WordPress Five for the Future, Drawing the Line

Five for the Future. If you’re a WooCommerce builder or a WordPress builder, such as a developer, freelancer, agency, product company, you’ve likely heard about it since its first inception, when it was shared by a WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg several years ago. In a very, very small nutshell, essentially it is the idea that for those making a living from WordPress, that you will contribute 5% back to the project. Now, that is a loaded statement with a lot of unanswered questions. And of course you can dive into it more if you’re not aware of it and learn the details.

But over the last several years, much of it has been addressed and yes, talked about. You’ll likely see dozens of different perspectives on this, as well as those who support it, those who don’t, and everything between. Now, I’m not here to educate you on Five for the Future. I can give you some links in the posts that will help you learn and understand it more.

What we’re really talking about is apples and oranges when it comes to contributing

Now, there’s one piece of the puzzle I want to address. Before I go any further, I want you to know this isn’t a rant or some biased or even unbiased opinion. I don’t even think of it as the only questionable part of Five for the Future. But I there is one thing that I want to point out that I believe, for those who have brought it up, should take the time to think about it a little bit more. When I hear Five for the Future talked about, as I recently did on a WordPress podcast, and also where it’s been written about or commented on hundreds of times, there’s this one piece that sticks out to me.

Now, let me quickly backtrack a little bit. Before I get into that, I just want to add one note. When we are talking about giving back to the project. Most times this relates to working directly on the open source project through WordPress.org and being on one of the various make.WordPress.org teams.

The long tail of contributions

Now what results from those who ask about other contributions that help the project, these are things like writing educational blog posts, supporting WordCamps as a sponsor, creating free video tutorials for YouTube, running a Facebook group, or a number of other examples, including WordPress news sites or podcasters like myself who contribute to the community or those who do free webinars and workshops or run meetups.

It’s really a culmination of publishers, bloggers, educators, and a lot more all wrapped up in a big ball of contribution. And yes, aren’t they contributing to the project? Are they not helping the community grow and assisting newcomers as they make their own place in the ecosystem?

I’m not sure how many questions I asked there, but I’m just going to say yes, yes, yes, yes, et cetera, et cetera.

Now I can tell you for a fact that everything that I’ve listed, I am doing, or have done, one time or another over the last 16 years in the WordPress space. And I’ve done it all really without a second thought. But there is this. There’s a little bit of gray area. Why doesn’t Five for the Future recognize all of these things, and some of them I haven’t mentioned, instead of focusing on those who just give directly to the project at .org.

Weighing contributions is not as simple as that

Now, I agree. This is a fair question and needs an answer, but in reality, for as many that have said this, it’s really not so simple. When you go to WordPress.org and contribute on a team, that’s exactly what you do. You create code, write documentation or a variety of other things. When you’re done, you feel good because you’ve contributed to the open source project that, in a lot of cases, for many of us allows us to make a living.

When it comes to all those other contributions I named or listed, isn’t that the same thing? I don’t know. There’s a part of you, who are the creators out there, that are building this content, writing on blogs, doing podcasts, videos, news sites, whatever. And you are truly doing it for the love of open source, WordPress and the community.

But is that 100% true?

That’s a weird question, I know. But my point is in several cases with a lot of people, there are other things going on. Now, you may be doing this, but at the same time, building your brand. You may be doing it and you have sponsors. You may write blog posts that are very, very helpful and educational and you may sprinkle affiliate links within the content. Or you use content to create a sales funnel to your paid services, your membership site, your online courses, et cetera, et cetera. Or when you put a free plugin or theme on .org, is this purely out of your open source generosity or is it leading others to maybe pay for premium version or there’s some other underlined upsell? If you sponsor a word camp, yes. It does not have a lot of direct ROI when you sponsor word camp. So you really are contributing to the community to make these events possible, but hey, there’s that but, at the same time you’re advertising your business. It’s that simple.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Do I need to go further and explain the difference between contributing to .org and all those other ways of contributing? Think about what I’ve said, it’s pretty obvious.

Almost everything we do is part giving back to the community, but there is also some end game which usually involves what we all need to do. And that is to make a living.

Now with that said, everything I just talked about, there’s nothing wrong with any of it. In fact, that’s the beauty of it. I’ve done this for years. This is how I’ve contributed, but also how I’ve been able to make a living. One plays on the other. And I know many of you have bitterly argued that your contribution is on the same level as contributing directly to the project. But I don’t think so. I am a content creative and have done a lot of what people have argued about and I don’t feel that way.

So what’s my freaking point here? Again, it’s not an opinion on my part. It’s something I just keep questioning. It’s not a bad way of doing business, because hey, we got to all make a living. I mean, heck, if you write a good post and you put affiliates in it and you make some money, I’m not going to condemn you for using affiliates. You have the right to do it. You should make a few bucks for that damn good post. But when we look at the big picture here, if we accept all these other forms of contributing as part of Five for the Future, as it is so defined, where do we draw that line?

There’s a lot of gray area there. And who is doing the so-called right way or the so-called wrong way?

If you do a podcast about the WordPress community, have a sponsor and funnel subscribers to your online course and use affiliate links, that is a bit different than going in and directly contributing to a team on .org.

My hope is that Five for the Future, in some form, is a great success. That all who contribute to the ecosystem in one way or another, feel good about it and the outcome of it. But I think in the meantime, it’s going to be a real challenge, building a solid foundation that can recognize what falls under Five for the Future, with all these various kinds of contributions that really have a lot of undertones. And when those people are making the decisions of who is giving to Five for the Future, where do we draw the line?

In the end, I get it all. I understand how everyone feels. If you ask me how I feel about what I’ve contributed, I’m content with my mode of contribution and how I’ve been recognized. I’m also content to have been able to make a living with a very powerful open source software, such as WordPress. I’m where I’m at today because of it. And moving forward, Do the Woo is planning to play a role in helping all who contribute with needed resources so you can also have that groovy feeling that I have.

Anyway, that’s how I feel about it. And again, it maybe opens up more questions. I’m not condemning anyone for their opinion, this is just something I’ve thought about. And I’m just adding my 2 cents. Maybe something for others to ponder and question themselves.