Community members were grateful for the fix although some reported that they were still blocked from registering a new account for WordPress but that was a glitch in their browser, fixed by switching to a new browser or a new IP address.
Concern Raised About Solution
Not everyone agreed that the solution was ideal. One WordPress community member posted their concern and received four likes from other members, indicating that others agreed with them.
decodekult wrote:
“I would suggest reconsidering this solution. It addresses the urgent thing here (people could not buy ticket!) but it ignores the primary petition: remove wordpress.org login requirement for buying WordCamp tickets.
The change that closed this ticket does not do that: it guesses where you came from, and if it contains the magic words, then you are lucky enough as to create an account on wordpress.org.
Given that the primary reason for requiring a wordpress.org account that the owner can log into for buying WordCamp tickets was precisely preventing specific people from buying WordCamp tickets, because they could not log into their accounts due to their relationship with a specific company, and given that this ban was legally lifted by a court decision, I raise my hand here and request, as this ticket did from its own title, that the wordpress.org login requirement be removed for buying WordCamp tickets.”
What Happens When Decisions Are Imposed
The importance of what happened is not just about the inability of new community members to register for local WordCamps. The issue is one of decisions and control. One person, Matt Mullenweg, appears to have made the unilateral decision to pause WordPress.org services. Joost de Valk himself uses the word “imposed” to characterize the pause, writing:
“…the new Holiday Break imposed by Matt causes issues. Because of that imposed holiday break, people can no longer sign up for a WordPress.org account…”
The word “imposed” in this context means a unilateral decision made by one person without consultation or choice from community members. Imposed is a strong (and appropriate) word because it conveys that the holiday break was not optional or voluntary but mandated by Matt Mullenweg.
Although this issue was solved by the WordPress community, it would never had happened if the decision had been made with input from stakeholders across the entire WordPress community, from developers, core contributors to WordCamp organizers. This is what happens when decision-making lacks community input and accountability.
Read the GitHub ticket:
Remove wordpress.org login requirement for buying WordCamp tickets
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