Community team deputies are currently in discussion with a meetup organizer who is distributing a WordPress derivative that is not 100% GPL. We often talk to future organizers about changing licenses for their products during the vetting process. In this case, it only came to the team’s attention after the orientation and setting up the group.
As part of the Good Faith Rules, it’s stated that to organize meetup events in official chapter groups, you are expected to embrace the WordPress license. Anyone who wants to use a different license can do so, just not as part of our official program.
Difficult choices
This case is unusual because the meetup group in question was created by the global community team, on the WordPress chapter from the beginning. The group has met only once so far, and has less than 50 members.
Two options present themselves: the team can
- remove this person from their role as meetup organizer of the group and email all members of the group, inviting a new organizer to step forward, or
- remove the group from the WordPress chapter program (after emailing the members to explain what’s about to happen), leaving the organizer as a leader of the group, simply removing the official WordPress endorsement.
Both options have disadvantages, so I think it’s important for the team to discuss the best way forward.
Option 1: If the group started as part of the chapter program and was promoted through the events widget, it seems like the group should continue following the expectations of the chapter program. Removing the organizer from their role (if they decline to meet expectations) and inviting a new organizer to step forward might be confusing for group members, but would clearly communicate the importance of the 4 freedoms inside WordPress. People who joined because this is an official meetup, will stay in an official meetup. On the other hand, since the group is so new, we might be inviting people to take a leadership position before they’ve gotten to know the WordPress project well enough to make an educated decision.
Option 2: This option leaves the organizer in charge of a group that was created under the WordPress umbrella. Removing the WordPress chapter status from the current group could result in a “bait and switch” for people who joined the group because they learned about it on their WordPress dashboard. Even though we’d message everyone about the change, meetup.com emails aren’t read very consistently. It’s probably less destabilizing for the group, but might be seen as weaker support for the rights of the WordPress user. This would also leave the city with no chapter meetup, but of course another local WordPress enthusiast could apply to organize one.
Discuss!
I hope neither of these options are necessary, and that the organizer decides to embrace the WordPress license after all. Regardless, I’d love to know the team’s thoughts on these two options, because someday this question will come up again, and I’d like to be ready.
Please share your feedback in a comment on this post!