I’ve been reading this morning of Matt Mullenweg’s alleged attempt to fool Google’s AdSense program by placing hidden key words within pages on WordPress.org. The WordPress site has a great PageRank and as a result is quite coveted by advertisers. Apparently Matt entered into an agreement with HotNacho.com to hide the words in articles for a fee. While this isn’t illegal it is seen as unethical in the blogosphere. Matt’s currently away on holidays in Europe and I personally feel that the story should have been held by Andy Baio, who broke the story, until he got back. The guy should be allowed to respond to the allegations and explain his reasoning. He cannot do that when he’s thousands of miles away from his accusors. I’m reserving judgement for the moment, as a WordPress user from Day 1 (when it evolved from b2) I think I owe him that.
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4 replies on “Storm in a WordPress?”
[…] Matt entered into an agreement with HotNacho.com to hide the words in articles for a fee. source Back in January, blogging software provider WordPress was one of se […]
As I stated several times, I didn’t know that Matt was out of the country and would have waited to post it had I known. In his official statement, Matt confirms that I told him I was going to write about it on my site and that he didn’t tell me he was going out of town. If he doesn’t have a problem with the way I covered the story, I don’t see why anyone else should either.
Thanks for the comment Andy. Yes I read matt’s official follow up to the controversy and, as you say, you did consult him before going live. I’ve read Matt’s reasoning on why he did what he did and although I believe it was a mistake, I understand his reasoning.
Well, I fully agree with your comment. 🙂
BTW: I visited your blog earlier today and I just wanted to congratulate you on a well presented, and informative resource.
It’s not often that I come across a web site that offers a wealth of quality. 😉
Martin (aka POS Software Man)