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What’s Beyond WordPress?

Published: November 16, 2022Leave a Comment

As a WordPress veteran, I’ve observed the fluctuations in the ecosystem for many years now. I’ve also written about my thoughts on the current state of things at various points in the past, but today I want to focus on that again with an eye on the future. I’m going to say things the way I see them and the way I think they are in this article; feel free to disagree in the comments section if you think I’ve got anything wrong.

First, a Bit of History

I’m going to start with some historical context as I feel that it’s very important when thinking about the present state and future possibilities.

Over the past twenty years, we’ve seen a significant shift in the way people use and perceive the internet. In the early days, the avenues of the web were synonymous with freedom. For the first time ever, we could make our voice heard by the world wherever and whoever we were. The creation of tools like WordPress was essential in allowing users to publish their content. Users didn’t mind taking some time to understand the technical part of things, such as downloading the WordPress software, installing it on a server, setting up a domain etc.

Nowadays, the internet looks quite different. Users have gravitated towards centralized platforms that provide an easy-to-use interface for creation, and an audience too. They’ve been seduced by the slick interfaces and addictive nature of many social networks and platforms, and have long-forgotten ideals about decentralization and open-source software.

This is the present that WordPress finds itself in today, with competitors like Wix, Squarespace, Shopify and Webflow, all of which are centralized platforms for creation. WordPress has the biggest market share, helped by its tremendous growth over the past two decades and its first-mover advantage (all other platforms launched many years after WordPress). But the challenge going forward is to keep its position while faced with these formidable competitors.

The WordPress Ecosystem

Now, I want to spend some time describing all the components of the WordPress ecosystem.

Matt Mullenweg – The Founder

Matt Mullenweg is the co-founder of WordPress, together with Mike Little. Matt has been the leader and figurehead of WordPress since its founding in 2003, and has become a billionaire through Automattic, the company he founded soon after he launched WordPress.

Matt makes his investments in other companies through Audrey Capital. Through the success of Automattic, he’s been able to go on and invest in many other interesting companies, a list of which is on the Audrey Capital website.

Automattic – Matt’s Company

Automattic is a company founded and run by Matt Mullenweg, who is also the co-founder of WordPress. It is still private but has done several funding rounds and is currently valued at around $8 billion. Yes, you read that right.

Automattic now owns various web products, such as Tumblr and Day One, but the company made its money through WordPress.com.

WordPress.com – The Cash Cow

The first point of confusion for any prospective WordPress user is the differentiation between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

WordPress.org is the site that hosts the open source software known as WordPress.

WordPress.com is the hosted version of WordPress and is run by Automattic, a company founded by Matt Mullenweg, also a co-founder of WordPress.

WordPress.com has become very similar to the other centralized systems that I mentioned previously (Squarespace et al) and is obviously a big money maker for Automattic.

Here we start seeing how things are twisted to the benefit of the commercial side of WordPress (making money for Automattic). Note how the screenshot above raves about the “millions of people that call WordPress.com home” and makes no mention of the fact that the majority of those are using WordPress the open-source software not WordPress.com, the hosted version.

WordPress.org – The Open Source Software

WordPress.org is where you can download the open-source WordPress software. It’s also the de-facto home of the “WordPress community”, and you will find the forums, plugin and theme download pages, etc there.

WordPress was launched at a time when most content management systems were closed source. The fact that WordPress was launched as an open source project was the single most important driver to its success. By being free, it quickly gained adoption among both users and developers.

WordPress Plugin (& Theme) Developers

WordPress plugin and theme developers are what made WordPress grow into the behemoth it is today. They built upon and extended the functionality of WordPress in a bazillion ways, turning WordPress into by far the most flexible publishing software on the planet.

The only real alternative to WordPress if flexibility and extensibility is your main goal, is to build your website from scratch using custom code or a coding framework as a base. If you’re not a developer or don’t have the means to hire one (or an agency) then WordPress is your only feasible choice. All you need to do is pay a few hundred dollars to acquire the set of plugins that you need to concoct whatever flavor of website you desire.

WordPress Users

By WordPress Users, I mean individuals or companies that are using WordPress to power their websites. This group numbers in the millions.

WordPress Agencies

These are companies that build web solutions for their customers using WordPress. They are typically not that interested in WordPress as a project beyond it being a means to an end. Some are more invested in WordPress and even create and sell a few plugins of their own.

The Current State of WordPress

In 2022, I’ve seen WordPress reach a peak of negativity among plugin developers, mostly due to the fact that they have always been underappreciated by WordPress leadership. Towards the end of the year, the WordPress powers that be suddenly removed the install growth charts from the .org repository without any real explanation. When questioned about it, Matt, Otto (one of the lead devs) and JJJ (another developer close to the core team) offered conflicting reasons, leading to even more speculation and outrage. Plugin developers were adamant about wanting the feature back as it is essential to them in monitoring how their plugin is performing in the market, but there was no real sense of caring from Matt and the core team.

For many years now, those who have been working in the space for a long time have felt that WordPress is an ecosystem that is run by one man, Matt, acting as the dictator. He has been sometimes referred to as the “benevolent dictator”, but his sense of judgment and benevolence is being questioned more and more as time goes by. The close circle of people high up in the WordPress hierarchy has also fallen out of favor, again mostly due to their dismissive and entitled attitude. There is certainly the sense that WordPress is far from an open system when it comes to the major decisions taken.

Web developers in general tend to hate WordPress due to their perception of it being bloated and badly coded. While there is a strong element of truth there, the codebase has changed a lot over the years, moving from being almost 100% PHP-based to being more of a JS-based system. The attitude, whether justified or not, still prevails, and most serious developers prefer using a cleaner framework like Laravel for their projects. This makes it harder for WordPress companies to hire competent developers.

WordPress agencies are having a good time, since the popularity of WordPress with end users doesn’t seem to be waning, in fact it is reportedly still growing year over year, although there are some debates around that statement as well.

WordPress as a system has definitely enjoyed much better years as regards to reputation, but it is undoubtedly the case that there are still millions of sites running it and many new sites popping up every day, so agencies have no worries about finding new clients.

Enterprise-focused agencies are a niche on their own, dealing with their own trials, as Magne from Dekode can attest. However, it is also true that their business is doing well and also growing, so along with agencies doing work for mom-and-pop shops and small businesses, this is a good niche to be in.

What about the end users though? These are by and large the biggest part of the WordPress ecosystem. For end users, there still isn’t much of an alternative to WordPress if they are the DIY types and have a very specific type of site they want to build. The lack of alternatives stems from the fact that WordPress is the only system out there to have so many plugins. Sure, end users can choose Squarespace, Wix, and the rest of the hosted systems out there. They offer a slicker experience and better UI, but they will always lack in features and flexibility compared to WordPress.

On the other hand, end users are also frustrated by moves that have been imposed on them by Matt and his cronies over the years. Gutenberg is a glaring example, and a look at the reviews will tell you all you need to know.

Again this is an example of Matt being an absolute dictator and shoving his wishes down everyone’s throat. Here’s one of the recent reviews at the time of writing this article:

No one step set WordPress back as far as this one plugin and set of features has. Now with the infiltration of Gutenberg modules into the official WP code contributions represents a devolution and corruption of WordPress principles, a rotting of it to the core. As an avid long term fan and developer of WordPress for 12+ years, nothing comes close to Gutenberg in how much it’s damaged the functioning and operation of WordPress, adding needless complexities to the user and developer experience, adding no tangible upsides, and breaking the long upheld principle of backwards compatibility. This plugin and mostly its integration into the WP core is a disaster and has damaged WordPress as a whole.

The Future

I know many WordPress plugin and theme business owners who have totally given up on WordPress and exited the space altogether. Typically, they have sold their businesses to a bigger plugin company like Awesome Motive, or to hosting companies that are trying to emulate the hosted environment provided by WordPress.com.

Others are still trying their best to survive within the changing WordPress ecosystem, although the way I see it, things are not looking great going forward.

I’ll end with a question – What’s next?

For users who have become frustrated by the complexity of WordPress and the janky experience, will they move to a service like Squarespace, Substack, Wix or Webflow? Will they wake up to the abusive pricing strategies by some WordPress plugin sellers and the overall horrible experience of having to pay subscription fees to several plugin suppliers to keep their website running year after year?

For the plugin developers who are seeing their chances of success within the WordPress space trending towards zero, what are the alternatives? Shopify is one platform that is becoming more and more attractive, as it opens up the possibilities for developers extending the core functionality and building significant businesses around that model.

I welcome your comments and discussion.

Spain’s New Wealth Tax in 2023 – How To Drive Talented People Out of the Country

Last updated: January 01, 20232 Comments

Spanish politicians just introduced a draft law for a new wealth tax. They say it’s a temporary tax, but we all know what a lie that is, considering the previous wealth tax system was also supposed to be temporary when introduced in 2008, and it exists to this day.

This is just another pig-headed populist move to appease the ignorant masses who believe that robbing Peter to pay Paul is a sustainable and good way to achieve prosperity.

What will happen is that more and more entrepreneurs and high net worth people will move to other countries, perhaps neighboring Portugal which treats them much better. Others will just implement structures that eliminate their wealth tax liability. Wealth taxes have been abolished the world over, precisely because they are unjust and don’t even achieve their purported aims of helping grow the government coffers during tough times.

How Will it Work?

Net wealth will be taxed from 3.7 million, throughout all Spanish regions (including Madrid and Andalusia which had previously discounted all wealth tax for their residents), the rates are tiered and go up to 3.5%. The valuation rules are the same as those of the current Wealth Tax, with the possibility to apply the family business exemption and the Income Tax/Wealth Tax limits of 20/60. Both rules are a relief for many. For those under Beckham regime, the tax calculation remains similarly unchanged (based on Spanish assets only). Otherwise the wealth tax is based on worldwide assets unless the double taxation treaty in place between the two countries implies any exceptions.

If the law is approved before the end of the year, it will apply in 2022 (payable in 2023). As mentioned, they say it is temporary for 2 years, 2022 and 2023, but with the possibility of extension.

For tax residents in Catalunya, it will only impact those with assets above 10 million euro, as that will trigger the 3.5% rate versus the 2.75% applied in Catalunya. This is due to the current wealth tax implemented by autonomous regions being fully deductible in the new state wealth tax.

I expect that the new wealth tax regime will be challenged in the courts by Madrid and Andalucia, who have worked hard over the past years to promote freedom and friendliness towards entrepreneurs. They had abolished wealth tax in their regions, and the new wealth tax system is mostly a reaction to that fact.

A change in government whereby the socialists are no longer in charge is the only real possibility of removing the wealth tax once and for all and put an end to this stupidity.

My Favorite Podcasts in 2023

Last updated: January 01, 2023Leave a Comment

Here’s a list of my favorite podcasts in 2022. I’ve noted down my favorite crypto and NFT podcasts separately.

Politics & Economics

The Reason Interview – Nick Gillespie
EconTalk – Russ Roberts
Free Thoughts
Infinite Loops
Intelligence Squared

Tech

The a16z podcast
Building at the edges
Interdependence – Mat Dryhurst. Holly Herndon

Psychology, Philosophy and Spirituality

The Michael Shermer Show – Michael Shermer
Making Sense – Sam Harris
Skeptoid – Brian Dunning
You are Not so Smart – David McRaney
On Being – Krista Tippett
Where Should We Begin? – Esther Perel
Heart Wisdom – Jack Kornfield
No Stupid Questions – Stephen Dubner, Angela Duckworth

Life Mastery

The Tim Ferriss Show – Tim Ferriss
The Knowledge Project – Shane Parrish
The Better Human Show – David Rachford
The Productivity Show – Asian Efficiency
Lex Fridman Podcast – Lex Fridman

Health & Fitness

Huberman Lab – Andrew Huberman
The Peter Attiah Drive – Peter Attiah
Mind Pump – Various
Muscle Intelligence – Ben Pakulski
Neuro Athletics – Louisa Nicola
Rich Roll Podcast – Rich Roll

Business & Investing

Hidden Forces – Demetri Kofinas
Money For the Rest of Us – J David Stein
The Tropical MBA – Dan Andrews & Ian Schoen
Macrovoices – Erik Townsend
Masters in Business – Bloomberg
Odd Lots – Weisenthal, Alloway

Parenting

Respectful Parenting – Janet Lansbury

Science

Crowdscience
Science VS – Gimlet

Future

Interdependence

Living in the City Versus the Suburbs

Published: November 05, 20224 Comments

A question I’ve been contemplating lately is whether we should continue living in the city center or move to a house in the suburbs. The distinction between a city and a suburb isn’t clear-cut. While a city is the core of a metropolitan area, a suburb is an area on the periphery of city limits. Generally, cities have large populations over a small area, but suburbs can have even larger populations of hundreds of thousands or a million residents — just spread across a lot more square kilometers.

Here are a few thoughts on the subject.

Lockdown Experience

The COVID-19 lockdown has given us a taste of how life could be without the noise and air pollution produced by cars, trucks and most of all scooters/motorcycles in big cities. As a person who works from home, it was fantastic to be able to keep windows open during the day, breathe fresh air at any time and even smell the sea when the wind was blowing inland. Along with those novelties, I started to cycle and exercise outside and found it extremely enjoyable. The streets were pretty much taken over by bicycles and runners in fact, and cycling shops recorded record sales during the lockdown months.

The day the lockdown was partially lifted was a big contrast. Cycling suddenly became much more dangerous and frankly, the noise and pollution killed all the joy of it. Moreover, being on lockdown also offered another perspective on how important or not it is to be surrounded by shops and activities as well as the importance of having a home that you enjoy.

I was born and raised in Malta, where the concept of cities and suburbs is blurred since you don’t really have a big central city; there are parts that look more like a city and others that feel more like rural living, but you never get the same feeling as living in a real city. Using personal means of transportation is a must and you get accustomed to needing 15-40 minutes to get anywhere important such as the university, work, beach, gym, etc.

City Life Experience

Although I’ve traveled a lot and visited many big cities, my first real experience of living in one was Barcelona, and I fell in love with the lifestyle instantly. I liken it to the experience of drinking Vodka and Red Bull mixed together (a favorite from back in the clubbing days in my early twenties although I wouldn’t recommend it). It’s exactly that feeling of losing some inhibitions and being more open to new ideas, plus the buzz and excitement of new opportunities that abound in a city like Barcelona.

Chiang Mai was another big city I had the experience of living in, although in a funny way it feels both more rural and way more congested and polluted than the typical city in Europe.

The upsides of living in a city:

More meetups and new experiences than you can even keep up with
Possibility of meeting an incredibly diverse set of people
Being challenged in new ways and possibly having to face some inner demons. I see this as a good thing if addressed correctly.

Looking back, I can see how life in a city has taken all the attributes of my character and amplified them. That meant that I was able to advance very rapidly in work and fitness due to the people I met, inspirational work spaces and meetups, and the wealth of sports facilities, athletes, and coaches. On the other hand, it also meant that some of the weak points of my character were also severely put to the test.

For example, it has always been really important for me to have a safe space, which I usually found at home and more specifically my room at home. As long as I had that one comfortable space where I could shut off the rest of the world and recharge (reading, writing, video games, etc) I felt safe and at peace. I am very sociable but I need to be able to retreat to that space when I need to. Life in the city for the most part robbed me of that space. This brings me to the next point.

Life with Kids

When you have kids, you really need more space, and city apartments start looking much less attractive. Kids can still benefit of the proximity to things in the city and the multitude of things they can do, but home life can be challenging especially if one or both parents are working from home.

Then there’s the question of schools. In our case, we ended up choosing a school that was quite far from the city center. That means a longish commute to and from the school on a daily basis, which gets tiring and expensive if you’re using taxis. I’ve since learned that for young families, proximity to their kids’ schools is usually the number one factor when they choose where to live.

Safety

One can argue that life in the suburbs is safer. There are fewer people, less traffic, and potentially a stronger neighboring community. On the other hand, if you’re being targeted by thieves, a house can in many cases be more vulnerable than an apartment.

Pollution

Suburbs clearly win out on this point. There’s less noise and less air pollution when compared to life in the city.

Transportation

With most suburbs, due to the fact that everything is much more spaced out, you will need to have one or more cars to function on a daily basis. This can mean less time spent walking and biking; two essential activities for health. You might need to regularly drive back to the city if you attend any activities there such as gyms, music or art lessons, etc.

Depending on where you live, the suburbs might also be hilly parts which make moving around even more uncomfortable and oblige you to use motorized transportation. This is the case in Barcelona and its immediate suburbs, for example. Cities tend to rise around flat plains and access to water historically, so they are more or less flat and easy to walk around, although there are exceptions of course.

Bottom Line

The main points in favor of suburb life are less pollution, more space, and perhaps a safer environment. In favor of cities, we have easier access to hospitals, restaurants and other institutions. We have definitely more cultural activities and diversity.

School proximity is also a factor but since some schools can also be within the city it really depends on what school you end up choosing.

I am still torn between the two options, so if you have any thoughts and have tried both, please do leave a comment below.

Where To Buy NFTs – The Biggest and Trusted Marketplaces

Published: October 29, 2022Leave a Comment

A question that most beginners in the NFT world face is this: where to buy NFTs from? The answer in most cases is: through an NFT marketplace. There are nuances, so we’ll be going through the landscape briefly and trying to make sense of things.

In this article, I’ll be dividing NFT marketplaces into two: Open and Curated.

I will also mention some tools that can be used to trade NFTs securely in a peer-to-peer fashion.

Open Marketplaces

An open marketplace is one where anyone can mint and sell NFTs. There is no need to apply and get accepted – creators just connect to a wallet and mint the NFTs. Existing owners of NFTs can list their NFTs for resale.

OpenSea

OpenSea is easily the largest NFT marketplace. When you see people talking about buying and selling NFTs, 99% of the time they are referring to doing this on OpenSea. The platform has seen trading volume skyrocket into millions of dollars during 2021.

By being an open marketplace, scams abound, so you need to be careful to get the right URL for a project, as there are usually copycats posing as the real project and trying to trick users into buying them. OpenSea verifies the largest projects and adds a checkmark next to their name. Look out for that, although some projects are having to wait days to get the checkmark, so not having a checkmark doesn’t mean the project is not trustworthy either.

Some alternatives to OpenSea are LooksRare, X2Y2 and Blur. All these marketplaces can be used to trade NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.

Objkt

Objkt is the equivalent of OpenSea on the Tezos blockchain. If you’re new to OpenSea, it’s probably a better idea to stick to buying NFTs on the Ethereum chain, but if you’re into generative art, it’s worth having a look at what’s available on Tezos. Typically art on this chain is much cheaper. For generative art on Tezos it’s also worth looking at FX Hash.

Rarible

Rarible is another open marketplace, however, unlike OpenSea, it is more focused on art assets such as books, music, albums, digital art, movies, photography, games, metaverses, domains, and memes.

Rarible integrates with OpenSea – minting on Rarible can populate the NFTs on OpenSea. Users can view the collectibles they created on Rarible on OpenSea and manage the NFTs on OpenSea as well. However, unlike OpenSea, Rarible only lists NFTs that were minted on Rarible.

If you’re looking for a higher risk/higher reward investment, look into the RARI token, which you can buy on Kraken.

Buy $RARI on Kraken

RARI has a total supply of 25m and is considered to be a utility token. By owning RARI tokens, users gain the ability to submit and vote on proposals to change its rules. This includes voting on possible fee changes, how those fees are spent and the rules governing creator promotion.

It is important to note that voting with RARI is non-binding, and that the Rarible company still needs to accept user decisions and implement them. However, Rarible’s goal is to eventually transfer power to a software-based system controlled by users called the Rarible DAO.

The idea behind buying the RARI token is to gain exposure to the growing NFT and digital content market or to have a say in how one of the leading NFT marketplaces develops.

Curated Marketplaces

A curated marketplace determines which NFTs are allowed to be minted, posted and sold on it.

Compared to an open marketplace, a curated marketplace is more limited and exclusive, requiring artists to apply and be accepted before being able to mint or sell NFTs in an attempt to keep fraud down and quality high.

SuperRare

SuperRare’s marketplace focuses on a limited number of hand-picked artists. Though aspiring creators can submit an artist profile form, entry barriers are high. Artists must submit their work for approval before it can be minted and listed on SuperRare’s marketplace.

Foundation

Foundation’s marketplace is community-led, so artists invite new artists to join the platform and mint their NFTs. Creators can access the “creator invites” feature after selling their first NFT. Foundation also has OpenSea integration, so by minting on Foundation, the NFT can automatically be displayed on OpenSea.

KnownOrigin

KnownOrigin focuses on digital art. It is more difficult for creators to get accepted onto its platform. Artists submit their artwork in .jpeg or .gif format to the KnownOrigin gallery. As of April 2nd, 2021, applications are closed to creators.

Nifty Gateway

Nifty Gateway offers crypto assets and art called Nifties. Nifty Gateway partners with top creators, brands, athletes and artists, so it is difficult to get accepted for crypto art – only famous artists, brands, and celebrity creators will be selected to use the platform. Collectors can even buy items for sale on OpenSea using Nifty Gateway and pay using a credit card.

MakersPlace

MakersPlace also offers digital art. MakersPlace is invite-only, so an invited artist will fill out the creator application and sign and mint its NFT.

P2P Trading

You can also exchange NFTs in a P2P fashion on the following platforms:

This is useful if you strike a deal with someone who is willing to buy/sell within a project’s Discord channel. This happens a lot and is a great way to find good deals.