At WPConcierge, we believe that hosting for WordPress should be non-partisan and independent from WordPress.org. In fact, the ability to decide where and how to host one’s website is a deep expression of freedom. The ideals of WordPress are that, if your content can be hosted online, then you can write about what you like.
We also believe that this freedom is threatened by actions that undermine any one WordPress host. There’s little to nothing stopping the same from happening to all WordPress hosting providers.
That’s why we’re proud to found and sponsor AspirePress, which is working to launch an independent WordPress repository for packages and assets in the WordPress community.
Community-led matters
Speaking for myself, as founder of WPConcierge, I have been involved in the WordPress and PHP communities for years.
I attended WordCamp in Baltimore before WordCamps were a thing and before Aaron Brazell worked for WP Engine. I’ve been a member of the broader PHP community for two decades. I’ve seen community work. And I believe that community-led initiatives matter.
I knew that in founding AspirePress, my role would be to foster a community of earnest individuals who wanted to see the community flourish. But I also knew that it was crucial that the project not be an extension of any one host – and so I’ve entrusted it to the community.
Community-led projects matter a great deal. Having community backing is the key metric by which an open source project lives or dies.
Contributing where we can
Of course, open source communities need both contributors and financial backing. This is one of the ways we come in: we have offered both tangible resources (hosting for AspirePress) and financial resources for AspirePress to conduct its mission.
Open source projects may be free to use, but they’re not free to run: hosting, domains, legal fees, LLC registrations, and more take money to purchase. We’re proud to have made a $1,000 initial seed donation to AspirePress to provide a start on these key expenses.
AspirePress ultimately will be responsible for determining its donation and funding models, and while I hope to be involved, I understand this is a community decision. I look forward to supporting AspirePress for years to come.
Pushing the envelope on technical aspects
One of the key things about AspirePress is that they want to push the technical envelope and improve the community as a whole.
We fully support this effort.
Building a team of WordPress experts and individuals with data center and web hosting experience, not to mention experience running WordPress sites, has been important for AspirePress. Since AspirePress works through a WordPress plugin it’s important to have individuals who understand WordPress, too.
As members of the WordPress community, we encourage pushing the technical envelope in aspects of WordPress like cloud hosting, managed WordPress hosting, and more. WPConcierge was founded on the notion that hosting could be done differently: as experts we felt that we could provide hosting that was optimized for WordPress and came pre-installed with features that every site needs.
Please get involved
in the current climate regarding WordPress, no one must sit on the sidelines. I encourage you to get involved with AspirePress. I may be biased towards this project as a backer and founder, but I can tell you with certainty that allowing any one person to control the WordPress Subversion repository is a dangerous thing. Decentralizing and democratizing WordPress plugin maintenance and deployment is going to be important.
I encourage you to view the AspirePress site and see how you can contribute, too. We’ll continue to host their site, offer our resources where we can, and share our technical expertise.
Join us.
