[mysidia11]

I'd suggest guerilla-scraping the entire plugin site under the radar, unbeknownst to them. Go live with a new site that simply has all the same directory data as the existing site and additional mirror site links for each plugin, And create a process for plugin authors to claim the existing page in the directory.

Matt may be able to fork plugins, but they won't be able to fork every single plugin in the directory, as it isn't very feasible.

It also would then not necessarily be obvious to Matt which plugin listings in the new directory have been claimed, and which plugins are being updated by other people from the community.

[Timon3]

Just scraping the site isn't quite enough. You'd also have to fork Wordpress to be able to use a plugin directory not under Matt's control, which is important for the average admin to quickly patch security-relevant issues.

But even when you do that, I'd expect him to just give people an ultimatum - either "officially" host on his plugin directory, or others, but not on both. You'd have to reach critical mass pretty much immediately, or Matt can bully the ecosystem into compliance.

[econ]

If that mass doesn't accumulate fast enough he is right and people want him to run things the way he does. It might look weird to me or others, they might even say the opposite but only ones actions count.

[Timon3]

No, that's not how consent and preferences work. If someone has power over a group of individuals, and that group doesn't act due to threats, it's not confirming that they want to be controlled by that someone.

[econ]

They are to blame for his power. If someone else decided the time to act is now then they must choose now. The default is to not change anything.

I may ignore what people say and look what they do. I do this to make people angry :-)

What is the alternative? To tell people how sad it is they can't possibly anything ever? Why bother? Does more harm than good.

[Timon3]

You're completely ignoring that the individuals have a high risk when doing this, even more so when they are the first to take this step. It can often happen that individuals make choices to minimize risk, which lead to increased risk for the whole group. It's just game theory. But it sounds like you're ignoring this deliberately to make people angry, so I'll leave you with one last thought:

You're legitimizing Matt's bullying (by telling people "well, if you don't act counter to game theory and deliberately worsen your own standing, you obviously want to be bullied!") and thus actively telling people "they can't possibly anything ever". What you're doing does far more harm than good.

[econ]

I suppose the only advice one can give are things one would do in that situation.

I've build many great popular things on other people's turf/platforms of which nothing remains.

I have a wp blog too since the beginning! We tried to rebuild our lost communities there. Then akismet started banning people for posting comments with links and I discovered it has no appeal mechanism.

Meet the new boss..

[econ]

Sounds fun. You would only have to provide listing editing if the plugin is not on the other site.

If anyone fills a complaint and can prove ownership a redirect can be provided.

Could maybe perhaps train an llm on a plugin and have it assist.making a free or not bloated version of some popular ones.

[bigiain]

> Could maybe perhaps train an llm on a plugin and have it assist.making a free or not bloated version of some popular ones.

And we are now back at the "having your plugin stolen" problem.