Number 10 site (British PM) – no wordpress credit

How do you feel about this?

I couldnt care less.

Is this a violation of the licence itself

No.

or is it just bad form?

No.

—

Matt isn’t and never has been a stickler for credits. WordPress is free, completely, the NO strings attached kind of free.

Fair enough.

Personally I think sites should credit their framework/cms somewhere if it is an open-source one, whether or not the licence requires it. It’s the least you can do for getting so much for free.

I mean, in this case the tags are even removed from the source code… seems unnecessary. My guess: someone was paid quite a bit of money to put the site together and probably wanted to hide the fact that a lot of the work was done for them by wordpress.
I don’t see the need personally – the site looks good anyway and still must have required quite a bit of work to put together… why try and hide WordPress?

wanted to hide the fact that a lot of the work was done for them by wordpress.

Who is wordpress?

why try and hide WordPress?

because they want to, and thats that.

Frankly, its nobody’s business what anyone uses to run a site, except for the person in charge of the site. IF they really wanted to obscure it, they would have removed the tell-tale directory structure.

I admin on another blogging app’s forums– some of the users there are ‘pissy’ about people that remove backlinks. I think its waste of energy myself, <sarcasm>and would rather waste my energy debating the choices people make. </sarcasm>

Who is wordpress?

Ok, even if you’re being funny/pedantic that comment is just unnecessary. Clearly I mean that most of the work was being done for them by the framework that wordpress provides. It’s much easier to achnowledge wordpress than list all of the developers involved…

because they want to, and thats that.

The open-source world thrives on acknowledgements and recommendations. The majority of open-source communities at the very least encourage users to do this.
But i’m very sorry for daring to ask such a stupid question.

Heh. I do find it funny that they changed their WordPress version number to “abc”. Check out their RSS feed. ??

LOL. Good to see some lighthearted banter:)
Of course Tony Blair would never have done anything so devious.
I’m just surprised they came up with such an original name for the website.
Mike.

Really in a lot of places it makes sense not to advertise which software is being used.

Heh. I do find it funny that they changed their WordPress version number to “abc”.

thats a plugin.

Ok, even if you’re being funny/pedantic that comment is just unnecessary. Clearly I mean that most of the work was being done for them by the framework that wordpress provides.

I wasnt ‘being’ either. I honestly thought maybe you figured someone from “www.remarpro.com” was responsible for the work on the site, or I would not have asked the question (not a comment – and thats being pendantic) And, no it wasnt clear what you meant.

The majority of open-source communities at the very least encourage users to do this.

And wordpress does too – by having the links there when you download the software. “They” and “we” just dont castigate users if they change or remove those links.

But i’m very sorry for daring to ask such a stupid question.

You opened this thread with specific questions. I cant help that you might not agree with the answers. The fact is, and I say this again, because your quoted response above was in reply to my answer specifically — if someone wants to remove every single trace of wordpress from their site and continue to use it, they can, for no better reason than the sky being blue.

If you want to know the real “why” maybe you ought to ask the PM, in this case.

Hi again, LOL I think this thread has just caused an international incident, anyone noticed the name of that plugin.
Well it amused me, thanks whoami.
Thats my job with MI5 gone.
Mike.

I cant help that you might not agree with the answers.

whooami- I do disagree with you on this, but I don’t have a problem with that.
I do have a problem with long-time users on a forum being curt/dismissive to new users when they see something they disagree with/dislike – and this is why I replied quoting you. You did follow up your reply with something more thoughtful, but I didn’t see that until after I had posted, so I apologise for being so quick to get on the defensive.

I also am on various other CMS boards and also disagree with people getting ‘pissy’. It accomplishes nothing. However, my original question was how people felt about it – generally people do consider removing credits to be bad form and I don’t see a problem with encouraging people to keep the credits there (with an explanation as to why this is a good thing to do).

As for the number10 site, I still thing it’s wrong that they don’t give credit. As you suggest, I will ask the PM (the minute the feedback part of the site opens up). I think the government should support open-source software and I don’t think a credit *somewhere* on the PM’s site would be too much to ask for.

On a lighter note, thanks for pointing out that plugin, i’ve not noticed it before – I’ll have to give it a try. (It should also be noted that this plugin is what would have removed the wordpress metatag from the source too)

Actually with the popularity of WP and all the known hacks and exploits, it’s smart to obscure the fact that you’re using it and especialy what version. See it as a security manner. In fact, it’s recommended.

I do have a problem with long-time users on a forum being curt/dismissive to new users when they see something they disagree with/dislike

without turning this thread into a discussion about what you think you read, or what I intended, suffice to say that I believe you have a right to your opinion. Just the same as everyone else. I dont feel I was curt or dismissive, any more than anyone else would be given the questions you asked.

if you’re looking for a longer answer:

I tend to think that if the devs dont care, Im not going to care. Why should I? WordPress is the most popular blogging app on the web. With, or without, the millions of sites advertising their usage.

Its. just. not. necessary. The footprint is established, and I’m pretty confident that Matt know this. ??

Furthermore, expanding on this:

… if someone wants to remove every single trace of wordpress from their site and continue to use it, they can, for no better reason than the sky being blue.

If the sky being blue is labeled an illegitimate reason for removing the meta tag, and the credits. Then the ease with which various hacks for various versions of WordPress can be located is a legitimate reason.

There are people on this forum who dont buy into security by obscurity (Otto is one) — I do. Arguably someone behind WordPress does also, as evidenced by the recent security feature(s) of being able to rename dirs, and moving the config OUT of web root.

While I am the first to agree with anyone that says most attacks are scripted, some are not. And the ability to gleam the software AND worse yet, the version of the software from the HTML source makes things far too easy for non-random unscripted attacks to take place.

Case(s) in point : phpBB stopped putting version #s in the footer of the default template years ago.

Apache allows you to obfuscate the server name.

PHP allows you to disable that “generated by PHP..” message; I cant reme. the name of it now.

Anyway, you get my point.

Lastly, and in all sincerity, I personally find that are so many other things to bother about. Here in the USA, we have an election in 3-4 months. We have 100’s of thousands of americans in Iraq, gas prices suck, my mom died 9 months ago, im moving, Russia.. blah blah .. Life is way too short to worry about whether or not a credit link is removed. From any site. I think that there are much larger battles to fight.

My .02

On a lighter note (I guess), I discovered something not long after my mom passed away — that things I once thought were ‘important’ arent. I gripe, here, especially, and I frustrate easily after answering 50 posts that all read like the last 50 I answered .. BUT, for the most part, a good deal of “online crap” that used to bother me, doesnt anymore. I’ve managed to put those things into a much larger perspective, and doing so, discovered how trivial they were, and continue to be.

I got an e-mail, from a friend, that works for wordpress.com, one day. he wrote to let me know about someone that had ripped one of my plugins and was making it available as his own work on his own site. The friend, was amazed by how fast my initial irritation at learning about it melted away into “hmm, who cares”.

Its a much healthier way to live. My mom would be proud.

Yep, I agree – not worth worrying about that much, and now I know that the wordpress devs don’t care I won’t bother trying to persuade anyone here of course (I was never that passionate about it in the first place – I merely asked a question and stated my opinion).

It still doesn’t change my personal opinion however – and I will still suggest that they credit wordpress. But it is just an opinion – I don’t care that much! I’m not about to start demonstrating in the streets about it ??

As for the security through obscurity discussion, I am personally of the opinion that it is generally a waste of time (I work as an IT consultant/software engineer in various investment banks – where that argument would never hold up)…. however, in the case of php open-source apps, where so many scripted attacks are made against particular versions to exploit particular bugs I would say that any added security (even if by obscurity) is a good thing….. this doesn’t mean you can’t still credit the project though ??

p.s. If you think gas prices suck, you should come visit England… (it would give you a much bigger reason to send complaints to the number10 site I assure you).