The reaction to Automattic reducing its core support hours bothers me. I keep seeing the same double standard.

Automattic has been contributing about 4,000 hours a week to WordPress community projects. At an estimated $75 an hour, including benefits and overhead, that’s about $15 million a year in support.

The double standard here is what gets me. When companies like WPEngine choose not to contribute significantly to core development, the community shrugs it off. “It’s their right,” they say. “There’s no law requiring companies to give back to open source.” And you know what? That’s absolutely true.

When Automattic scales back to focus on its business, though, people get angry. They’re defending other companies’ right to make that choice while denying it to Automattic.

Piling more hate on Matt won’t make him more willing to listen. It’s toxic, and it does nothing to work out how the community will fund the work.

I think his replacement would face the same hostility. Resentment and jealousy won’t disappear if Matt leaves, and the community keeps rewarding the drama.

We should ask whether we’re upset about the lost hours or repeating the same arguments about the same people.

I’d rather discuss what support we need and what we expect each company to contribute.

That means admitting our own double standards, which is harder than posting an angry tweet.