The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 10 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Mullenweg: Wix violated copyright by making derived WordPress code proprietary
“What we often go to bat for and fight for, including with this company called Wix, is what they did was they took our code, and then the code they derived from it, so the modifications they met, were, they said were proprietary and secret to Wix. And so what w…”
Google de-indexed WordPress.org after discovering hidden CSS spam links
“Then Google came in, and of course, they were pretty mad that this code had outsmarted their search engine. So they actually removed WordPress from Google.”
Default backlinks in early WordPress installs boosted developers' search rankings
“Every install of WordPress had links to all the main developers. So because these thousands and thousands of websites were all linking to the word Matt, that would make Google think, oh, these websites, you know, Photomat.net, et cetera, is the number one site…”
A mid-2000s Google survey revealed WordPress powered 0.8% of the web
“Google had done this survey, published a survey of the internet. It was kind of like a statistical analysis of all the websites that were in the Google index and the code they used. And there was this part of the report that said, yeah, and then on .8% of webs…”
A Houston blogger named Christine coined the name 'WordPress'
“One of the bloggers named Christine thought of this name WordPress, and she called me. She was like, I'm so excited. I'm so excited. There's this name, and the .org is available. You should go for it. And I just fell in love with it. So that's how we chose the…”
Original b2 creator officially crowned WordPress as its successor
“When he came back, he had seen that, like, oh, all these things blossomed out of this thing. And so he looked at all the different forks and very graciously sort of crowned WordPress the official continuation of B-II.”
All b2 forks except one eventually joined the WordPress project
“So all of the forks, except for one, joined up with WordPress.”
WordPress launched with only five or six core developers
“WordPress at the time of launch probably had like five or six main developers, but dozens and dozens of people would make like one small change or one little tweak to it.”
Early WordPress spread via default 'Powered by WordPress' footer links
“One thing we did at the time was every website running WordPress, by default, in the template, it would say, powered by WordPress. And so, when you visit a website you liked, you would see this link and be like, oh, let me click on that.”