The title of this somehow makes it sound nefarious, but if you read the linked thread, the mods themselves say they tried before and the Reddit admins said they couldn't do it. Matt went to spez and got special approval, so this is actually helping the subreddit, no?
My concern is why does Matt care all of a sudden? The timing is … suspicious. Especially with the trademark dispute — this feels like Matt trying to shore up a defense or something.
To have a history of trademark enforcement would be my guess, but I think we're all learning that Matt is way over his head, probably from before the whole WPE situation. There's no consistent strategy or narrative.
What I got from other sources is that Automattic's finances in general are not looking too good, and this is just one very public occurence of a flailing, under qualified CEO trying to be hands-on to solve the situation.
I’ve worked with Matt’s team while I was in the hosting industry- Matt has always cared very deeply about it being called WordPress. I’ve written recursive web crawlers to alert us on miscapitaizations for this specific issue, even 10 years ago.
It would be hilarious if it’s to get a history of trademark enforcement, I don’t think you can do that after 10 years of no enforcement and after already being in litigation.
What I got from other sources is that Automattic's finances in general are not looking too good, and this is just one very public occurence of a flailing, under qualified CEO trying to be hands-on to solve the situation.
But really, this doesn’t affect anyone negatively. Live and let live I say.