WooThemes and other designers, why I believe many website and blog owners are making the shift from Thesis to GPL licensed WP Themes, and the importance of purpose in everything you do.

WordPress and Matt Mullenweg

I remember watching a video of a WordCamp talk by Matt a long time ago now and I just sat there amazed that he was the guy to bring WordPress to us all as the founding developer.  I appreciated that fact and went on with my days.  I visited his website from time to time because it was an easy to remember domain (ma.tt) and it was a pretty create piece of art.  In preparing this article, I wanted to read his about page and I was delighted when I found this:

The website says WordPress is “a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform” but more importantly WordPress is a part of who I am. Like eating, breathing, music, I can’t not work on WordPress. The project touches a lot of people, something I’ve recently begun to appreciate. I consider myself very lucky to be able to work on something I love so much.

- Matt Mullenweg

Flowing within Matt’s blood is WordPress DNA.  To disrespect the license, that has allowed WordPress to become what it is today, is to disrespect Matt’s bloodline.  Matt doesn’t elaborate on the fact that WP touches so many people, but this is very important.  WordPress touches so many people because the software is open source.  You can download it for free, and you can setup an account for free at WordPress.com. Yes, anyone can download WP for free and be used for free – never pay a license fee. Developers are able to improve upon the software due to the GPL license for the software.  This means that Matt is not the only developer; there are literally hundreds of developers that put their work into it and don’t get paid for that work.  If you’re read or heard about Clay Shriky’s book Cognitive Surplus, you may start to make a connection here.

I started to learn Matt is faithful to open source ideology. By being a strong supporter of open source, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make money. This was something I was eternally frustrated with in many negative blog posts related to the GPL issue. I found an article from Silicon.com that mentioned Mullenweg finds that remaining faithful to open source ideology while making money can sometimes be difficult, although ultimately it’s worth the effort.

It’s a democratization of publishing which was kind of our goal from the beginning.

While Matt is not the only developer for WordPress today, he is very much a leader within WordPress Communities. He’s inspired people to learn programming and code to improve WP for everyone. Because the product is free to download and use, it inspires people to go after their own dreams.  It’s easy to ‘try out’ when you aren’t 100% sure what you’re doing.  WP suddenly gives someone a voice in the online landscape, a voice to talk about anything they care about and love. This democratized publishing system is enabling many to find purpose in a world that looked very dark. I am one of the many.

I want to stress that making WordPress open source, allowing anyone to build upon the work, it also allows anyone to use it for free.  This enables millions of people to create instead of simply consume.  WP didn’t involve blogging, but it sure did make it easy.  Matt believed in the possibility for everyone to have ample opportunity to flourish online in new ways, one being economically.  Chris Pearson is a prime example of one of the people able to economically flourish from WordPress.

If you’re using WordPress today, why did you embrace the product? Do you believe everyone should have the ability to publish online?  We could do that in a number of places before WP came into being.  I used LiveJournal back in 2000 or before.  Livejournal let me have a journal online but, to my knowledge, I couldn’t install it on my own domain.  It wasn’t clear. I can’t download the software, can I? I just looked and I can’t find anywhere to download it.  It looks like it would compete with WordPress.com.

Open software stands for something intrinsically good.  Here’s the thing: We embraced WordPress because of everything it stood for and because of what Matt believed in for the software.  Creating something that is open source, using cognitive surplus, is based on intrinsic motivation.  WP gets Matt out of bed excited, everyday.

For many of you reading this right now, is that not exactly how you want to feel? You want to have a passion that you get up everyday excited to work on? Has WordPress helped you move closer to this vision? It has for me. And I am forever grateful for it.

We become aligned with WP not because of what it can do, ie improve our SEO or properly setting type. We buy download WordPress because of its purpose, and because of what it stands for.  More importantly, we download WordPress because of what WE belief and our own cause.  We belief that each of us should be able to pursue our own passions, interests and desires.  We should be able to do what inspires us, and to start doing it easily.  We want to wake up every morning to do what inspire us and helps change the world.

Matt Mullenweg has inspired each and every one of us. We’ve realized that there are options available to us via a simple download, to make a greater impact in the world.   This is why I believe in Matt asking Thesis to go GPL.  However, Chris Pearson is taking his own stand and opting to not abide by the General Public License of WordPress.

Thesis Theme and Chris Pearson

Chris Pearson is the founding developer for the DIYThemes Thesis Theme.  The Thesis Theme is a theme that is built upon WordPress.  It is a theme framework and allows users create a number of layouts, designs, and other additional modifications.  There are actually many of these types of WordPress themes available, but Thesis is the one that seemed to be most popular for a while. You might even argue that it’s still the most popular. I saw Chris Pearson tweet out a message the other day about searches being up for Thesis.  He was proud! There might be some other reasons for the search though, Chris.

WordPress did not empower me to write this [Thesis theme] software.

The Thesis Theme is Chris’ baby (much like WordPress is Matt’s and the other hundreds of developers’ baby).  Chris is proud of his development and rightfully so, it’s a strong WP Theme with lots of flexibility.  He does not want Thesis to become GPL because he want’s to protect his work.  The WordPress license seems to not apply to Thesis.

Chris believes that Thesis is the driving force behind premium WP theme innovation.  Many of the 27000 would not even know about WP without Thesis, in the eyes of Chris.  I have a developer license for Thesis and I haven’t used it in over 6 months.  I tried using it a number of times, but I kept moving away from it. I never stopped to really think about why I kept straying from Thesis.

Chris has stated a number of times that he built the Thesis theme for WordPress because of the large user base, potential for profit, and to create solutions. WordPress also provided him the path of least resistance to making great money.   Regardless if Thesis goes GPL or not, I wanted to explore why Chris runs DIYThemes.  What does he and his company stand for? I found little luck on the official website and on his personal site.  A lot of the information I could go off was a few interviews on Mixergy.

When People are actually solving problems, the rules don’t apply to them.

When Andrew Warner asks Chris asked about the business, Chris tells us that wanted to produce some creative work that’s independent. WordPress did not empower him to write the Thesis theme software. He believes in the ability to protect his rights as the developer of the software.

He appreciates the way WordPress has evolved, but doesn’t believe in the entire reason why WP exists? He doesn’t realize that his theme is due to the evolution of WordPress?

Why didn’t Chris say that he cares about helping people? Why didn’t Chris talk about what he Believes thesis can do for everyone? Other than create a flexible website and build on the functionality of WP.  By contesting the WordPress license, Chris Pearson completely goes against the grain of what WP stands for today.  And in his debate with Matt on Mixergy, I realized WHY I kept moving away from Chris and the Thesis theme.

Chris comes from a place that only cares about himself. That statement may not be 100% factual; however, Chris shows nothing that would change the statement.   He believes his position in the market is at the top.   He does want people to make money, but he doesn’t want people to make money off of his good name.  This frustrates me and I’ll mention why it frustrates me so much soon.

Instead of explaining real reasons for creating Thesis and licensing it the way he did, Chris decides to name a few WP developers and say that they know nothing about it.  He commented that all of these supporting Matt are “WordPress Trolls,” mindlessly following whatever Matt says.  I took offence to this comment by Chris because he assumes that WP users cannot think for themselves.  He undermines his entire market by calling them “trolls” and associating them with sheep or lemmings.  If Matt declared that Thesis would go GPL if he walked off a cliff, WordPress users would not walk off the cliff behind him.

Listening to Chris Pearson, the only impression I am left with is that he cause about making money. The reason Thesis exists is because he could easily profit from the WordPress Economy.  If this wasn’t the case, I wish he’d expressed his reasons.  In another interview on Mixergy, Chris says:

We are a disruptive force in a market place; the utter definition of all these things that are good about organic business, about stuff that works. When People are actually solving problems, the rules don’t apply to them.  We don’t get any press but I don’t even care about that.

I get insanely frustrated trying to search out deep meaning to provide for Chris here.  Everything I run into deals with the ability to make more money.  Trust me, I’m not against making money and profiting from work.  That’s a sad assumption to make here.  I simply believe making money is a side benefit to doing work that is for a cause that will change the world, or a reason that is bigger than yourself.  By being motivated by

Abundance Vs Scarcity

One thing to never do? Never call your market a bunch of “trolls.”

When I sit back and envision the big picture, I see 2 opposing mindsets: Abundance and Scarcity.  In my life, I try and align myself with an abundance mindset.  I say “try” because it’s difficult to not fall into negativity and scarcity sometimes with depression.  This might be something everyone has trouble with, but I know that I have to constantly check-in with myself to feel the abundance in my life. I look to align myself with those same people, and companies.  Here I was confused about why I kept moving away from DIYThemes, but in essance I was being pulled towards companies like WooThemes that embrace an abundant belief.  I always assumed my attraction to WooThemes was simply their creativity, fun, and love for design.  While those values are important, it’s the fact that they are not consumed by a scarcity mindset.

The way WP is licensed is to provide us all with abundance. There is no barrier to prevent you from being able to use and benefit from it’s use.  On the contrary, Thesis is licensed from a place of scarcity. Chris and DIYThemes feel that if their license was GPL, no one would buy from them anymore. Everyone would simply start to sell and give away the WP theme for a cheaper price. All of these people would benefit from his name, except for him.  A scarcity mindset is saying that there isn’t enough money to be made by adopting the GPL that is required when building upon WordPress.

Matt’s beliefs are so aligned with abundance and it’s so easy to learn that on multiple websites.  WordPress users become aligned with Matt and the software because of these beliefs. The users don’t care about WordPress or the GPL. The ‘mob’ that many thesis supporters are complaining about, are people that are supporting Matt for what he believes in and what WP stands for.  As I said earlier the support of this ‘mob’ is, more importantly, focused on what they stand for and believe in.

The Lesson in Leadership & Business

I support the belief that people buy why you do things by 1050%.  Simon Sinek has drilled it into my mind to come from a place of great meaning. What you do ends up becoming the proof of what you believe in.  WordPress and Automattic come from a place of why they get of bed everyday to work.  Thesis and DIYThemes are in business because of what they’ve done.   Chris said he is anything but a follower in the recorded debate on Mixergy. I would argue that he is the ultimate follower right now.  Until he has his own fully functioning CMS and does not require WordPress anymore, he’s following. Without Matt and the hundreds of WordPress developers, Chris is wandering in the forest with no one behind him. He’d have no product to show people. He’d never have been able to write his software for people to use. He would have never been able to ‘provide solutions.’ Whatever that means.

Many people that would probably never even care if Thesis is GPL or not, have started looking around.  This is probably the most dangerous thing for DIYThemes.  People are going to realize that many other themes have advanced well beyond that of Thesis.  Thesis JUST GOT the ability to upload a header graphic in the 1.8 update! I wonder if that has anything to do with the WordPress 3.0 upgrade? I have no idea but many themes had that ability way before 3.0 came along.  People are also seeing the true character of who built their theme and they don’t like it.  There are many ethical people that have abided by Chris’ Thesis license and now realizing that he isn’t going to abide by the WP license.  If I didn’t drop Thesis long ago, I would be now.

What could have prevented this? To always come from a place of meaning. Have a reason for everything you do.  True leaders are those that will inspire you and believe in a cause much bigger than their ego.  One thing to never do? Never call your market a bunch of “trolls.”

Right now I don’t know what DIYThemes is up to.  At the start of this article I mentioned people are moving their WordPress website away from the Thesis theme.  People are opting to change their theme to something from WooThemes, Obox-Designs, Headway, Genesis, and others.  Thesis affiliates are removing affiliate links that have been scattered through out their blog.

As I was writing this article, the term class action popped into my mind. It was when I was looking at the Thesis pricing page.  I wondered if Thesis went GPL or not, shouldn’t all the customers that purchased the Developer License be reimbursed for $87 plus any other client licenses they needed to buy? Without the random licensing on their part, I could have done what I wanted (placed Thesis on as many of my own sites as I wanted) without purchasing a developer license.  I would also not be required to continually buy new licenses for clients. It’s interesting to think about when you start adding up the numbers. Consider if 10000 of the 27000 users are developer licenses, that adds up to $870K. If DIYThemes were publicly traded, maybe they would be issuing some sort of press release.  I haven’t heard anything from them other than this debate and that’s kind of scary.

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I seriously hope that you notice there is something to learn from this situation. Aside from GPL talk, legal talk, and what will Chris Pearson & DIYThemes do, we need to notice the need to understand why we do what we do.  I’ve been building a course around this idea with my friend Dan because we believe people dream bigger than monetary gain.  Check out Rewomb: Idea and Entrepreneur Wellness Centre when you have some time, but it’s not 100% GO yet.

After leaving time to let the issue sink in, I’ve spend most of the day actually writing this article. I didn’t want to jump the gun and make some crazy statement, so I created the list of links that discussed the WordPress, Thesis GPL issue in more detail. I’m so thankful to have been able to start my own business, and I know everything I’ve done with WordPress has been apart of my own depression therapy. I wish I could somehow show more gratitude for everyone that’s helped me take the biggest jump in my life. This is why I believe we can overcome depression and the feeling of being stuck in a life we never intended. This is why I believe that through photography, we can help people see the greatness in the world. Through photography we can help people see again, or see for the first time. I get up everyday and say Thank You for allowing me to work and one day achieve those goals. I intend it this way.

I’ll leave you with an awesome quote, by Matt, from the article interview with Matt on silicon.com:

“You know in 2000, [businesses] probably would have spent $10m [developing an online presence] and today they spend zero dollars on WordPress, which I think is beautiful. It’s a democratisation of publishing which was kind of our goal from the beginning.”